English history – Page 2 – History… the interesting bits!

Ermengarde de Beaumont, Queen of Scots

04/10/202503/10/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly4 Comments

History... the Interesting Bits — *William I the Lion, King of Scots*

Unusually for a king in medieval times, by 1185 William the Lion, King of Scots had been on the throne for 20 years, was past 40 and was still unmarried, despite having several illegitimate children. Until he married, William’s heir was his younger brother, David. Ironically, William’s mother, Ada de Warenne, who had been so keen to find a bride for her oldest son Malcolm IV that she was not above putting suitable girls in his bed, does not seem to have had the same sense of urgency with William. There’s no evidence that she pressured him to marry as she had his older brother. Though, I suppose, at least William had shown an interest in women and had the bastards to prove it.

And William was looking for a bride. Henry II, always happy to remind William that he was the Scots king’s overlord, exercised his right to choose William’s wife.

In May 1186, during a council at Woodstock, King Henry suggested Ermengarde de Beaumont as a bride for William. Ermengarde was the daughter of Richard, Vicomte de Beaumont-sur- Sarthe, who was himself the son of Constance, one of the many illegitimate daughters of King Henry I of England. With such diluted royal blood, she was hardly a prestigious match for the king of Scots. William felt slighted but he reluctantly accepted the marriage after consulting his advisers, the offer sweetened by a generous payment for the wedding celebrations and the return of two forfeited Scottish castles, as a wedding present.

We have, of course, no record of Ermengarde’s thoughts on the marriage, nor of whether she was aware of the fact it was seen as an insult to the Scots king. The wedding was celebrated at Woodstock, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 5 September 1186,

‘with great magnificence, on the nones of September [5th Sept.] (being the sixth day of the week [Friday], the moon being in her eighteenth day), in the royal chapel in the park at Woodstock, in the presence of the king himself.’¹

Following the ceremony, King Henry hosted 4 days of festivities. Although we do not know Ermengarde’s birth date, at the time of the marriage, she was described as ‘a girl’, suggesting that she may have only just reached the age of 12, the minimum legal age girls could marry. It has been suggested that Ermengarde’s tender age may also have been the reason for William’s reluctance to marry her.

We do not know the year of birth of Ermengarde’s first child, a daughter named Margaret, but it was sometime between 1187 and 1195. Another daughter, Isabella, was born a year or two later. If Ermengarde gave birth to Margaret the year after her marriage, it seems highly likely that she was at least fourteen or fifteen years old at the time of her wedding. However, a later birthdate, in the 1190s would suggest that Ermengarde was younger at the time of her marriage and was given time to mature before bearing children. The king’s growing need for an heir would, perhaps, indicate that Ermengarde was old enough to bear children at the time of their marriage, and that describing the bride as ‘a girl’ was alluding to her youth, but not her actual age. Unfortunately, the vagaries of chroniclers means that we cannot say for certain

In the spring of 1195 King William fell gravely ill at Clackmannan, causing a succession crisis, the sum of his legitimate children being one, possibly two, daughters at this time – and no son. The Scottish barons deliberated a number of options, such as recognising William’s oldest legitimate daughter, Margaret, as his heir. They also considered marrying Margaret to Otto, Duke of Saxony, grandson of Henry II, and allowing Otto to succeed to the throne. The earl of Dunbar led a faction who claimed that both solutions were contrary to the custom of the land, so long as the king had a brother who could succeed him. Traditionally, the Scots throne had passed to the oldest, legitimate, male member of the royal family, rather than by primogeniture.

This must have been a worrying time for Ermengarde, not only for the health of her husband, but for her own status in Scotland, should her daughter be disinherited. Not to mention the concern that Margaret, then aged only 8 at the most, might be married at such a young age to secure the succession. In the event, the discussion was moot as the king recovered from his illness and three years later the queen gave birth to Alexander, the much-desired son and heir.

Chronicler John of Fordun described the relief and celebration felt throughout the country at the birth of the heir to the Scots throne:

‘Now this most fortunate king of Scotland, William, had, nearly twelve years ago, with great splendour and rejoicings, taken to wife Ermyngarde, daughter of the Viscount of Beaumont… By her he had a son, named Alexander, — to the great gladness of his people, and the refreshment of the whole kingdom of the Scots, as the after course of these annals will show forth. He was born at Haddington, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day, in the year 1198. In every place in the whole country, the common folk used to forsake their menial work on this day, wherein they first heard tidings of his birth, and spend it in joy; while priests and churchmen donned the alb, and walked in procession, with loud voice glorifying God in hymns and canticles, and humbly praising Him.’

