Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox

1515–1578

Margaret Douglas was the daughter of Margaret Tudor and Archibald Douglas and a niece of Henry VIII. Her proximity to the succession repeatedly placed her under suspicion, especially after secret relationships with Lord Thomas Howard and Charles Howard. She married Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox, and became the mother of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Through Darnley she was grandmother of James VI and I, who united the crowns.

Margaret appears in Jean Plaidy’s The Thistle and the Rose and in historical fiction about Mary, Queen of Scots and the Tudor succession. Novelists are drawn to her repeated imprisonments and determination to advance her family. Her life demonstrates how women close to the throne could be both valuable dynastic assets and perceived conspiratorial threats.

Alison Weir’s The Princess of Scotland is set in the Princess of Scotland is an e-short and companion piece to Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen. The compelling fifth novel in the Six Tudor Queens series by bestselling author and historian Alison Weir. Alison Weir’s In the Shadow of Queens places Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox within a narrative shaped by court politics and dynastic power and family, marriage and personal loyalty.