Margaret of Scotland (28 February 1261 – 9 April 1283) (
Old Norse: Margrét Alexandersdóttir;
Norwegian: Margrete Alexandersdotter;
Scottish Gaelic: Maighread Nic Rìgh Alasdair) was Queen consort of
Norway and wife of King
Eric II of Norway.
She was born at
Windsor Castle, the daughter of King
Alexander III of Scotland and his first wife,
Margaret of England. Margaret came to Norway at 20 years of age to marry the 13 year old king Eric Magnusson. Eric became king of Norway on 9 May 1280. A marriage contract was signed in royal burgh of
Roxburgh on 25 July 1281. The treaty also included a provision for the children of Margaret and Eric to succeed to throne of the kingdom of the Scots. Margaret's dowry was set at 14,000 marks sterling. The year after the wedding was held in Bergen, Norway when Margaret was also crowned queen.
The marriage between Margaret and Eric stands out as a typical marriage of political note. It would reconcile and resolve the Scottish-Norwegian antagonisms that had developed since 1266 resulting from the terms of the
Treaty of Perth.
[2] Under the treaty, Norway had given up the
Hebrides and the
Isle of Man to
Scotland, in return for a lump sum of 4000 marks and an annuity of 100 marks. Scotland also confirmed Norwegian sovereignty over
Shetland and
Orkney Islands.
Queen Margaret died in
Tønsberg, during or shortly after giving birth to
Margaret, Maid of Norway, who would become
queen regnant of the
Kingdom of Scotland upon the death of her grandfather, King Alexander III on 19 March 1286.
Queen Margaret was buried in the
Old Cathedral on Holmen in Bergen. This cathedral was demolished in 1531. The site, in present day
Bergenhus Fortress, is marked by a memorial.
Eirik Magnusson (
Old Norse: Eiríkr Magnússon) (1268 – 15 July 1299) was the King of
Norway from 1273/80 until 1299.
Background
Eirik was the eldest surviving son of
King Magnus the Lawmender of Norway, and his wife
Ingeborg Eriksdatter, daughter of King
Eric IV of Denmark. In 1273, when he was 5 years old, he was given the title of king, alongside his father, who planned to hold a coronation for Eirik as his subordinate co-ruler in the summer of 1280. However, King Magnus died before this could be arranged, and Eirik became sole king and was crowned as such in
Bergen in the summer of 1280. During his minority, the kingdom was ruled by a royal council consisting of prominent
barons and probably also his mother, the dowager queen Ingeborg. After Eirik came of age in 1282, this royal council is still thought to have had a major influence over his reign. His brother,
Haakon, was in 1273 given the title "Duke of Norway", and from 1280 ruled a large area around
Oslo in Eastern Norway and
Stavanger in the southwest, subordinate to King Eirik. The king's main residence was in Bergen in Western Norway.
Eirik married princess
Margaret of Scotland, daughter of King
Alexander III of Scotland in
Bergen in 1281. Margaret died two years later in labour, giving birth to
Margaret, Maid of Norway, who became
queen of Scotland in 1286 until her death in 1290. Her death sparked the
disputed succession which led to the
Wars of Scottish Independence.
[2] Eirik briefly and unsuccessfully laid claim to the Scottish crown as inheritance from his daughter.
Eirik later married
Isabel Bruce, sister of King
Robert I of Scotland. Their marriage did not produce a surviving male heir, though it did produce a daughter,
Ingeborg Eriksdottir of Norway, who married
Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Finland, in 1312. Ingeborg Eriksdotter was styled Duchess of
Öland.
Reign
A prominent feature of Eirik's reign was war with Denmark, which was waged on and off from 1287 until 1295. A major motivation for this warfare was Eirik's claim on his mother's Danish inheritance. In 1287, he also entered into an alliance with a group of Danish nobles, most prominently
Jacob Nielsen, Count of Halland and
Stig Andersen Hvide, who were outlawed in Denmark for allegedly murdering the Danish king
Eric V. Eirik gave the outlaws sanctuary in Norway in 1287. King Eirik himself led a large Norwegian fleet which, along with the Danish outlaws, attacked Denmark in 1289, burning
Elsinore and threatening
Copenhagen. Renewed naval attacks on Denmark were made in 1290 and 1293, before peace was made in 1295.
Eirik received the nickname "Priest Hater" from his unsuccessful relations with the church.
As Eirik died without sons, he was succeeded by his brother, as Haakon V of Norway. He was buried in the old cathedral of Bergen, which was demolished in 1531. Its site is marked by a memorial, in present-day
Bergenhus Fortress.
[5][6]