Although she does not act as a witness on any of King William’s extant charters, Queen Ermengarde appears to have played an active role in Scotland, with William allowing her an increasingly influential part in public affairs. One disgruntled canon, in 1207, complained that Walter, a royal chaplain, had obtained the bishopric of Glasgow by not only bribing the king’s chamberlain, but also Queen Ermengarde. The queen may also have offered patronage to relatives, including one Richard de Beaumont, perhaps a brother or cousin, who received substantial lands in Crail. As the king’s health declined in old age – he was already 46 when he married Ermengarde – the queen took on more responsibilities, especially where her children were concerned.

Relations with England had changed in 1199, with the accession of King John, the youngest son of Henry II. During the reign of King Richard, William had agreed with the justiciar, William Longchamp, and supported Arthur of Brittany as the king’s heir. However, it was John who succeeded Richard and he may well have remembered William’s stance. Soon after John’s accession, King William asked for the return of Northumberland. The two kings met at Lincoln in 1200, with William doing homage for his English lands but getting no satisfaction in his claim to Northumberland. In subsequent meetings, John continued to prevaricate, leaving the dispute unresolved.

In the meantime, the death of the bishop of Durham meant John took over the vacant see and set about building a castle at Tweedmouth. The Scots, saw this as a direct threat to Berwick and destroyed the building works. Matters reached a crisis point in 1209.

After many threats, and with both sides building up their armies, the two kings met at Norham, Northumberland, in the last week of July and first week of August 1209. The Scots were in a desperate position, with an ailing and ageing king, and a 10-year-old boy as heir, whilst the English, with their Welsh allies and foreign mercenaries, had an army big enough to force a Scottish submission. Queen Ermengarde appears to have acted as a mediator between the two kings, although the subsequent treaty, agreed at Norham on 7 August, was humiliating for the Scots it did, at least, prevent a war. The Scots agreed to pay 15,000 marks for peace and to surrender hostages, including the king’s two oldest legitimate daughters, Margaret and Isabella. As a sweetener, John promised to marry the Margaret to one of his sons; although Henry was only 2 years old at the time and Richard was just 8 months, whilst the girls were already in their mid teens, at least. It was agreed that Isabella would be married to an English noble of suitable rank, an earl at least.

The king’s daughters and the other Scottish hostages were handed into the custody of England’s justiciar, at Carlisle on 16 August.

How the girls, or their parents, thought about this turn of events, we know not. Given John’s proven record of prevarication and perfidy, King William may have hoped that the promised marriages would occur in good time but may also have expected that John would find a way out of the pledges he had made. William and John met again at Durham in February 1212, a meeting in which ‘The queen of Scotland was present and acted as mediator, an extraordinary woman, gifted with a charming and witty eloquence.’³ The queen’s efforts bore fruit and peace between the two countries was renewed, as ‘There in the presence of the nobles of both kingdoms and the revered lady the queen of the Scots a formula for achieving peace and love, to be observed between the kingdoms and their kings for ever, was worked out anew and confirmed by charters given by both parties.’⁴

It was also agreed that the Scottish prince, Alexander, should be given an English wife. With at least one of the prince’s older sisters already intended for a son of King John, marrying Alexander to one of John’s daughters would further bind the Scots to the Plantagenet cause. Prince Alexander, now aged 14, would be knighted by King John, the ceremony taking place at Clerkenwell on 4 March 1212.

Ermengarde may have taken a more prominent role in the negotiations of 1212 as King William’s health began to fail. Their son, Alexander, was still only a teenager and so it would have fallen to the queen to take the lead in the talks. William was a physically active king almost to the very last moment. In January and February 1213, when both the Scots and English kings were close to the border, a meeting was proposed, but William resisted and could not be persuaded to meet with John. In his 70th year, he was probably already very ill.

