Margaret Painting

A loose copy of John Everett Millais (1871) painting of Margaret Wilson, a Scottish girl who at the age of 18yrs was executed, along with her elderly friend Margaret McLachlin for refusing to swear an oath to the English King Henry VII. Although recieving a reprieve some 11 days earlier, on 11th May 1685 both women were chained to posts in the Solway Firth, Scotland, and were drowned by the incoming tide. The executioner was later made a Baron by the King . Millais depicted Margaret as resigned and crestfallen but I have tried to depict defiance, as this young girl was brave and courageous to the end and was probably a precursor for the suffragette movement.