Sharon Bennett Connolly was initially inspired to write a book about Scotland’s medieval queens by a request to set the record straight. But the inspiration also came from the women themselves: peacemakers, diplomats, mothers, widows, prisoners, the many Margarets — saint, glamorous but unhappy wife, queen in her own right who died before taking the throne — whose roles have too often been glossed over.
Usually, my future book ideas come out of the book I am currently writing, but Scotland’s Medieval Queens was different. It was my son’s idea.
He was studying Shakespeare’s Macbeth in his English Literature class and came out of school one day and said to me, “Mum, you really need to do something about Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare has made her into a villain and no one is standing up for her. He doesn’t even call her by her name! So, you need to tell the real story.”
And he got me thinking…
Then I watched Outlaw King on Netflix, the story of Robert the Bruce. It was very well received and a good film to watch but glossed over the rather considerable role of the women of the story. Watching it made me realise that the stories of these women needed to be told.
I love Scottish history and have already written about some of Scotland’s queens, including St Margaret and Elizabeth de Burgh, in Heroines of the Medieval World and on my blog, History…the Interesting Bits.
So, I thought, what about a book on Scotland’s medieval queens? The main part of the book starts with Margaret of Wessex – St Margaret – the wife of Malcolm III Canmore. But the prologue is the story of Gruoch, Lady Macbeth.
The Queens of Scots of the medieval era are a fascinating variety of women and I can only hope that I have done them justice in this tome. From the highly educated and pious St Margaret to the glamorous Margaret of Denmark, their lives and experiences tell the story of their nation.
Some, such as Matilda de Senlis and Ermengarde de Beaumont, barely make an impression on history, though merely by producing a son, they each guaranteed that Scotland would persevere. And it is not that they made no impression. Their influence was in the domestic sphere, raising children and supporting their husbands, rather than on the political or the international stage.
Marrying an English princess, for example, did not always guarantee the peace with England that was intended. As the wife of Alexander II, Joan of England did her best to maintain peaceful relations with her brother Henry III, often using private letters to broker diplomatic solutions. And in her turn, Henry III’s own daughter Margaret, in marrying Alexander III, ushered in the longest period of peace between the two countries of the whole medieval era.
On the other hand, Edward III’s sister, Joan of the Tower – ironically, also known as Joan Makepeace – was to have no such legacy. Her brother’s ambition would blight her marriage for years. If Edward III had not been so keen to exploit Scotland’s dynastic divisions, maybe Joan and David II would have had a happier marriage. We will never know.
Although we have charters and chronicles, and evidence of religious and charitable donations, most of these women remain elusive. They are enigmas. We do not – and cannot – know them intimately as the one thing that is missing is their own voice. Their thoughts and personalities are lost to us. Even letters to family members are often formulaic and rarely speak of their true feelings, of their happiness – or not – and their cares and concerns for themselves.
We know what they endured for the sake of Scotland, the risk of death in childbirth, the grief of lost children, or the grief of no children. Every woman in medieval Europe was exposed to similar experiences. Scottish queens, however, had to endure imprisonment, scheming noblemen and the early deaths of their husbands more times than they should have had to.
One cannot help but feel sympathy for Elizabeth de Burgh, seeing her fortunes rise and fall at the whim of England’s king, Edward I, held captive for eight years when she should have been sitting in splendour on Scotland’s throne. Or poor Marjorie Bruce, whose childhood was torn from her by that same English king, held far away from everyone she loved, only to be married as she tasted freedom, and dead in childbirth by the age of 19. Passed over for the throne because she was a woman, she still managed to give birth to a dynasty, the Stewarts.
Scotland was the first nation in the British Isles to accept a queen regnant when Margaret, Maid of Norway, was recognised as its queen in 1290. How her queenship would have developed, we have no way of knowing. The poor little girl died before she even landed in mainland Scotland. Her significance is in that she was proclaimed queen and the possibilities that heralded, even if it got no further.
We can only speculate as to how a successful rule by a queen regnant in the 13th century may have changed the lives and experiences of women in subsequent centuries. Her death was a tragedy, not just to her family, but to women’s rights to rule.
Scotland’s story is often violent and the country suffered greatly from the machinations of its powerful southern neighbour. However, Scotland did emerge from the Middle Ages as, still, an independent, sovereign nation.
And Scotland’s medieval queens had each made their own contribution to the country’s continuing survival and independence. From St Margaret – even from Gruoch – to Margaret of Denmark, each queen, to varying degrees of success, made their own indelible imprint on Scotland’s remarkable story.
Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark by Sharon Bennett Connolly is published on 30 January, 2025.
See more about this book.
Sharon is the bestselling author of several non-fiction history books. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Sharon has studied history academically and just for fun – and has even worked as a tour guide at Conisbrough Castle. She also writes the popular history blog History…the Interesting Bits and co-hosts the podcast A Slice of Medieval, alongside historical novelist Derek Birks.
Other Historia features by Sharon which you may enjoy include:
The Anarchy: a true cousins’ war
At the heart of English history: the Warenne Earls of Surrey
Magna Carta’s inspirational women
The many marriages of Bess of Hardwick
More medieval queens and powerful women:
From slave to queen: an extraordinary medieval woman by Matthew Harffy
An Easter assassination and an early medieval queen by Shelley Puhak
The personal and the political in the Middle Ages by Catherine Hanley
Anglo-Saxon women with power and influence by Annie Whitehead
Female networks of power in the Middle Ages by JF Andrews
Some of our features about Scottish history:
Review: Outlaw King by Catherine Hokin
The Countess and the Crown by Morgan Ring
Writing about Margaret Tudor by Linda Porter
The Battle of Killiecrankie and Damn’ Rebel Bitches: research then and now by Maggie Craig
Historical fiction’s role in giving a voice to women by Flora Johnston
Ten things you may not know about the Declaration of Arbroath by Frances Owen
A life of war in Anglo-Saxon Britain by Edoardo Albert
Vanity project or lasting legacy – was Hadrian’s Wall worth all the effort? by Douglas Jackson
Images:
- James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort from Forman’s Armorial: National Library of Scotland via Wikimedia (public domain)
- Robert the Bruce and Elizabeth de Burgh from Forman’s Armorial: National Library of Scotland via Wikimedia (public domain)
- Margaret of Denmark by Hugo van der Goes, 1480 (detail): Wikimedia (public domain)
- Malcolm III Canmore and St Margaret from the Seton Armorial, 1591: National Library of Scotland via Wikimedia (public domain)
- Marjorie Bruce’s tomb, Paisley Abbey: Stephencdickson for Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
