Loading...Second visit of Alexander and his Queen to the English Court
In fulfilment of this promise", the King of Scotland repaired with a concourse of his nobility to the court of England; and left his queen, whose situation now speedily promised an heir to the Scottish throne, to follow him, by slow stages, with the Bishop of Glasgow. On her approach to St Albans, she was met by her younger brother Edmund, who received her with a splendid retinue, and conducted her in the morning to London. The object of this visit of Alexander was not solely to gratify the King of England. He was anxious to exercise his rights over the territory of Huntingdon, which he held of the English crown; and the payment of his wife's portion had been so long delayed, that he wished to reclaim the debt.
The reception of the royal persons appears to have been unusually magnificent; and the country round the court was greatly exhausted by the sumptuous entertainments, and the intolerable expenses which they demanded.f In the midst of these festivities, the queen drew near her time; and, at the pressing instance of her father, it was agreed that she should lie-in at the court of England: not however without a renewed stipulation, sworn upon the soul of the king, that the infant, in the event of the death of its mother or of Alexander, should be delivered to an appointed body of the Scottish nobility.
Having secured this, Alexander returned to his kingdom; and in the month of February 1261, his young queen was delivered at Windsor of a daughter, Margaret, afterwards married to Eric king of Norway.