Queen of Scots (1286–1290), the child heiress whose death at sea, aged seven, ended the direct royal line and triggered the succession crisis that led to the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Margaret, known as the Maid of Norway, was queen of Scots from 1286 to 1290, though she never set foot in her kingdom nor was crowned. The daughter of King Eric II of Norway and granddaughter of the Scottish king Alexander III, she became heiress to the Scottish throne as an infant when Alexander died in 1286 leaving no other direct descendant.
Plans were laid to bring the little queen to Scotland and to marry her to the son of Edward I of England, uniting the two realms. But in 1290, on the voyage west, the seven-year-old Margaret fell ill and died in Orkney. Her death extinguished the ancient line of Scottish kings and threw the kingdom into a disputed succession — the "Great Cause" — that opened the door to English intervention and the long Wars of Scottish Independence.
Margaret was born about 1283 in Norway, the daughter of King Eric II and of his wife Margaret, a daughter of Alexander III of Scotland. When Alexander III's own children all predeceased him and the king himself died in a fall from his horse in 1286, the infant Margaret in Norway was left as his only direct descendant and heir.
The Scottish magnates recognised her as their queen and appointed guardians to govern the realm in her name while she remained a child in her father's kingdom.
Margaret died a small child and left no imprint of personality at all; she is one of history's purest examples of a monarch important entirely for her blood and her fate rather than any act of her own. She was never more than an infant symbol — the fragile thread on which the peace and independence of a kingdom, and a projected union of two realms, precariously hung.
Her significance lies wholly in what her existence and her death set in motion. Alive, she was the hope of a peaceful settlement of Scotland's future and a marriage alliance with England; dead, she became the occasion for one of the great crises of Scottish history. In her brief life the whole tragedy of the coming age was contained: a kingdom whose survival depended on the life of a child who did not live to reach it.
With a girl-queen in Norway and Scotland governed by guardians, the great question was her future. Edward I of England proposed that Margaret marry his son and heir, the future Edward II, and by the Treaty of Birgham in 1290 the Scots agreed — on terms meant to preserve Scotland's laws and independence within the union. Preparations were made to bring the young queen home at last.
In the autumn of 1290 Margaret set sail for Scotland. But the crossing sickened her, and the ship put in at Orkney, then under Norwegian rule, where the child died.
Margaret's death in Orkney in September 1290 was a catastrophe for Scotland. With her ended the direct line of the House of Dunkeld that had ruled since the eleventh century, and no clear heir remained. Thirteen claimants came forward, and to avoid civil war the Scots invited Edward I of England to arbitrate — the "Great Cause".
Edward used the opportunity to assert overlordship, chose John Balliol as king in 1292, and soon reduced Scotland to a dependency — provoking the rebellion and the Wars of Scottish Independence under Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
Margaret, Maid of Norway, is remembered as the child-queen whose death changed the course of Scottish and British history. Had she lived to marry the heir of England, the crowns might have been united three centuries before they were, and peacefully; instead her death opened the disputed succession that let Edward I intervene, and so began the long, bitter struggle for Scottish independence that would define the age of Wallace and Bruce.