Saint Margaret of Scotland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Margaret
Queen of Scots; Widow
Born c. 1045, Castle Réka, Mecseknádasd, in the region of Southern Transdanubia, Hungary
Died November 16, 1093, St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, Midlothian, Scotland
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion
Canonized 1251 by Pope Innocent IV
Major shrine Dunfermline Abbey
Feast November 16; June 10 (Traditional Roman Catholics)
Attributes Queen; Widow; reading
Patronage Dunfermline; Scotland; The Queen's Ferry; Anglo-Scottish relations
Saints Portal

Saint Margaret (c. 1045 – November 16, 1093), was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. She married Malcolm III, King of Scots, becoming his Queen consort.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Saint Margaret was the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside. She was probably born at Castle Réka, Mecseknádasd, in the region of Southern Transdanubia, Hungary. She was also the granddaughter of Saint Stephen of Hungary. The provenance of her mother, Agatha, is disputed.

According to popular belief, Margaret was a very serious person, so much that no one ever could recall seeing her laugh or smile.[citation needed]

When her uncle, Saint Edward the Confessor, the French-speaking Anglo-Saxon King of England, died in 1066, she was living in England where her brother, Edgar Ætheling, had decided to make a claim to the vacant throne.

According to tradition, after the conquest of the Kingdom of England by the Normans the widowed Agatha decided to leave Northumberland with her children and return to the Continent, but a storm drove their ship to Scotland where they sought the protection of King Malcolm III. The spot where she is said to have landed is known today as St. Margaret's Hope, near the village of North Queensferry. Malcolm was probably a widower, and was no doubt attracted by the prospect of marrying one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret soon took place and was followed by several invasions of Northumberland by the Scottish king, probably in support of the claims of his brother-in-law Edgar. These, however, had little result beyond the devastation of the province.

[edit] Family

Margaret and Malcolm had eight children, six sons and two daughters:

  1. Edward, killed 1093.
  2. Edmund of Scotland
  3. Ethelred, abbot of Dunkeld
  4. King Edgar of Scotland
  5. King Alexander I of Scotland
  6. King David I of Scotland
  7. Edith of Scotland, also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England
  8. Mary of Scotland, married Eustace III of Boulogne

Her husband, Malcolm III, and their eldest son, Edward, were killed in a fight against the English at Alnwick Castle on 13 November 1093. Her son Edmund was left with the task of telling his mother of their deaths. Margaret was ill, and she died on 16 November 1093, three days after the deaths of her husband and eldest son.

[edit] Margaret and Scottish culture

Malcolm and Margaret as depicted in a 16th century armorial
Malcolm and Margaret as depicted in a 16th century armorial

It is notable that while Malcolm's children by his first wife Ingibjörg all bore Gaelic names, those of Margaret all bore non-Gaelic names. Later tradition often has it that Margaret was responsible for starting the demise of Gaelic culture in the lowlands and Scotland in general. The forenames of Margaret's children were probably intended to bear Margaret's claims to the Anglo-Saxon throne in the period before permanent Norman rule was recognized, and so the first group of children were given Anglo-Saxon royal names. In fact, in Gaeldom, she has usually not been considered a saint, but referred to as Mairead/Maighread nam Mallachd: Accursed Margaret[citation needed].

Moreover, it is unlikely that they were originally seen as successors to the Scottish throne, as Malcolm had other (grown) sons and brothers who were much more likely to succeed him. Furthermore, Margaret freely patronized Gaelic churchmen, and Gaelic remained an expanding language in northern Britain. Nevertheless, these sons regarded their Anglo-Saxon heritage as important, as the latter was one of the main devices for legitimizing the authority of the Scottish kings in English-speaking Lothian and northern England.

[edit] Veneration

Saint Margaret was canonized in the year 1251 by Pope Innocent IV on account of her personal holiness and fidelity to the Church. She would personally serve orphans and the poor every day before she herself would eat, and would rise at midnight to attend church services every night.

The Roman Catholic Church formerly marked the feast of Saint Margaret of Scotland on June 10, owing to the fact that the feast of "Saint Gertrude, Virgin" was already celebrated on November 16. Per the revision of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1969, the date was transferred to November 16, the actual day of her death.[1] Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate the feast day of "St Margaret, Queen of Scots, Widow" on June 10 as a Semi-Double feast or a Simple feast.

Queen Margaret University (founded in 1875), Queen Margaret Union, Queen Margaret Hospital (just outside Dunfermline), North Queensferry, South Queensferry, Queen Margaret Academy (Ayr) and several streets in Dunfermline are named after her.

Preceded by
Ingibiorg Finnsdottir		 Queen consort of Scotland
1070 - 1093		 Succeeded by
Sybilla de Normandy

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 126

[edit] Reading

[edit] See also

[edit] External links