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Birth:          ABT 1048 Kingdom of Hungary (in exile)
Death:          16 Nov 1093 Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland
Burial:         Dunfermine, Fifeshire, Scotland

Notes
canonized
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Margaret_of_Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045 – 16 November 1093), also known as Margaret of 
Wessex, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Margaret was sometimes 
called "The Pearl of Scotland".[1] Born in exile in the Kingdom of Hungary, she was 
the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the shortly reigned and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of 
England. Margaret and her family returned to the Kingdom of England in 1057, but fled 
to the Kingdom of Scotland following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. In 
1070 Margaret married King Malcolm III of Scotland, becoming Queen of Scots. She 
was a very pious Roman Catholic, and among many charitable works she established a 
ferry across the Firth of Forth in Scotland for pilgrims travelling to St Andrews in Fife, 
which gave the towns of South Queensferry and North Queensferry their names. 
Margaret was the mother of three kings of Scotland, or four, if Edmund of Scotland, 
who ruled with his uncle, Donald III, is counted, and of a queen consort of England. 
According to the Vita S. Margaritae (Scotorum) Reginae (Life of St. Margaret, Queen 
(of the Scots)), attributed to Turgot of Durham, she died at Edinburgh Castle in 
Edinburgh, Scotland in 1093, merely days after receiving the news of her husband's 
death in battle. In 1250 Pope Innocent IV canonized her, and her remains were 
reinterred in a shrine in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland. Her relics were dispersed 
after the Scottish Reformation and subsequently lost. Mary, Queen of Scots at one 
time owned her head, which was subsequently preserved by Jesuits in the Scottish 
College, Douai, France, from where it was subsequently lost during the French 
Revolution.

Early life[edit]

Margaret was the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile, and granddaughter 
of Edmund Ironside, king of England.[1] After the Danish conquest of England in 
1016, King Canute the Great had the infant Edward exiled to the continent. He was 
taken first to the court of the Swedish king, Olof Skötkonung, and then to Kiev. As an 
adult, he travelled to Hungary, where in 1046 he supported the successful bid of King 
Andrew I for the Hungarian crown. King Andrew I was then also known as "Andrew 
the Catholic" for his extreme aversion to pagans and great loyalty to the Roman 
Catholic Church. The provenance of Margaret's mother, Agatha, is legally disputed, 
but Margaret was born in Hungary c. 1045. Her brother Edgar the Ætheling and sister 
Cristina were also born in Hungary around this time. Margaret grew up in a very 
religious environment in the Hungarian court.

Return to England[edit]

Still a child, she came to England with the rest of her family when her father, Edward 
the Exile, was recalled in 1057 as a possible successor to her great-uncle, the 
childless St. King Edward the Confessor. Whether from natural or sinister causes, her 
father died immediately after landing, and Margaret continued to reside at the English 
court where her brother, Edgar Ætheling, was considered a possible successor to the 
English throne.[1] When Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, Harold 
Godwinson was selected as king, possibly because Edgar was considered too young. 
After Harold's defeat at the Battle of Hastings later that year, Edgar was proclaimed 
King of England, but when the Normans advanced on London, the Witenagemot 
presented Edgar to William the Conqueror, who took him to Normandy before returning 
him to England in 1068, when Edgar, Margaret, Cristina, and their mother Agatha fled 
north to Northumbria, England.

Journey to Scotland[edit]

According to tradition, the widowed Agatha decided to leave Northumbria, England 
with her children and return to the continent. However, a storm drove their ship north 
to the Kingdom of Scotland in 1068, where they sought the protection of King Malcolm 
III. The locus where it is believed that they landed is known today as St Margaret's 
Hope, near the village of North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland. Margaret's arrival in 
Scotland, after the failed revolt of the Northumbrian earls, has been heavily 
romanticized, though Symeon of Durham implied that her first meeting of Malcolm III 
may not have been until 1070, after William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North.

King Malcolm III was a widower with two sons, Donald and Duncan. He would have 
been attracted to marrying one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal 
family. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret occurred in 1070. Subsequently, 
Malcolm executed several invasions of Northumberland to support the claim of his new 
brother-in-law Edgar and to increase his own power. These, however, had little effect 
save the devastation of the County.[2]

Progeny[edit]

