Margaret Stewart, Dauphine of France
(1424-1445)
BIRTH
December 25, 1424
PLACE
Perth, Scotland
NAME
Margaret Stewart
DEATH
August 16, 1445
PLACE
Châlons-en-Champagne, France
FAMILY
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Margaret of Scotland, daughter of James I of Scotland, was the first wife of the future Louis XI of France; a lover of poetry, she died at the age of twenty after an unhappy marriage. Her father had recently returned from long captivity in England. In 1436, at the age of eleven, she sailed to France for her wedding. Margaret married Louis, the dauphin, at Tours on June 25, 1436. She was buried at Châlons, and her remains were later moved to Thouars.
EARLY LIFE
Margaret Stewart was born on December 25, 1424, in Perth, Scotland, the eldest daughter of King James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort. Her father had recently returned from long captivity in England. Her marriage to the heir of France was arranged in the 1420s to renew the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England. In 1436, at the age of eleven, she sailed to France for her wedding. Her father was assassinated in 1437, soon after her departure.
Margaret married Louis, the dauphin, at Tours on June 25, 1436. The marriage was not a happy one; Louis showed little affection for her, and the couple had no children.
Margaret was a lover of poetry who wrote verses herself, although none have survived, and she gathered a circle of ladies with literary interests around her. In 1445 a courtier, Jamet de Tillay, spread rumors about her conduct, which deeply distressed her.
She fell ill and died at Châlons-en-Champagne on August 16, 1445, at the age of twenty. She was buried at Châlons, and her remains were later moved to Thouars.
CAREER
DEATH
In 1436, at the age of eleven, she sailed to France for her wedding. Margaret married Louis, the dauphin, at Tours on June 25, 1436. In 1445 a courtier, Jamet de Tillay, spread rumors about her conduct, which deeply distressed her. The marriage was not a happy one; Louis showed little affection for her, and the couple had no children. Margaret was a lover of poetry who wrote verses herself, although none have survived, and she gathered a circle of ladies with literary interests around her. She was buried at Châlons, and her remains were later moved to Thouars. On 16 August 1445, between ten and eleven at night, Margaret died in Châlons-sur-Marne, Marne, France at the age of 20. On Saturday, 7 August, she and her ladies had joined the court on a short pilgrimage. The next morning she was feverish, the doctor diagnosed the inflammation of the lungs. On her deathbed she is alleged to have railed against the calumnies of Jamet de Tillay and protested her faithfulness to her husband. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
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