When Norway's Infamous 'False Margaret' Claimed the Throne

is the so called false Margaret. Ten years after the real Margaret made of Norway's death, a Norwegian woman claimed Margaret's identity. We aren't actually going to start by talking about false Margaret, though, We're gonna start a little further back at what we'll call the beginning, and that is with Margaret's grandfather, Alexander, the third King of Scotland, and how his death was really the catalyst for this whole story.

So I'm gonna do a quick little warning here that during this episode we're going to be talking about pregnancy, loss and miscarriage. Not a lot, but it is going to come up. So please be aware and please make sure that you feel safe while you're listening to us and with that, let's get back to Alexander. Alexander ruled a King of Scott's from twelve forty nine, when he was just eight years old, until his accidental death in

twelve eighty six at the age of forty five. In twelve fifty one, when he was ten and she was eleven years old, Alexander married Margaret of England, the daughter of King Henry the third of England. So one of the things actually you're going to see happened in this episode is we have a lot of Margaret's so we're going to try to keep them separate from each other and try not to confuse them. So okay. During their marriage they have three children, Alexander Prince of Scotland, David

of Scotland, Prince of Scotland, and Margaret of Scotland. The Queen. Margaret of England died in twelve seventy five, well before her granddaughter was born. Margaret of Scotland became the mother of Margaret made of Norway in twelve eighty three, and by twelve eighty four Alexander had lost all three of his children too. After the deaths of his children, the king reasonably began to worry about who was going to

rule after him. In twelve eighty four, Alexander asked the estates to recognize his granddaughter, Margaret made of Norway as his heir presumptive. The estates during the Middle Ages and in this particular scenario, were made up of members of the nobility and royalty. Their power came from what they called feudal privileges. Feudal privileges. To be very clear, we're not in any way, shape or form what you would

consider a privilege to the peasants. Their privilege left them poor and exploited by the nobility and expected to both pay taxes and feudal dues. Note here too that more than nine of the entire European population was at this time composed of rural peasants. The clergy and the nobility, on the other hand, enjoyed that income from those feudal privileges. So while it was not a privilege to the peasants

at certainly was a boon for the nobles. They also had their own privileges, were air quoting that to deal with in their case, though they were exempt from paying taxes. There were three estates and they made up the Scottish Parliament. In addition to asking the estates to recognize his granddaughter as his heir presumptive, King Alexander the third also decided to try for a male heir. He had lived as a widow for a decade after his wife, Margaret of England,

had died, and he was ready to remarry. His second marriage was purely contractual, not uncommon among royal marriages at the time. It's something we've talked about many times on the show. And he got married to Yolande de Dreu, daughter of Robert, the third Count of Dreux. That was on November the one of twelve eighty five. Yolande was queen for only a very short time, from late twelve eighty five until the king's death in twelve eighty six. It was a very foggy and very stormy night when

Alexander died. He was riding from Edinburgh to join his wife at king Horn, which is about eleven miles distance, but in the darkness he became separated from his party and he never made it to his destination. He was found the next morning, believed to have fallen from his horse and broken his neck. Immediately following his death, the Queen announced she was pregnant. That news man Alexander had an unborn air on the way. So if Yolande gave birth to the air apparent, no one could stand between

that child and the throne. But this is where that sad matter that Maria mentioned at the top of the show comes in. Yoland's pregnancy ended. It is unclear exactly what happened. There are certainly people who have believed that this pregnancy was a hoax, but it has also been put forward that in fact the baby was simply stillborn.

The devastating end of this pregnancy, again, if that pregnancy had been a real one, meant either way that Alexander's granddaughter, Margaret Made of Norway and now transition, she was not presumptive Air. She was going to be the rightful heir. And that was, as you said, something that he had secured with the Estates two years earlier. Margaret Made of Norway ascended to the throne on March nineteen, twelve eighty six, when she was just shy of three years old and

living in Norway. There was no adult really ruling Scotland at this time. A group called the Guardian Council was elected by Parliament in twelve eighty six after Alexander's death, to govern the kingdom until such time as Margaret the air Presumptive was old enough to do so on her own. We're gonna take a quick break here for a word from a sponsor, and when we're back we will talk about how Margaret Made of Norway's death deeply impacted Scotland.

