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James IV, who is widely regarded as one of the most successful
Scottish Kings, married the daughter of the English King Henry VII,
Margaret Tudor in 1503. The pair was married by proxy in London, on
the same day that the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, an agreement to
stop intermittent fighting, was signed between England and
Scotland. In many ways, James and Margaret’s marriage was viewed as
a sign of peace between the two ruling families.
The couple married in person in August 1503, at the Palace of
Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The wedding was dubbed as the marriage
of the “Thistle and the Rose” (The thistle was the emblem of the
King of Scots, whilst a red and white rose was the emblem of the
Tudor dynasty).
While the couple had six children, only one of them, the future
King James V, survived to adulthood. However, this union
between the houses of Tudor and Stewart would culminate in the
Union of Crowns a hundred years later, which saw Scottish King
James VI ascend the English throne as James I, and through
Margaret, the Tudor dynasty was continued in the maternal line.
The chest was acquired by amateur collector Aidan Harrison, who
believed it to have been from the wedding that took place over five
centuries ago. Professor Jane Geddes, a leading art historian from
the University of Aberdeen, was able to confirm its provenance. She
said: “Aidan came to me and said ‘I think I’ve got something rather
exciting here’, and he most certainly did. The carving and woodwork
strongly point towards its creation for the wedding of King James
IV and Margaret.”
“A wooden chest was one of the most important items of medieval
furniture, because aristocratic families spent so much time
travelling with pack-horses all around the country to their various
homes,” she added. “Queen Margaret would have treasured her private
prayer-book and tucked her personal possessions into the box.”
The wooden chest was displayed at the annual conference of the
British Archaeological Association this week, and it is hoped that
it will soon be available for public viewing in Scotland.
This marriage chest is the second piece of Tudor furniture to be
discovered this year. In March,
historians identified a royal bed that could have belonged to
Margaret’s parents, King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
Photo credit: lisby1 via photopin
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