Difference between revisions of "Saint Margaret of Scotland" - New World Encyclopedia

Revision as of 22:56, 20 September 2007

Saint Margaret of Scotland
175px Stained glass image of Saint Margaret of Scotland in the small chapel at Edinburgh Castle.
Queen and Saint
Born	c. 1046 in Castle Reka, Southern Hungary
Died	16 November 1093 in Edinburgh Castle, Midlothian, Scotland
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church
Canonized	1251 by Pope Innocent IV
Major shrine	Dunfermline Abbey (Fife, Scotland), now destroyed, footings survive; Surviving relics were sent to the Escorial, near Madrid, Spain, but have since been lost.
Feast	November 16 / June 10. June 16 in Scotland.
Patronage	death of children; large families; learning; queens; Scotland; widows; Dunfermline; Scotland; Anglo-Scottish relations

Saint Margaret (c. 1046–16 November, 1093), was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the Anglo-Saxon heir to the throne of England. She married Malcolm III, King of Scots, becoming his Queen consort.

Biography

The daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, Margaret was born and raised in Hungary, a country that had welcomed the deposed royal family.^[1] Though the family returned to Britain after the power of its Danish overlords waned, the young princess (and her surviving relatives) were soon forced to flee again—this time by the Norman conquest of 1066. Arriving in Scotland,^[2] the two sought amnesty in the court of Malcolm III, a request that he granted graciously.^[3] According to Turgot (Margaret's hagiographer), the young noblewoman's penchant for personal piety was already well-established by this time:

Whilst Margaret was yet in the flower of youth, she began to lead a very strict life, to love God above all things, to employ herself in the study of the Divine writings, and therein with joy to exercise her mind. Her understanding was keen to comprehend any matter, whatever it might be; to this was joined a great tenacity of memory, enabling her to store it up, along with a graceful flow of language to express it.^[4]

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.

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

Edward, killed 1093.
Edmund of Scotland
Ethelred, abbot of Dunkeld
King Edgar of Scotland
King Alexander I of Scotland
King David I of Scotland
Edith of Scotland, also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England
Mary of Scotland, married Eustace III of Boulogne

Her husband, Malcolm III, and their eldest son, Edward, were killed in siege 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. Her children tried to hide the fact of their father's and brother's deaths, but when Margaret did find out she either died of sadness or a broken heart.

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.

Legacy and Veneration

Malcolm and Margaret as depicted in a 16th century armorial

Margaret was canonizedd in 1251 by Pope Innocent IV on account of her personal holiness and fidelity to the Church. The Roman Catholic Church formerly marked the feast of Saint Margaret of Scotland on 10 June, but the date was transferred to 16 November, the actual day of her death, in the liturgical reform of 1972.

<cut down> 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.^[5]

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

Notes

↑ Farmer, 329. Conversely, Huddleston (1910) notes: "A constant tradition asserts that Margaret's father and his brother Edmund were sent to Hungary for safety during the reign of Canute, but no record of the fact has been found in that country." Despite this proviso, virtually all extant sources describe the royal family's sojourn in Hungary.
↑ Huddleston records a (likely apocryphal) tale that the two women had actually sought to return to the European continent, but lost control of their vessel during a storm and were shipwrecked on the Scottish coast (1910).
↑ Butler, 515; Farmer, 329.
↑ Turgot, "The Life of Saint Margaret," (§7).
↑ Best, 12-13.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Some elements included from the 1911 version of Encyclopædia Britannica, a text now in the public domain.

Best, Nicholas. The Kings and Queens of Scotland. London: Sterling, 1999. ISBN 0-297-82489-9.
Butler, Alban. Lives of the Saints. Edited, revised, and supplemented by Herbert Thurston and Donald Attwater. Palm Publishers, 1956.
Farmer, David Hugh. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0192800582.
Huddleston, G. Roger. "Saint Margaret of Scotland" in the Catholic Encyclopedia. 1910.
Parsons, John Carmi and Wheeler, Bonnie. Medieval Mothering. New York: Taylor and Francis, 1996. ISBN 0815336659.
Turgot, Bishop Of Saint Andrews. The Life Of St Margaret, Queen Of Scotland (Third Edition). Edited by William Forbes-Leith, S.J. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1896. Accessible online through McMaster University's Medieval Women project.

External links

All links retrieved September 18, 2007

Preceded by:
Ingibiorg Finnsdottir

Queen consort of Scotland
1070 - 1093

Succeeded by: Sybilla de Normandy

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

Saint Margaret of Scotland ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Saint Margaret of Scotland"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

[1] Farmer, 329. Conversely, Huddleston (1910) notes: "A constant tradition asserts that Margaret's father and his brother Edmund were sent to Hungary for safety during the reign of Canute, but no record of the fact has been found in that country." Despite this proviso, virtually all extant sources describe the royal family's sojourn in Hungary.