As William’s health failed, Queen Ermengarde appears to have taken on more responsibilities and exerted her influence on the court. The king rallied in 1214, so that he was well enough to travel to Elgin in the summer, where he came to an accord with John, the new earl of Caithness, and received the earl’s unnamed daughter as a hostage. The journey took its toll on the king, and he suffered some sort of collapse. He was taken, in easy stages, to the royal castle at Stirling, where he saw his lords for the last time. With the queen in attendance, William urged his barons and bishops to accept Alexander, now 16 years old, as king. King William I, later known as William the Lion, died on 4 December 1214, aged about seventy-one, having reigned for a total of forty-nine years, almost to the day.

On the morning after her husband’s death, Queen Ermengarde was ‘in a state of extreme mourning and worn out with grief.’⁵ The prelates and nobles attempted to rouse the queen from her melancholy by asking that she arrange the late king’s funeral, but the queen would not be moved. They left Ermengarde with her grief and took the young king to Scone, where he was crowned as King Alexander II on 6 December. King William was then buried at Arbroath on 10 December. The new king and his mother then presided over the royal Christmas feast at Forfar but returned to Stirling in January 1215, before visiting Arbroath, to see the tomb of King William.

Queen Ermengarde had been much younger than her husband, possibly by as much as thirty years. She would, therefore, continue to live for many years into her son’s reign.

King Alexander II sided with the English barons in their struggle against the tyranny of King John, making an alliance with the northern barons, who agreed to press for a decision on the future of Alexander’s sisters, and a resolution of the lordship of the northern counties. He raided the northern English earldoms, exploiting the unrest in England to renew Scottish claims to these counties, besieging Norham in October 1215 and receiving the homage of the leading men of Northumberland. And when a French force joined the fight on the side of the rebels, the papal legate pronounced a sentence of excommunication on the rebels and their French and Scottish allies; it even extended to Queen Ermengarde. Scotland put under interdict. Following John’s death in October 1216 and the defeat of the French rebel army at Lincoln in May 1217, Alexander’s position in England became precarious.

The Scots king surrendered Carlisle Castle at Berwick on 1 December 1217 and submitted to England’s boy-king Henry III at Northampton later in the same month. Alexander’s sentence of excommunication was lifted by the archbishop of York, while the bishop of Durham absolved his mother, Queen Ermengarde.

With King Alexander’s submission, there followed an unprecedented almost 80 years of unbroken peace between England and Scotland, sealed by his marriage – in York – with Joan, Henry III’s sister in June 1221. Another marriage soon followed, when, in London on 30 October, Alexander’s oldest sister, Margaret, was married to Hubert de Burgh.

Queen Ermengarde must have felt relief that her son had found a bride, and hoped that an heir would soon follow. She may also have been satisfied that her eldest daughter, Margaret, once thought of as the heir to the Scots throne, was also finally settled in matrimony. Though there was complaint from some sides that Margaret had been pressed into a disparaging marriage when she had been promised a prince as a bridegroom. Hubert de Burgh was King Henry III’s justiciar, but was of minor nobility. He only receive his earldom of Kent after his marriage to Margaret. As for Margaret’s sister Isabella, she returned to Scotland, still unmarried. She eventually married Roger Bigod, the young Earl of Norfolk, in 1225. The wedding took place at Alnwick, in Northumberland, which may mean that Queen Ermengarde was able to attend.

Queen Ermengarde devoted her later years to founding an abbey at Balmerino, with the help of Alexander. A parish in the district of Cupar in county of Fife, it was an area she regularly visited for the benefit of her health. The dowager queen raised the money to found the Cistercian abbey, paying 1,000 merks to purchase the land and acting as overseer to the building project. The abbey was built in red stone, quarried locally. Dedicated to Saint Edward the Confessor, Balmerino was populated by monks from Melrose Abbey. Queen Ermengarde appears to have had a particular veneration for the sainted English king as the only other religious gift we can attribute to her was to the hospital of St Edward at Berwick.

The queen had lived long enough to see three of her four children settled in marriage, and may have met her first grandchild, a daughter born to Princess Margaret in 1227, also named Margaret. In the same year, Henry III’s brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, arrived in Scotland to speak with Queen Ermengarde. The object of the discussions was his possible marriage to the queen’s youngest daughter, Marjory. The earl’s proposals were attractive to neither the Scots nor his brother and negotiations came to naught, but the fact that it was Ermengarde that Richard approached, rather than the king, clearly demonstrates the queen’s continuing influence on her family. Her youngest daughter was not married until August 1235, when she married Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, at Berwick.

