maggie may

The Tudor nerd returns for the final post from Yorkshire for a while...
I thought this would be a fitting farewell as I head to Och Aye Land.

Almost every day I walk under this arch just down the street.


It is known as Queen Margaret's Arch.
[Click on the picture to make larger & readable.]


Named after Margaret Tudor (1498-1541),
English princess-turned-Scottish queen.
[Portrait: Daniel Mytens, Royal Collection.]


She was the eldest daughter of Henry VII & Elizabeth of York,
and big sister to my man Henry VIII.
[Detail, The Family of Henry VII, Royal Collection.]

Henry VIII had two sisters, Margaret and Mary.
They led lives almost as hedonistic
and passionate as their brother.
We're talking divorces, affairs with
men below their rank, and secret marriages.

Oh, and if you watch The Tudors, they blended
both sisters into one character and got the story totally wrong.
So don't pay attention to that.


In 1502 Princess Margaret was betrothed
to James IV of Scotland, the same day
the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between
England and Scotland was signed
[but that didn't last long, ha].


They were married by proxy.
The following year, at age fourteen, Margaret
(already considered Queen of Scotland) began her
month-long progress north to Edinburgh to join her husband.
[Manuscript, National Library of Scotland.]


According to contemporary sources,
the progress was a magnificent display of the
"superior" power of the English monarchy.
[Sketch from the Recueil d'Arras, British Museum.]

Queen Margaret rode a fair palfrey,
and had use of a sumptuous litter when tired.
She entered each town along the route to great fanfare.

By the time she reached York on 15 July 1503,
the procession had swelled to such a size that it couldn't pass
through the city walls.


So the mayor of York ordered a hole broken through the wall
near the arch to allow passage for the group.

Bells, trumpets, and spectators greeted the procession.
According to contemporary chronicler John Yonge,
"All the windows were so full of nobles, ladies, gentlemen,
damsels, burgesses and others in so great multitude that it
was a fair sight to see."


In fact, it apparently took Margaret two hours to reach
the Minster once entering the city!
[It should take two minutes, you can see the tip
of the Minster above Bootham Bar.]


She was received by the Archbishop of York and stayed at the abbey
(probably at what is now known as the King's Manor
aka my school, which you can see through the archway on the right).

The next day, a Sunday, she wore a majestic gown of cloth of gold,
with a collar of precious stones and a golden girdle.
She left York the following day, passing through
Durham, Newcastle, and Berwick-upon-Tweed before arriving in Edinburgh.

I'll pass through those cities tomorrow too.
I may not be on a fair palfrey, but le train will do.

All year I've been collecting photos of le arch
because a silly little part of me feels just a bit like a
Renaissance princess every time I walk under it.


An' I’ll be in Scotland afore ye.
xx