Margaret and Malcolm had eight children, six sons and two daughters:
1.Edward (c. 1071 — 13 November 1093), killed along with his father Malcolm III in the 
Battle of Alnwick
2.Edmund of Scotland (c.1071 – post 1097)
3.Ethelred of Scotland, Abbot of Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
4.Edgar of Scotland (c.1074 — 11 January 1107), King of Scotland, regnat 1097-107
5.Alexander I of Scotland (c.1078 — 23 April 1124), King of Scotland, regnat 1107-24
6.Edith of Scotland (c. 1080 – 1 May 1118), also named "Matilda", married King Henry 
I of England, Queen Consort of England
7.Mary of Scotland (1082-116), married Eustace III of Boulogne
8.David I of Scotland (c.1083 – 24 May 1153), King of Scotland, regnat 1124-53

Piety[edit]
Margaret's biographer Turgot of Durham, Bishop of St. Andrew's, credits her with 
having a civilizing influence on her husband Malcolm by reading him narratives from 
the Bible. She instigated religious reform, striving to conform the worship and 
practices of the Church in Scotland to those of Rome. This she did on the inspiration 
and with the guidance of Lanfranc, a future Archbishop of Canterbury.[3] She also 
worked to conform the practices of the Scottish Church to those of the continental 
Church, which she experienced in her childhood. Due to these achievements, she was 
considered an exemplar of the "just ruler", and moreover influenced her husband and 
children, especially her youngest son, the future King David I of Scotland, to be just 
and holy rulers.

"The chroniclers all agree in depicting Queen Margaret as a strong, pure, noble 
character, who had very great influence over her husband, and through him over 
Scottish history, especially in its ecclesiastical aspects. Her religion, which was 
genuine and intense, was of the newest Roman style; and to her are attributed a 
number of reforms by which the Church [in] Scotland was considerably modified from 
the insular and primitive type which down to her time it had exhibited. Among those 
expressly mentioned are a change in the manner of observing Lent, which 
thenceforward began as elsewhere on Ash Wednesday and not as previously on the 
following Monday, and the abolition of the old practice of observing Saturday 
(Sabbath), not Sunday, as the day of rest from labour (see Skene's Celtic Scotland, 
book ii chap. 8)."[4] The later editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica, however, as 
an example, the Eleventh Edition, remove Skene's opinion that Scottish Catholics 
formerly rested from work on Saturday, something for which there is no historical 
evidence. Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. ii, chap. 8, pp. 348–350, quotes from a 
contemporary document regarding Margaret's life, but his source says nothing at all of 
Saturday Sabbath observance, but rather says St. Margaret exhorted the Scots to 
cease their tendency "to neglect the due observance of the Lord's day."

She attended to charitable works, serving orphans and the poor every day before she 
ate and washing the feet of the poor in imitation of Christ. She rose at midnight every 
night to attend the liturgy. She successfully invited the Benedictine Order to establish 
a monastery in Dunfermline, Fife in 1072, and established ferries at Queensferry and 
North Berwick to assist pilgrims journeying from south of the Firth of Forth to St. 
Andrew's in Fife. She used a cave on the banks of the Tower Burn in Dunfermline as a 
place of devotion and prayer. St. Margaret's Cave, now covered beneath a municipal 
car park, is open to the public.[5] Among other deeds, Margaret also instigated the 
restoration of Iona Abbey in Scotland.[6] She is also known to have interceded for the 
release of fellow English exiles who had been forced into serfdom by the Norman 
conquest of England.[7]

Margaret was as pious privately as she was publicly. She spent much of her time in 
prayer, devotional reading, and ecclesiastical embroidery. This apparently had 
considerable effect on the more uncouth Malcolm, who was illiterate: he so admired 
her piety that he had her books decorated in gold and silver. One of these, a pocket 
gospel book with portraits of the Evangelists, is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, 
England.[8]

Malcolm was apparently largely ignorant of the long-term effects of Margaret's 
endeavours, not being especially religious himself. He was content for her to pursue 
her reforms as she desired, which was a testament to the strength of and affection in 
their marriage.[6]

Death[edit]

Her husband Malcolm III, and their eldest son Edward, were killed in the Battle of 
Alnwick against the English on 13 November 1093. Her son Edgar was left with the 
task of informing his mother of their deaths. Margaret was not yet 50 years old, but a 
life of constant austerity and fasting had taken their toll.[3] Already ill, Margaret died 
on 16 November 1093, three days after the deaths of her husband and eldest son. 
She was buried before the high altar in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland. In 1250, 
the year of her canonization, her body and that of her husband were exhumed and 
placed in a new shrine in the Abbey. In 1560 Mary Queen of Scots had Margaret's 
head removed to Edinburgh Castle as a relic to assist her in childbirth. In 1597 
Margaret's head ended up with the Jesuits at the Scottish College, Douai, France, but 
was lost during the French Revolution. King Philip of Spain had the other remains of 
Margaret and Malcolm III transferred to the Escorial palace in Madrid, Spain, but their 
present location has not been discovered.[9]

