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Others — Margaret Douglas (1515-1578), Countess of Lennox

Margarete Douglas
Margaret Douglas (1515-1578), daughter of the Scottish Queen Margaret Tudor and one of the favourite nieces of the English King Henry VIII., c. 1532

The depicted is NOT Katherine Parr!


Born:
7. October 1515

Deceased:
9. March 1578

Father:

Archibald Douglas, sixth Earl of Angus (1494-1557)


Mother:

Margaret († 1541), the elder sister of the English King Henry VIII. († 1547)


Spouse:
  1. Thomas Howard (1511-1537), son of Thomas Howard sen. (1443-1524), second Duke of Norfolk, and his second wife Agnes Agnes Tylney († 1545); marriage at the end of 1535 or early in 1536 (a clandestine marriage)
  2. Charles Howard (1516/17-c. 1543), eldest brother of Catherine Howard (1525/26-1542); marriage around 1541 (clandestine marriage)
  3. Matthew Stewart or Stuart (1516-1571), fourth Earl of Lennox; marriage in 1544

Children:

of her four, five, eight or nine children by her third husband, Matthew Stewart, only two reached adulthood:

  • her son Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, born on 7. December 1545, murdered on 10. or 11. February 1567; since 28. July 1565 married to Mary Stuart († 1587), Queen of Scotland; he had one child with his wife, his son James VI./I., King of Scotland and England
  • and her son Charles Stuart, born at the end of 1556, deceased in 1576/77, since October 1574 married to Elizabeth Cavenish (1554-1582), a daughter of Bess of Hardwick († 1608); they had one daughter: Arbella Stuart (1575-1615)

More Images:
Margarete Douglas mit ihrer Familie Margarete Douglas Margarete Douglas Margarete Douglas

Reading Suggestions:

Extra:

Today, 1st September 2016, I received an email from someone who insisted that the depicted on this painting would be Katherine Parr, which she definitely is not.

... and my response to all my readers:

I am a historian and a researcher too, and my knowledge is based on the contemporary historical sources of the 16th century, the written and the pictorial ones. The depicted woman you mentioned is without any doubt Margaret Douglas and certainly NOT Queen Katherine Parr. Actually not too long ago the depicted young lady was declared to be "Jane Grey" by the art historians. They now have changed their mind to "Katherine Parr". My research is based on the history of the fashion. How can anybody make the claim that the depicted is Katherine Parr? Does this person have any idea what Katherine Parr really looked like? We have plenty of images of her. See here.

Let's look at the portrait of Margaret Douglas. Her costume is the only tool to date the painting. It was in fashion around 1528 to 1535. Jane Grey was born in 1537. She was not even born when this portrait was made. Therefore we can rule her out.

Katherine Parr got married to her second husband John Neville around 1530/1531. She married the English King Henry VIII in the year 1543. And in 1543 she was already a woman of the age of 31 years. Does this young woman (15 - 20 years old) look like 31 years old? We are in the Renaissance! Do you have any idea what a woman looked like when she was 30 years old?

The fashion tells us that the depicted on the portrait cannot be Katherine Parr. The portraits of Katherine Parr also tell us the depicted on this portrait can not be Katherine Parr. Margaret Douglas and her cousin Eleanor Brandon were the favourite nieces of Henry VIII (at least in the beginning of the 1530s). Look at portraits of Eleanor Brandon

Margaret Douglas and Eleanor Brandon both received a specific piece of jewellery (a brooch) from him which he also gave - according to Susan James - to his new bride Katherine Parr in 1543. The two specimens of these brooches of Margaret Douglas and Eleanor Brandon look almost the same, but there are small differences. Susan James was therefore not very well informed when she made her claim that the depicted is Katherine Parr.

You should read my biography about Margaret Douglas (Margarete Douglas: Die hinreißend schöne Schottin in der englischen Königsfamilie) in: my Book or E-Book: Die Frauen des Hauses Tudor - Das Schicksal der weiblichen Mitglieder einer englischen Königsdynastie

Kind Regards, Maike Vogt-Lüerssen


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