[2] Huddleston records a (likely apocryphal) tale that the two women had actually sought to return to the European continent, but lost control of their vessel during a storm and were shipwrecked on the Scottish coast (1910).

[3] Butler, 515; Farmer, 329.

[4] Turgot, "The Life of Saint Margaret," (§7).

[5] Best, 12-13.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 {{Infobox Saint
 |name=Saint Margaret of Scotland
-|birth_date= c. 1045
+|birth_date= c. 1046
 |death_date= 16 November 1093
 |feast_day= November 16 / June 10. June 16 in Scotland.
@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 }}
-'''Saint Margaret''' (c. 1045&ndash;16 November, 1093), was the sister of [[Edgar Ætheling]], the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] heir to the throne of [[England]]. She married [[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm III]], [[King of Scots]], becoming his [[Queen consort]].
+'''Saint Margaret''' (c. 1046&ndash;16 November, 1093), was the sister of [[Edgar Ætheling]], the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] heir to the throne of [[England]]. She married [[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm III]], [[King of Scots]], becoming his [[Queen consort]].
-==Early life==
+==Biography==
-The daughter of the English prince [[Edward the Exile]], son of [[Edmund II of England|Edmund Ironside]], Margaret was probably born in [[Hungary]]. The provenance of [[Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile|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.
+The daughter of the English prince [[Edward the Exile]] and granddaughter of [[Edmund II of England|Edmund Ironside]], Margaret was born and raised in [[Hungary]], a country that had welcomed the deposed royal family.<ref>Farmer, 329. Conversely, Huddleston (1910) notes: "A constant tradition asserts that Margaret's father and his brother Edmund were sent to Hungary for safety during the reign of Canute, but no record of the fact has been found in that country." Despite this proviso, virtually all extant sources describe the royal family's sojourn in Hungary.</ref> Though the family returned to Britain after the power of its Danish overlords waned, the young princess (and her surviving relatives) were soon forced to flee again&mdash;this time by the Norman conquest of 1066. Arriving in Scotland,<ref>Huddleston records a (likely apocryphal) tale that the two women had actually sought to return to the European continent, but lost control of their vessel during a storm and were shipwrecked on the Scottish coast (1910).</ref> the two sought amnesty in the court of [[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm III]], a request that he granted graciously.<ref>Butler, 515; Farmer, 329.</ref> According to Turgot (Margaret's hagiographer), the young noblewoman's penchant for personal piety was already well-established by this time:
+:Whilst Margaret was yet in the flower of youth, she began to lead a very strict life, to love God above all things, to employ herself in the study of the Divine writings, and therein with joy to exercise her mind. Her understanding was keen to comprehend any matter, whatever it might be; to this was joined a great tenacity of memory, enabling her to store it up, along with a graceful flow of language to express it.<ref>Turgot, "The Life of Saint Margaret," (§7).</ref>
-When her uncle, [[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.
+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.
-==Family==
 Margaret and Malcolm had eight children, six sons and two daughters:
 # Edward, killed 1093.
@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 Her husband, Malcolm III, and their eldest son, Edward, were killed in siege against the English at [[Alnwick Castle]] on 13 November, 1093. Her son [[Edmund of Scotland|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. Her children tried to hide the fact of their father's and brother's deaths, but when Margaret did find out she either died of sadness or a broken heart.
-==Margaret and Scottish culture==
+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.
+==Legacy and Veneration==
 [[Image:Malcum Camnoir.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Malcolm and Margaret as depicted in a 16th century armorial]]
-It is notable that while Malcolm's children by his first wife [[Ingibiorg Finnsdottir|Ingibjörg]] all bore [[Scottish Gaelic|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 [[Scottish lowlands|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'''.<ref>Best, 12-13.</ref>
+Margaret was [[canonization|canonized]]d in 1251 by [[Pope Innocent IV]] on account of her personal holiness and fidelity to the Church. The [[Roman Catholic]] Church formerly marked the feast of Saint Margaret of Scotland on 10 June, but the date was transferred to 16 November, the actual day of her death, in the [[liturgical]] reform of 1972.
-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.
-==Veneration==
+<cut down>
-Margaret was [[canonise]]d in 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 10 June, but the date was transferred to 16 November, the actual day of her death, in the [[liturgical]] reform of 1972.
+It is notable that while Malcolm's children by his first wife [[Ingibiorg Finnsdottir|Ingibjörg]] all bore [[Scottish Gaelic|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 [[Scottish lowlands|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'''.<ref>Best, 12-13.</ref>
 Queen Margaret University (founded in 1875), Queen Margaret Hospital (just outside [[Dunfermline]]), North Queensferry, South Queensferry and several streets in Dunfermline are all named after her.