The Thrissil and the Rois

The Thrissil and the Rois is a Scots poem composed by William Dunbar to mark the wedding, in August 1503, of King James IV of Scotland to Princess Margaret Tudor of England.

Princess Margaret receives lavish praise for her beauty, virtue and high birth.

The marriage of James IV, King of Scots, and Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII of England had been agreed in the Treaty of Perpetual Peace of 1502.

[4] Ten years after the marriage of James and Margaret Scotland and England aligned themselves with opposing alliances in the War of the League of Cambrai.

A rose, coloured red and white, had been adopted as a dynastic symbol by Henry VII who had seized the throne of England in 1485.

It represented a union of the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions of the Plantagenet dynasty which had fought a series of civil wars for the control of the English throne before being succeeded by Henry.

The Thrissil and the Rois is composed in rhyme royal stanzas and makes free use of aureate vocabulary inspired by Latin and French.

Dame Nature crowns the lion as King of the animals and instructs him to exercise justice wisely.

The lion seems to symbolise the duty of the King of Scots to bring justice to his subjects both humble and powerful.

Dame Nature then crowns the Eagle as King of the birds and sharpens his feathers 'like steel darts'.

James IV sketched by Jacques Le Boucq. Middle sixteenth century.
Princess Margaret of England sketched by an unknown artist. " Recueil d'Arras ", sixteenth century.