Welcome back to Criminalia. Thirteen claimants came forward for the crown after Margaret's death, but only one burned at the stake. Okay, we're gonna do a quick family tree recap. Margaret made of Norway was born in April of twelve eighty three. She was the daughter of King Eric the Second of

Norway and Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway. Margaret of Scotland was the daughter of King Alexander the third, which is how he is Margaret Made of Norway's grandfather, who managed this whole setup so that she would inherit the

throne exactly. He is the beginning. But the family tree with the same names as a little bit confusing than you now, so we don't actually have a lot of information about Margaret's childhood in the thirteenth century, though it was pretty rare to keep records of royal children or any children really, we do know the queen died while giving birth to her daughter, and the queen was buried

in christ Church and Bergen, Norway. We do also know that Margaret made of Norway was raised in Norway and lived with her father before she set sail for Scotland, which was a country she had never even been to yet she already ruled. Around September of twelve ninety, Margaret boarded her father's ship and her voyage away from Norway and to her new life in Scotland began. The Bishop of Bergen was her chaperone, and it's likely she had other attendants. She was a royal, after all, that would

have been a natural situation. Her arrival was greatly anticipated at Schoon Palace. Schoon Palace is a castle with a colorful history that reaches back probably more than fifteen hundred years. It is also spectacularly beautiful. It's famous for being the historic crowning site of the Kings of Scots, and it's the home of the Stone of Destiny, which is also

known as the Coronation Stone. Ancient kings of Scotland were officially recognized as monarchs there, including Macbeth the real one, not the Shakespeare character, who was crowned around ten thirty one, all the way up to Charles the Second, who was the last to be crowned at Schoon in sixteen fifty one. During Margaret's voyage, the ship actually came under siege by a heavy store ms and Margaret became very ill. Blown off course. The ship landed at St Margaret's Hope on Orkney,

off the northeastern coast of Scotland on September ninety. Margaret died at age seven, before she could be crowned and before she could actually see the country that she was queen of. Her cause of death is almost always reported as the effects of seasickness, but there's also speculations she may have died from complications of food poisoning. She was returned to Norway, where her father confirmed the identity of her body before she was buried with her mother in Bergen.

This little girl really had quite a big impact for having lived for really so few years. Margaret made of Norway was the last of the line of Scottish rulers descended from King Malcolm the Third, the first of a dynasty of kings who ruled Scotland for more than two centuries. Margaret's death not only ended a dynasty, it also began the fight for the Scottish crown from both inside and

outside the country's borders. There were thirteen claimants, but jockeying for control of Scotland had actually started even before her untimely death. She was, after all, just three years old and was not in Scotland when she became queen. There are some histories that leave her off the list of rulers entirely because she was never formally crowned. Many people saw this as an opportunity to fillip power vacuum, though

by arranging a marriage. So the candidates with the strongest claims to the crown were nobleman John Balliol, Robert the Bruce, John Hastings, and Flora's the fifth Count of Holland. In particular, Balliol and Bruce looked very promising. In twelve ninety, when Margaret was still alive and expected to take the throne, the Treaty of Burgham was drawn up. This was said to end competing claims between clam Bruce and House of Baliol as their rivalry was really heating up. Yeah, but

it really just wasn't all about their rivalry. It was a treaty to contract Margaret's hand and merrit the calculating politician in King Edward the First of England supported Margaret as ruler in part because he wanted his son, an infant named Edward and the future King Edward the Second of England, to marry her, and not because he thought that they would make a great match. Like we said, that doesn't happen very much in this period of time.

So with that marital arrangement, Edward hoped he'd made the right political move to make him the king who united England and Scotland. This treaty also established how the two kingdoms Scotland and England would be governed after the marriage. The Scots wanted to ensure their political and constitutional identity and they were not super duper interested in this whole unification concept, right, and he just keeps shoving it at them.