The queen did not live to see the wedding as in February 1233 Ermengarde de Beaumont died. She was buried before the high altar of the abbey to which she had dedicated her years of widowhood, Balmerino. Although the surviving records hint at the queen enjoying substantial authority in Scotland, especially where her family were concerned, we have few specifics. That she was entrusted with negotiating with the English emissaries, in 1209 and again in 1212, suggests that she possessed impressive diplomatic skills, and that King William had considerable confidence in his wife’s abilities. Furthermore, the queen’s evident grief at her husband’s death attests to a deep affection within the union, an affection that not only defined the marriage, but also the whole family, with the queen continuing to exert her influence on the relationships of her children in the years after her husband’s death.

Having served Scotland as queen for 28 years and as its dowager queen for a further 19 years, Ermengarde de Beaumont defined the role of Queen of Scots for subsequent royal consorts. Her memory cast a long shadow.

Images:

Notes:

1. Mediaeval chronicles of Scotland, translated by Joseph Stephenson; 2. John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation; 3. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, V 4; 4. ibid; 5. Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens 1034–1714

Bibliography:

Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, V 4; Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history, edited by W. F. Skene; fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTLAND; John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, edited by W. F. Skene, Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas; Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens 1034–1714; Mediaeval chronicles of Scotland: the chronicles of Melrose and Holyrood, translated by Joseph Stephenson; Richard Oram, editor, The Kings and Queens of Scotland; The annals of Roger de Hoveden. Comprising the history of England and of other countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, edited by Henry T. Riley; David Ross, Scotland, History of a Nation; W.W. Scott, Ermengarde [Ermengarde de Beaumont], oxforddnb.com; W.W. Scott, William I [known as William the Lion] (c. 1142–1214), oxforddnb.com

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Scotland’s history is dramatic, violent and bloody. Being England’s northern neighbour has never been easy. Scotland’s queens have had to deal with war, murder, imprisonment, political rivalries and open betrayal. They have loved and lost, raised kings and queens, ruled and died for Scotland. From St Margaret, who became one of the patron saints of Scotland, to Elizabeth de Burgh and the dramatic story of the Scottish Wars of Independence, to the love story and tragedy of Joan Beaufort, to Margaret of Denmark and the dawn of the Renaissance, Scotland’s Medieval Queens have seen it all. This is the story of Scotland through their eyes.

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Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org. Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.

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Wordly Women: Susan Abernethy

27/09/202523/09/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly4 Comments

When I started writing my blog way back in 2015, Susan Abernethy already had a successful website telling the stories from History. Despite that, she never saw me as competition. Susan offered me advice and encouragement. And I will never forget that. So, today, it is so nice to be able to pay a little of that back by welcoming Susan to my author spotlight series, Wordly Women, to tell us a little of her writing journey – and about her two books, the second of which, The Formidable Women who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage at the Burgundian Court, hits the shops at the end of October.

Welcome Susan!

Sharon: So, What got you into writing?

Susan: A friend of mine from high school started a women’s history blog in 2012 and put out a call for someone to join her in writing articles. I didn’t even know if I could write but I answered and wrote an article on Queen Emma of Normandy. It got a really good reception, and the writing took off from there. Later, I decided it would be good to write not only about women, but other topics in history and so The Freelance History Writer blog began.

Sharon: Tell us about your books.

Susan: Many years ago, I found the books of Jean Plaidy in the library and read every one I could get my hands on. This included The Merry Monarch’s Wife, about Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II. When I started the blog in 2012, one of my plans was to write an article about every Queen of England. While doing some research on Catherine of Braganza, it seemed like there wasn’t a great deal of information about her available, especially in English. It turned out most of the biographies were old, published in 1915 and in the 1930’s and 40’s.

Also, people, including myself, believed Catherine was miserable and nearly forgotten because of her unfaithful husband and his glamourous mistresses. I wondered if this was true. Having very little knowledge of Portuguese history, I ended up reading dozens of history books about the country and their seaborne empire, which is pretty fascinating stuff. This research was necessary to put Catherine in historical context and to explain why the ports of Tangier and Bombay were included in her dowry.

So the adventure began. Charles II’s Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza is my debut book which was published in April 2025 in the UK and June 2025 in the US.

The second book is called The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage in the Burgundian Court. This is the result of a mountain of research beginning with an article about Isabel of Portugal. She was the daughter of King John I of Portugal and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster and the only English queen of Portugal.