Veneration[edit]

Canonization and feast day[edit]

Pope Innocent IV canonized St. Margaret in 1250 in recognition of her personal 
holiness, fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church, work for ecclesiastical reform, and 
charity. On 19 June 1250, after her canonisation, her remains were transferred to a 
chapel in the eastern apse of Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland.[10] In 1693 Pope 
Innocent XII moved her feast day to 10 June in recognition of the birthdate of the son 
of James VII of Scotland and II of England.[11] In the revision of the General Roman 
Calendar in 1969, 16 November became free and the Church transferred her feast day 
to 16 November, the date of her death, on which it always had been observed in 
Scotland.[12] However, some traditionalist Catholics continue to celebrate her feast 
day on 10 June.

She is also venerated as a saint in the Anglican Church.

Institutions bearing her name[edit]

Several churches throughout the world are dedicated in honour of St Margaret. One of 
the oldest is St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, which 
her son King David I founded. The Chapel was long thought to have been the oratory 
of Margaret herself, but is now thought to have been established in the 12th century. 
The oldest edifice in Edinburgh, it was restored in the 19th century and refurbished in 
the 1990s. Numerous other institutions are named for her as well.
Scotland Church of St Margaret of Scotland, Aberdeen
Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, Fife
Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, which adopted the name in 1972
Queen Margaret College in Glasgow
Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow, a student union at Glasgow University
North Queensferry, being a terminus of the ferry that St Margaret established
South Queensferry, being a terminus of the ferry that St Margaret established
St Margaret's Roman Catholic Primary School in South Queensferry
St Margaret's High School in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire
Queen Margaret Academy in Ayr
St Margaret of Scotland Hospice in Clydebank
St Margaret's Academy in Livingston

Canada St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Elementary in Erin Mills, Mississauga, 
Ontario
St Margaret of Scotland Parish in Toronto, Ontario
St Margaret's School in Victoria, British Columbia, a primary and secondary school for 
girls, both boarding and daily students
St Margaret of Scotland Catholic School in Cambridge, Ontario

United States of America St Margaret's Hospital Guild in Indianapolis, Indiana
St Margaret Regional School in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts
St Margaret Catholic Church and Academy/School in Otsego, Michigan, an elementary 
and middle school (preschool - grade 8)
St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Parish in Lees Summit, Missouri
St Margaret of Scotland School in St. Louis, Missouri
St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church and School in Green Tree, Pennsylvania
St Margaret's School in Tappahannock, Virginia, a private Episcopalian collegiate 
preparatory school with grades 8-12 for girls, both boarding and daily students
St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Selden, New York, a Roman Catholic Church 
within the Diocese of Rockville Centre

Other Nations St Margaret's School, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, including primary 
and secondary schools
St Margaret's Anglican Church in Eltham, Victoria, Australia
St Margaret's School in Viña del Mar, Chile
Church of St Margaret the Queen in Buxted, East Sussex, England, erected in the 
13th century[13]
St Margaret's Chapel in Glastonbury, England
St Margaret's School in Bushey, Hertfordshire, England, a private school with boarding 
facilities for girls 4-18 years of age
Ste. Marguerite Church near Etel, Brittany, France
Anglican church in Budapest, Hungary
St Margaret's Junior College in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan, incorporating kindergarten, 
girls' primary, and junior and senior high schools
St Margaret's College in Christchurch, New Zealand
Queen Margaret College, Wellington, New Zealand
St Margaret's Primary School and St Margaret's Secondary School in Singapore
St John's - St Margaret's Church (Anglican) in Singapore


Parents
____ Edward "Atheling" (1016 - 1057)
VON BRAUNSCHWEIG (BRUNSWICK) Agatha (ABT 1028 - AFT 1066)

Siblings
OF SCOTLAND Margaret "Atheling" "Saint" (ABT 1048 - 16 Nov 1093)

Marriage To ____ Malcolm III "Ceanmor" (ABT 1033 - 13 Nov 1093)
    m. 1070 

Notes
his 2d

Parents
MAC CRINAN Duncan I (ABT 1001 - 14 Aug 1040)
FITZSIWARD Sibyl (ABT 1017 - 1070)

Children by ____ Malcolm III "Ceanmor" ABT 1033 - 13 Nov 1093
OF SCOTLAND Matilda "Atheling" (ABT 1079 - 1 May 1118)
____ David I "Saint" (ABT 1080 - 24 May 1153)
OF SCOTLAND Mary (1082 - 31 May 1116)

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