Ermengarde de Beaumont

views updated

Ermengarde de Beaumont (d. 1233), queen of William I of Scotland. Married to William the Lion at Woodstock, near Oxford, on 5 December 1186, she was chosen for him by Henry II, then overlord of Scotland. Her father was one of Henry's French vassals, Richard, vicomte of Beaumont-sur-Sarthe in Maine, and the marriage emphasized William's subordinate status as Henry's client, though Edinburgh castle, seized under the treaty of Falaise, was returned to William as a wedding gift. She enjoyed some prominence in public affairs, notably when William fell ill in 1212, and during her long widowhood from 1214 she founded the Cistercian abbey of Balmerino (Fife), where she was buried.

Keith J. Stringer