Isabel, at the age of thirty, married Philip the Good, the third Valois Duke of Burgundy and was the mother of the fourth duke, Charles the Bold. After reading biographies of Isabel and Charles, they seemed to me to be captivating characters, both strong and powerful. Charles also appeared to be a real character and possibly suffering from some kind of mental illness. After writing articles about both of them, I decided to delve further into Burgundian history, which covers the Low Countries, northern France and part of the Holy Roman Empire. Richard Vaughan wrote excellent biographies of all four of the Valois Dukes so that is where the research started.

Philip the Bold, one of the greatest diplomats in his era, began a program of amassing an empire which included the marriages of his daughters, granddaughters, nieces and many others into various houses of Europe. This book is a collection of 31 women related to the Valois dukes by blood and marriage. It includes the wives of kings, dauphins, dukes, counts, and others along with a few queens and a queen regnant, even a saint. In telling their stories, you discover a great variety of history of many principalities of western Europe.

Sharon: Is there a book you’ve read recently that influenced your research?

Susan: A year or so ago, I read Sharon L Jansen’s book The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe. Her main point is that historical family trees basically only show the descendants of men. If the women are mentioned at all, it is as the wife or maybe the daughter if she married an important man. She says we need to look at the women and their connections, not just their husbands and children. How did they interact with other women? A total eye-opener for me, now I cannot look at history in any other way. It really guided me in the research and writing of my second book on the Valois royal and aristocratic women. Some of these women lived in luxurious comfort while others had to scrape and fight to keep their patrimonies from being wrested from them by powerful men.

Sharon: This is soooooo true!

Sharon: Who is your favorite historical person and why?

Susan: I have many favorites so it’s hard to choose one. Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands and Anne de Beaujeu, Duchess of Bourbon and Regent of France, come to mind, both of whom are in the second book. But while I was researching the formidable women, I came across Catherine of Burgundy, Duchess of Austria and Countess of Ferrette, the daughter of Philp the Bold. Her life really captivated me for several reasons. When her father didn’t pay the balance of her dowry, she convinced her husband to give her the county of Ferrette, not just for the income but to rule on her own.

Catherine took full advantage of this opportunity. She acted as diplomat for her brother, John the Fearless and her nephew Philip the Good. She engaged in feuds and even started a small conflict with the city of Basel. She must have had remarkable charisma and a forceful personality. But the best part is she made a marriage without the permission of her brother. I haven’t come across many women who did such a thing. She may have done it to have an ally for her feuds and to maintain her position as countess. But she also may have been in love with the man. When her nephew Philip forced her to back out of the marriage, she seems to have lost her will to live which is pretty sad. But she’s my current favorite medieval historical person.

Sharon: Who is your least favorite historical person and why?

Susan: At the moment, I’m going to say Ferdinand of Aragon for several reasons. One the one hand, I have to admire his political acumen and diplomatic panache. In the era of Isabella of Castile, King Henry VIII, King Francis I and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, he held his own. But his treatment of women is abominable.

He appears to have navigated his relationship with Isabella really well. They were on equal footing and managed to share their responsibilities. But once Isabella was gone, he engaged in antics like marrying again to try to have another child to displace his daughter Juana as queen of Aragon, as well as not supporting his younger daughter Katherine of Aragon once her husband Arthur Tudor died. He also is responsible, along with her husband Philip as well as her son HRE Charles V, for spreading terrible rumors about Juana of Castile’s mental health and for her eventual captivity which lasted for 45 years. It’s not a pretty story.

Sharon: How do you approach researching your topic?

Susan: The process of research starts with reading. Lots of reading. After finding as many books as I can on my topic, I start reading and find more resources. This process also involves searches on the internet for sources. Then, I make notes from my reading. I treat each chapter of the book as if it were an extended post for my blog. The notes are combined into a narrative which then becomes a chapter, and the chapters are assimilated into the book.

Sharon: Tell us your ‘favourite’ story you have come across in your research.

Susan: This is a good one! Many years ago, I read a turn of the century biography of Philippa of Hainault, queen of King Edward III of England. The king and queen arranged a marriage for their eldest daughter Isabella to Louis II, Count of Flanders, also known as Louis of Male. The author relates the story of how Louis jilted Isabella at the altar, fleeing to France to avoid the wedding ceremony. Louis had promised his ally, King Philip VI of France that he would marry Margaret, the middle daughter of the Duke of Brabant and he eventually did.

