Margaret of Scotland

Life events

1. Born — 1045

   Margaret was born in Hungary around 1045 to Edward the Exile, an English prince of the House of Wessex, and his wife Agatha. She grew up in the Hungarian royal court, in a markedly religious environment.

2. Other — 1057

   Margaret returned to England with her family when her father Edward the Exile was recalled as a potential successor to Edward the Confessor. Her father died immediately after landing, and Margaret continued to reside at the English court.

3. Exiled — 1068

   Following the Norman Conquest and the submission of her brother Edgar Ætheling to William the Conqueror, Margaret fled north with her mother Agatha and siblings. Their ship was driven by storm to the coast of Scotland, where they received refuge from King Malcolm III at the place now known as St Margaret's Hope.

4. Other — 1070

   Margaret married Malcolm III, King of Scotland, by the end of 1070, becoming Queen of Alba. She brought her Wessex heritage and continental religious formation to the Scottish court, beginning a period of significant ecclesiastical influence.

5. Other — 1072

   Margaret invited the Benedictine Order to establish a monastery at Dunfermline in Fife, a foundation that became the centre of her ecclesiastical reform programme. She also instigated ferry crossings at Queensferry and North Berwick for pilgrims travelling south of the Firth of Forth to St Andrews.

6. Died — 1093

   Malcolm III and their eldest son Edward were killed at the Battle of Alnwick on 13 November 1093. Margaret died at Edinburgh Castle three days later, on 16 November 1093, reportedly from grief. She was buried before the high altar of Dunfermline Abbey.

7. Translated — 1250

   Pope Innocent IV canonised Margaret in 1250 in recognition of her personal holiness, fidelity to the Roman church, work for ecclesiastical reform, and charity. On 19 June 1250 her remains were transferred to a chapel shrine in the eastern apse of Dunfermline Abbey.

8. Other

   Between 1100 and 1107, Turgot of Durham — later Bishop of St Andrews — wrote Margaret's vita at the request of her daughter Matilda, wife of King Henry I of England. The Vita S. Margaritae Reginae is the primary hagiographic source for her life and character.

Relationships

Documented claims

• A pocket gospel book decorated in gold and silver by Malcolm III at Margaret's request, containing portraits of the Evangelists, survives in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. (certain)
• In 1693 Pope Innocent XII transferred her feast from 16 November to 10 June to mark the birthday of the Jacobite claimant James Francis Edward Stuart; the 1969 calendar reform restored 16 November. (certain)
• Margaret's ecclesiastical reforms in Scotland included shifting the start of Lent from the Monday after Ash Wednesday to Ash Wednesday itself, and ending the local practice of observing Saturday rather than Sunday as the day of rest. (likely)
• After the Scottish Reformation her relics were dispersed: her head passed through Edinburgh Castle, the Scots College at Douai, and was lost during the French Revolution; her other remains were transferred to El Escorial by Philip II of Spain by 1580 but their current location is unknown. (likely)
• Three of Margaret's sons became kings of Scotland — Edgar, Alexander I, and David I — and her daughter Matilda (Edith) became queen consort of England as wife of Henry I. (certain)