So it was agreed that Edward, upon his marriage to Margaret, would become Edward the Second King of Scots, and Margaret would remain as Queen Regent of Scotland. In turn, Margaret would become Queen Consort of England and Edward would remain King Edward the second. Their heirs would inherit both kingdoms. But the Guardians reiterated the Kingdom of Scotland would not be united with the Kingdom of England. This all sounds kind of confusing, so it might help to think of

it in modern business terms. I know that sounds like a weird comparison, but come with me on this journey. It is as though the head executives of two companies got married. It would be expected that they would each have some influence and input on each other's work, but that their companies would remain separate entities, although possibly friendly.

That would bring up some ethics issues and businesses, but in the realm of historical royal alliances through marriages, it's all good if everyone involved is on the same page, so all in agreement. This deal was accepted and signed by everyone involved, except for those very very young people Margaret and Edward right, the two people who are actually involved. At the center of the whole thing. The Guardian Council agreed to the marriage proposal but continued to assert that

Scotland would remain independent. They wrote, we quote that Scotland would persist separate and divided from England according to its rightful boundaries, free in itself and without subjugation. An independent Scotland wasn't really, though, what Edward the First was looking for as a king. He decided to just sort of ignore all of the clauses he didn't like in that treaty.

We'll work this out later. It's all, let's have a wedding, Yeah, right, okay, but let's get back to this rivalry among the claimants. Fearing war between two rivals to the crown, Robert the Bruce again and John Balliol. The Guardian Council actually asked King Edward the First to intervene. Turns out he might not have been the best choice for this, at least not politically, because the King took this as his opportunity to take control of Scotland, which he had been wanting

to do from the beginning. Edward did agree to help with one condition, and you know, based on what we said, this is not going to be an altruistic condition. He said he would do it if the Guardians made him Lord Paramount of Scotland, the feudal superior of the realm. That basically means he wanted to be the monarch who could consider all of England and Scotland as his property. Even if he may not have been recognized as their ruler, he still owns all the land, so first who cares

at that point? Right, It's like our's a de facto power situation in that mix. So as you may imagine, the Guardians didn't like any of this, but it was really too late for them, and Edward's plan was already set in motion. Taking on the rule of Lord Paramount of Scotland. The King kicked things off with an order that every Scottish royal castle now fell under his control.

And most of the moneyed families in Scotland had significant land in England as well, and agreeing with the King made it so much easier for those families to just keep their estates in both countries. The Guardians and the nobility swore legiance to Edward because of that. It was when Edward expected Scottish nobility to finance and provide military service in England's war against France that the Scots got

a little irked. And decided to take action. A newly formed group of twelve Guardians sent Scottish emissaries to France to discuss just how they were going to deal with King Edward. The first an agreement was made between Scotland and France called the all The alliance, which boiled down, stated that if France was attacked, Scottish forces would come to their aid. The French agreed to do the same

if the situation were reversed. The Franco Scottish Treaty, signed by John, King of Scots and King Philip the Fourth of France in twelve in opposition to Edward the First of England, was the first alliance between the countries. If you imagined that Edward, upon discovering that there was an alliance between Scotland and France, retaliated, then you would be right. He invaded Scotland into a of ninety s and he

forced John, King of Scots to abdicate the throne. So you've probably noticed we haven't even mentioned an impostor yet. We are getting there, we promise, but we had to lay all this groundwork so you kind of know what's going on when she finally hits the scene Before we get to that part of the story, we're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors. Welcome back to Criminalia. Finally, let's meet our impostor false Margaret.