Now Louis was not a faithful husband to Margaret and had something along the lines of 18 illegitimate children. Margaret was 7 years older than Louis. She gave birth to her daughter Margaret of Male in 1350 who eventually married the first Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold in 1369. Two years later, Countess Margaret deserted the court of Flanders to live in the country.

The author of the biography of Philippa of Hainault casually mentions that Margaret, Countess of Flanders, ordered the nose of Louis’ mistress cut off after the mistress gave birth to twins. As a result of her injuries, the mistress died. She insinuates this was the reason for Margaret abandoning the court. This sensational story really piqued my curiosity, and I searched for the truth for a long time.

Why did Margaret desert the Flemish court, something Belgian historians have debated for years? Did Louis abandon her? Did she abandon him? Was she mentally ill? Is there a history of mental illness in the House of Reginar of Brabant?

It seems an unknown chronicler from Bruges, in 1430, is the instigator of the report of Margaret cutting off the nose of Louis’ lover. He wrote this sixty years after the alleged event. It is entirely possible he spoke with someone who knew the truth of the matter from oral tradition. It is also possible he made up the entire scenario. Since then, a chronicler restated the story in 1531, and popular historians have repeated it down through the ages. While there is still the possibility the story is true, it is highly unlikely, and these chroniclers may have had their own agenda in spreading the rumors.

The stories of the jilting of Isabella, the marriage of Margaret of Brabant to Louis, Count of Flanders and her daughter Margaret of Male, wife of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, are all in the Formidable Women book.

Sharon: Tell us your least ‘favourite’ story you have come across in your research.

Susan: That has to be the story of Blanche II, Titular Queen of Navarre. Her father was King Juan II of Aragon, and her mother was Blanche I, Queen of Navarre. King Juan was crafty and sly and ruled Navarre by right of his wife. But once Blanche I died, a family feud ensued and King Juan did everything in his power to retain the governance of Navarre, even going so far as to ignore the rights of Blanche II and her brother Charles who had both gained the approval of the Cortes of Navarre as the legal heirs of Blanche I.

This state of affairs lasted for years. Blanche II had been married to Enrique IV of Castile, but the marriage was not a happy one and eventually, the union was annulled and Blanche II returned to Aragon. Her father locked her up in prison to prevent her from gaining the throne of Navarre to which she was legally entitled. Blanche remained in prison from 1453 until her death under suspicious circumstances in December 1464.

What makes this story even sadder is the fact that King Juan II of Aragon married again and had a son, Ferdinand of Aragon, who married Isabella of Castile and was the father of Queen Juana of Castile. In an eerie twist of fate, similar to Blanche II of Navarre, Ferdinand managed to declare his daughter Juana mentally unstable and locked her up for 45 years in Tordesillas. History repeats itself.

Sharon: Are there any other eras you would like to write about?

Susan: My interest in the medieval, early modern and Renaissance eras is pretty passionate and I’ve been out of my element by writing about the Stuart era. But the Stuart’s need an update and more scrutiny. If I did look at a different era, it might be Italian medieval and Renaissance history, a subject I’ve tried to avoid for many years because I found it to be meandering and complicated. But recently, I’ve delved into the stories of women such as Bona of Savoy, who features in my second book, as well as Bianca Maria Visconti, mother of Bona’s husband, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Valentina Visconti, wife of Louis I, Duke of Orleans who was assassinated by John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. These are tremendous women’s stories and pique my interest for more.

Sharon: What are you working on now?

Susan: I’m currently in the research stage of writing a biography of Mary Beatrice d’Este, second wife of King James II of England. She was the sister-in-law of Catherine of Braganza and the only Italian Queen of England. This book will be along the same lines as the biography of Catherine.

The research into Mary Beatrice brought up another intriguing subject. Her mother was Laura Martinozzi, Duchess of Modena, one of the many nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, the prime minister of Kings Louis XIII and XIV of France. Seems like another intriguing topic to look into.

Sharon: What is the best thing about being writer?

Susan: Having been an avid reader all my life, being a writer allows me to keep reading and to read about any topic that interests me. I love learning! I probably should have been a history teacher but never pursued it. By writing books and for the blog it allows me to educate people who are interested in the fascinating stories of history. My main goal is to get someone to read a book and hopefully enjoy the history as much as I do.

