dared it (Letters and Papers, iv. 4134). Lord Erskine, in the name of the king, appeared before Stirling, and Stewart was given up by Margaret and put into ward. Wolsey wrote in Henry's name to remind her of the 'divine ordinance of inseparable matrimony first instituted in paradise,' protesting against 'the shameless sentence sent from Rome' (ib. iv. 4130-1). It was probably now that Angus separated her from her daughter (Green, p. 471). When James threw off the tutelage of Angus in June, and the earl was driven into England, Margaret and her husband became his chief advisers. Lands and revenues were showered upon them, and James created Stewart Lord Methven, and master of the artillery, 'for the great love he bore to his dearest mother.' Margaret, who went everywhere with her son, recovered possession of her Stricklands (1532) and entrusted them to Methven. She successfully used her influence in favour of a truce with England, and Magnus reported her very favourable to the proposed marriage of James with the Princess Mary. But Lord William Howard of Effingham [q. v.], who was sent to Scotland to promote this match in 1531, when Mary's position in England had become a very dubious one, met with open opposition from Margaret (ib. p. 481 ; Strickland, p. 243). She, however, helped to bring about the peace with England concluded on 11 May 1534 (Hamilton Papers, i. 2, 8 ; Fœdera, xiv. 529). The proposed interview between Henry and James, first suggested in the autumn, received her warm support, and she wrote to her brother and Cromwell on 12 Dec. boasting that, 'by advice of us and no other living person,' James had consented to the meeting (State Papers, v. 2, 12). The prospect of taking a principal part in a splendid spectacle, and appearing before the world as mediator between her son and her brother, powerfully appealed to Margaret's vanity, and though already deeply in debt, she spent nearly 20,000l. Scots in preparations for the interview. When James was induced by the Scottish clergy, well aware that Henry intended at the meeting to urge a reformation in Scotland upon his nephew, to qualify his consent, Margaret allowed her disappointment to carry her to the length of betraying her son's secret intentions to Henry (ib. v. 38). This coming to James's ears was naturally connected by him with the gifts which Henry, in response to her importunity, had recently sent her, and he roundly accused her of taking bribes from England to betray him (ib. pp. 41, 46-7 ; Hamilton Papers, p. 31). She begged Henry to allow her to come into England, 'being at the most displeasant point she could be, to be alive,' but was told that she must get her son's consent (State Papers, v. 55 ; Letters and Papers, xi. 111-12). She was so irritated by this reply being conveyed through James's ambassador, Otterbourne, that she wrote a letter to Cromwell, which he called 'insolent,' and for which she afterwards apologised (State Papers, v. 56; Green, p. 488). Her suggestion that Henry ought to defray the losses the border wars had cost her, and her expenditure for the abortive interview, was coldly and firmly refused (State Papers, v. 56).
Margaret appears in a more agreeable light a month later (12 Aug.) in her intercession with her brother for her daughter, Lady Margaret Douglas, who had excited his suspicious wrath by a contract of marriage with a younger brother of the Duke of Norfolk (ib. v. 58). The English parliament professed to believe that there was a scheme to raise Lady Margaret and her husband to the throne if the king died heirless, and that in her lately projected visit to England Queen Margaret had designed a reunion with Angus, so as to strengthen the interests of her daughter by confirming her legitimacy ({sc|Green}}, p. 491). On 20 Oct. and again on 10 Feb. 1537 she begged help of Henry that she might not be disgraced before the queen (Magdalene) whom her son was bringing home from France (Hamilton Papers, i. 38-9 ; State Papers, v. 66). Sir Ralph Sadler, who was sent to Scotland in January, heard at Newcastle a rumour that Margaret had taken the veil, which he thought l no gospel.' He found her 'conveyed to much misery during her son's absence,' and 'very evilly used' in the suit she had brought for a 'decision of the validity of the matrimony between her and Methven' (ib. i. 529, v. 66, 70). To Henry she only accused Methven of having enriched his own friends out of her rents, but he is stated to have had children by Janet Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Atholl, whom he married after Margaret's death. One of these children was mother of the celebrated Earl of Gowrie, which has given rise to the absurd modern hypothesis that the mother of Earl Gowrie was really daughter of Lord Methven and Queen Margaret (Green, pp. 493-4; but cf. Reg. Mag. Sigill. Scotiæ, 1546-80, Nos. 184-5, 639-41, 1568).
Margaret seconded Sadler's report by a letter to her brother dated 8 March, complaining that the Bishop of St. Andrews delayed pronouncing sentence in her divorce, though her case was proved by 'twenty