So Margaret made of Norway's death plunge the country into years of chaos and lead directly to the First Scottish War of Independence. We mentioned earlier that thirteen people came forward to claim their right to the Scottish throne. There was a process to it which I was surprised at. Actually each person needed to provide proof. Claimants were required to produce evidence supporting their right to the crown, and then each claim was assessed by you know who, King

Edward the First. And remember before the break we mentioned the Guardians were having quite a hard time choosing their next leader and had asked him to arbitrate. The time when Edward was deciding who had the strongest connection to

the Scottish throne was called the Great Cause. On November seven, ninety two, Edward the First, in a court of one four auditors, twenty four of whom he had appointed himself, decided that John Baliol had the strongest claim to the throne based on his lineage John was the grandson of David, Earl of Huntington's eldest daughter, and the family line was

connected to King Alexander the Third. Robert Bruce was also a descendant of David, Earl of Huntington's, but of his second daughter, and that meant that Robert was second to John. Edward also factored another thing into his choice. He wanted to pick how easily he thought it would be to manipulate the next King of Scots, and John was crowned King at Schoon thirteen days later. The beginning of his rule ended the six years of the Guardians governance of Scotland.

Shortly after John's inauguration, King Edward made his move. The new king quickly accepted his role as a puppet king to Edward's rule, and under edwards oversight, Scotland was invaded by England not too long after Margaret's death, and immediately after John's rule, Robert the Bruce, who was considered one of the most famous warriors of his generation, led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence. It would turn

out that each rival would be king. Robert was King of Scott's until his death in thirty nine but of the thirteen claimants, which is a lot, they are the only two who managed to make it to the throne right. But there was one claimant who was unlike all the others, a woman who became known as False Margaret. A lot about False Margaret has been lost to time, include what her real name was. The story, as told goes like this.

In thirteen hundred, one year after the death of Margaret's father, King Eric the Second of Norway, a woman landed in the port city of Bergen on a ship from Lubec, Germany, and she claimed that she was Margaret, made of Norway. So understandably, a lot of people in Bergen were a little skeptical of her story. She had not died at sea, she explained, she had been exiled to Germany for reasons

that are actually very unclear to us. She had married in Germany while she was there, and she and her husband had decided to come to Norway to claim what she believed was her rightful inheritance. However, while the people of Bergen were a little prone to lean away from this story, a surprising number of people did support the woman's story, despite too really important and key facts that

one would think would mitigate they're big. Margaret's father had identified his daughter's body shortly after her death, but now that Eric was recently deceased, he couldn't confirm or deny False Margaret's identity. And two, and this is a big one, huge. These two women had a very significant age difference. The real Margaret made of Norway would have been seventeen years old and thirteen hundred had she survived. False Margaret was said to be in her forties, or at least she

appeared so. King hawk In the Fifth was King of Norway at that time, and he was also Margaret made of Norway's uncle. His brother was King Eric the Second. We've had a surprising number of family relatives say they recognize impostors as the real deal, like pretty much throughout this whole season, But that is definitely not the case with Uncle Hacken. He didn't believe any part of False Margaret's story, and she was convicted of fraud from masquerading

as Margaret made of Norway. So because of the distance this story has in the past, as we already said, we don't know the real name of False Margaret, and we certainly don't know what her motivations were. It's possible she and her husband were hoping to take the throne in an epic ruse. Maybe this was an act they had concocted themselves, or perhaps it was even part of

a bigger plan they had hatched with collaborators. But she also might not have even known that she wasn't really in a position to be any kind of powerful leader in this because she wasn't actually in the line of succession in Norway, which makes any reason for making this claim that much more inscrutable. Regardless of what prompted False Margaret's claim, it ended rather unsuccessfully and with a very

definitive final act. In thirteen o one, she and her husband were both burned at state, but some reports differ in the manner of their executions, though so all accounts. All accounts report that False Margaret was burned at the stake, but her husband may have been burned, but he may also have instead been beheaded. Not that either of those things here choice. I wouldn't like to have to pick

one that would not either. Although there are so many details lost to history, we do know False Margaret and Mary Made of Norway did capture imaginations enough that false Margaret and the real Margaret have been woven into Norwegian folklore, appearing as the betrayed Princess in ballads and tales. There's no way to transition from that into our mock tail sections. I'm just totally honest. I can't do it here. That's

what I'm here for. I know it's actually wrote down that I was going to make a lobbly transition over to you, because the mock tail is called the Betrayed Princess. Oh that's excellent. So here's the thing I knew about Norway already. Norway is rather famous for its impressive berry crops. I don't know if you knew that. I did not know that They've got this Aggrica ulture jam down pat and so strawberries, raspberries, etcetera, all very very successfully grown there.