About the Author:

Susan Abernethy’s passion for history dates back fifty years and led her to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is currently a member of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, the Society for Renaissance Studies and the Historical Association. Her work has appeared on several historical websites and in magazines and includes guest appearances on historical podcasts. Her blog, The Freelance History Writer, has continuously published over five hundred historical articles since 2012, with an emphasis on European, Tudor, Medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and women’s history. She is currently working on her third non-fiction book.

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Charles II’s Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza; The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage in the Burgundian Court

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Out now: Scotland’s Medieval Queens

Available now from Amazon and Pen and Sword Books

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Helena Snakenborg: A Swedish Woman Living in Tudor England

20/09/202519/09/2025Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

An Elizabethan whose story I became aware of through a novel is Helena Snakenborg, who features in Tracy Borman’s novel, The King’s Witch. I had to know more about this Swedish lady living in Tudor England, and include her in my own Heroines of the Tudor World. Even more so after I learned that Helena was the only foreigner amongst Queen Elizabeth’s ladies. Helena was born in 1548, into an ancient Swedish baronial family. Her father, Ulf Henriksson, had been a trusted supporter of King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden. Her mother, Agneta Knuttson, was a descendant of the earls of Orkney and it is from her mother’s family that Helena took her name, Snakenborg.

In 1564, at the age of fifteen, Helena was appointed a maid of honour to Gustav Vasa’s daughter, and the sister of the new King Eric XIV, Princess Cecilia. Later that same year, Princess Cecilia embarked on a voyage to England, taking Helena with her. Cecilia claimed that as a committed Anglophile, she wanted to meet the queen of England. She may also have been hoping to revive her brother’s suit for Queen Elizabeth’s hand in marriage. Their overland journey to England was long and arduous.

They travelled through Poland and Germany in order to avoid hostile countries and were hampered by bad weather. The princess was accompanied by her husband and fell pregnant during the journey, necessitating further delays. Almost a year had passed by the time they arrived in London in September 1565, with the Spanish ambassador reporting to Philip II,

‘On the 11th instant [of September] the king of Sweden’s sister entered London at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. She is very far advanced in pregnancy, and was dressed in a black velvet robe with a mantle of black cloth of silver, and wore on her head a golden crown… She had with her six Ladies dressed in crimson taffety with mantles of the same.’¹

The arrival of the Swedish princess caused a great deal of excitement at court and the queen gave them a lavish reception. Among Cecilia’s six ladies was Helena Snakenborg and in a letter to her mother, Helena wrote of their reception in England: ‘There came so many to visit us that there was no end to it. All wished us a hearty welcome to England.’² After the official ceremonies were completed, Princess Cecilia was taken at once to the place designated for her confinement, where she gave birth to a son on 14 September. The princess was given the use of Bedford House as her London residence. She did not remain long in seclusion after the birth and she and her entourage soon became regular visitors at court, treated to receptions and entertainments.

Helena was by all accounts a beautiful young woman, with large brown eyes, red hair and a pink and white complexion. She attracted the attention of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, a man thirty-five years her senior whose sister, Kateryn Parr, had been Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. In a letter to her mother, Helena told her about the marquess’s attention:

‘Amongst the gentlemen was a courtier who always came with the earliest arrivals and left amongst the last. When my gracious Lady had been “churched” after the baby was born, the Marquess of Northampton (for that was the courtier’s name) talked to my gracious lady about me.’³

The marquess of Northampton wasted no time in pressing his suit with Helena, sending her lavish gifts of clothes and jewels, and ‘being an impressionable and romantic young girl, Helena was swept off her feet by the experienced older man.’⁴ Helena was beguiled by Northampton, who wanted to marry her but felt prevented from doing so because, although divorced in 1551, his first wife Lady Anne Bourchier was still alive and there were some doubts as to the validity of the divorce.

In the meantime, Princess Cecilia had run up some rather large debts due to her lavish lifestyle in England. Her debts, in excess of £3,000, had been amassed as a result of the purchase of poultry, articles of plate and jewellery, a kirtle wrought with gold, a Venice lute – the list goes on. The princess left England in order to escape her creditors, though she had been obliged by the queen to sell whatever she could in order to raise as much money as she could to pay off at least some of the debt, leaving England in April 1566. The princess had wanted to take Helena with her, but the young woman was enjoying life in England, and the attentions of the marquess of Northampton, and wanted to stay.