And so that got me thinking about a berry drink and a berry base for a drink. And then I thought about a drink that I love and was like, can I make a version of this without alcohol? That is super yummy. Have you ever had a strawberry balsamic smash? No, it has strawberry balsamic together, but not in a drink. Delicious Okay, so this is basically a non alcoholic version of that. You're gonna put right into your rocks glass.

No ice in there yet, one to two slices of lime, depending on how much you like your your citrus element. Love it one strawberry, a good sized strawberry and you want it right, a couple of blueberries, and like a nice fat BlackBerry. And then you're gonna put a half teaspoon of balsamic in there. Get out your muddler or your wooden spoon, and just give it a little a little mash. Again, as I always say, with the muddler,

don't pulverize. You're just trying to bring everything out. You don't want to make like a gross pulp of the situation. You want to be able to recognize that it started as fruit. So then once you've got that mashed a little bit, you're gonna add a half ounce of simple

syrup or a vanilla syrup. You know, I was like a vanilla, a dash of lime juice, give it a little stir, add in a whole lot of ice, and then you're gonna slowly pour your ginger ale over that while you keep stirring it to make sure that fruit integrates with the ginger ale, it becomes this beautiful, pinkish red.

I also did a version where I threw some basil leaves in the starting before I mo and that did something very beautiful that you can also if you don't want to go as sweet as ginger ale, use a club soda instead, and then uh, you can you know, garnish it with something like a rosemary or a lime or whatever you delight in. But let me tell you how yummy this is. It is so yummy. It's another one that I was like, oh no, I better make it again and make sure it's the same, which really

was like I just wanted more. I think that's just called quality control, right, that's just called you know, yes, you want to give out a bad recipe, you need to be sure it's good, even if it takes six tries, right, six delicious tries. You're all identical. If you want to make a cocktail version with alcohol, there are two paths you can take, and you could consider one maybe the what I would call Margaret made of Norway, and the other I would call false Margaret. But they're both delicious,

but they have very different flavor profiles. Margaret made of Norway preserves kind of the flavor of the mocktail version. You're still getting all of that berry in a little the lime that really like brings that berry flavor to like a really zingy place, but you're going to add an ounce and a half of just like a very clean vodka. You don't even taste the vodka, which makes it a slightly dangerous drink if you are a drinker.

The other version, which will make it a very different thing in its forties, perhaps um, is that you can do instead an ounce and a half of a really

beautiful gin. I would do one that doesn't have a heavy flavor, but you want that that herbal completely different, Like gin brings its own business to the table, right, So that's going to shift the drink around quite a bit in terms of its flavor, and you still get all of those yummy berry flavors, but their flavors shift on your tongue a little bit because you're also getting that juniper bite in there. Both very yummy. Absolutely serving

this at my next get together. If I can just figure out a way to like muddle you know, eight pounds of berries it once, I'll be fine for the day, right, you need a very big picture, need picture I can. I got pictures for days. It's just it's a lot of fruit. So it's a lot of little pieces and a little more ups than some of the drinks I do.

But the payoff is really quite delightful. And then at the bottom you have all of this beautiful fruit that's had you know, yummy ginger ales soaking into it, and it just becomes its own little dessert addendum to the situation, or in the alternative glass, it's had levely Gin sitting there just sort of yes, marinating it. That is the betrayed princess. And I specifically wanted to start with ingredients

that are more commonly found. I mean, which not to say those things don't grow in Scotland, but Norway really like likes to tout its ability to grow some pretty beautiful fruit. So that's why I want to do that. We didn't get a lot of Norwegian in the story, and I thought that might be a nice way to honor Margaret's early childhood life. I hope in my heart that she spent her her brief life in the fields of Norway just picking beautiful ripe fruit right off the

vine and eating it. So with that we will raise our betrayed princesses to you. Thank you once again for spending time with us this week and every time and you stop in. We love it. We will be right here next week once again, and we hope you join us then on Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,