Queen Elizabeth came to Helena’s rescue by offering her a place in her household, appointing her a maid of honour in 1567 and later promoting her to Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Although unpaid, the queen awarded her new maid of honour additional privileges, including lodgings at court, servants and a horse. It seems Queen Elizabeth had grown fond of Helena and was keen to help the budding romance of Helena and Northampton. Helena, in her turn, was in the queen’s thrall, emulating her dress and manners and even her signature, underlining the ‘H’ with the same flourish Elizabeth did with her ‘E’. Helena was diligent and conscientious in her duties and became an indispensable member of the queen’s household.

Helena’s relationship with Northampton was still hindered by Northampton’s ambiguous marital status, but the marquess was still generous with Helena, assigning ten of his own servants to care for her and giving her everything she needed or wanted. Helena told her mother: ‘I cannot imagine I shall ever want for anything however beautiful or expensive that his Lordship can buy without his getting it at once for his Elin.’⁵The couple’s patience was eventually rewarded, so to speak, with the death of Anne Bourchier in January 1571. William Parr was finally free to marry.

The wedding took place in May in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who had offered her own closet in Whitehall Palace for the ceremony. The bride was twenty-two and the groom fifty-seven. The newlyweds divided their time between their houses in Guildford, Surrey, and Stanstead Hall, Essex, close enough to London that Helena could attend court regularly. The happy marriage came to a sudden end within just a few months, when the marquess fell ill at Warwick in September 1571. He had been suffering from gout for some time and it now took a turn for the worse. Helena nursed her ailing husband through the ensuing weeks, but the earl succumbed to his illness on 28 October. They had been married just five months. The queen bore the costs of the funeral and even provided material from her own wardrobe for the mourning outfits.

Helena was left a young widow with a substantial dower of £368 per annum from her husband’s estates in Cumberland. She could have retired from court and lived in comfort for the rest of her life, but Helena chose to return to the queen’s service just as soon as her husband’s affairs were settled. It was not long, however, before she attracted a new admirer in Thomas Gorges. Although the queen was initially in favour of the match, she refused to consent to a marriage, either out of jealousy or concern for the disparity in their statuses. Helena was a marchioness, whereas Thomas was merely a gentleman, serving as a Groom of the Privy Chamber. In spite of the queen’s objections, the couple married in secret in 1576, earning themselves Elizabeth’s wrath.

Dismissed from court, Helena wrote to the queen to beg forgiveness, describing herself as ‘a poure, desolate, and banished creature’.⁶

Helena was soon forgiven and welcomed back to court, with the queen granting Helena manors in Huntingdonshire and Wiltshire. Her second marriage appears to have been as happy as the first, if not happier. Two years later, Helena left court to give birth to her first child, a daughter named after Elizabeth for whom the queen acted as godmother, presenting Helena with a silver-gilt bowl at the christening. A son, Francis, was probably born the following year, with at least six more children after that, two more daughters and four more sons, the last being born in 1589.

Despite her growing brood Helena still served the queen, acting as her deputy at the baptisms of children of distinguished noblemen, especially towards the end of the reign as the queen’s health was deteriorating. Helena was with Elizabeth during her final illness at Richmond and remained with the queen’s body after her death on 24 March 1603, watching over the corpse as it was laid in a lead coffin and then accompanied it as it was taken by barge from Richmond to Whitehall Palace in a sombre torchlit procession. As senior peeress, Helena was chief mourner at Elizabeth’s funeral at Westminster Abbey on 28 April.

The reign of King James I (VI of Scots) inevitably meant changes at court and Thomas Gorges was demoted. Helena, too, lost some of her privileges. And with the death of Thomas on 30 March 1610, she increasingly retreated from public life. A devoted member of the Church of England, she died on 10 April 1635, having lived in England for almost exactly seventy years. She granted over £1,700 in annuities and bequests in her will. At the time of her death, Helena had ninety-two living, direct descendants.

Helen Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton, was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, beside her second husband Thomas Gorges who had been laid to rest there in 1610.

In her long life, Helena Snakenborg had been lucky enough to enjoy two happy marriages, both made for love, and to have enjoyed the love and patronage of Queen Elizabeth. Even when she had faced the wrath of the queen, Helena had managed to win back her favour.