On November 16th 1093 St. Margaret of Scotland died.
This ties in with two recent posts regarding Duncan II, and Malcolm III and the Battle of Alnwick
Margarets religious beliefs and piety were famous, she was never a strong woman physically, constantly fasting, her body was weak, so it was that on this day in 1093, she lay on her deathbed after a long illness, and was told that her husband and eldest son had been ambushed at Alnwick in Northumbria. She died shortly after aged just forty-seven. The feast of St. Margaret was formerly observed by the Roman Catholic Church on 10th June but is now celebrated each year on the anniversary of her death, 16th November.
Margaret and Malcolm had eight children,. Alexander and David followed their father to the throne, whilst their daughter, Edith (who changed her name to Matilda upon her marriage, I covered Matilda on the 11th of this month), brought the ancient Anglo-Saxon and Scottish Royal bloodline into the veins of the Norman Invaders of England when she married and bore children to King Henry I.
Under Queen Margaret’s leadership Church councils promoted Easter communion and, much to joy of the working-class, abstinence from servile work on a Sunday. Margaret founded churches, monasteries and pilgrimage hostels and established the Royal Mausoleum at Dunfermline Abbey with monks from Canterbury. She was especially fond of Scottish saints and instigated the Queen’s Ferry over the Forth so that pilgrims could more easily reach the Shrine of St. Andrew.
Malcolm was particularly protective towards Margaret! She initially refused his proposals of marriage, preferring, according to one account, a life of piety as a virgin. Malcolm however was a persistent king, and the couple finally married in Dunfermline in 1069.
Their union was exceptionally happy and fruitful for both themselves and the Scottish nation. Margaret brought with her some of the finer points of the European manners of the day, along with ceremony and culture to the Scottish Court, which highly improved its civilised reputation
As well as the towns of North and South Queensferry, we also remember Margaret for the Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh was built by her son David I and dedicated to his mother.
I would say the majority of Scotland’s royals once knelt to worship in this serene private chapel, including Robert the Bruce, who in March 1314 ordered the castle to be razed,, he did however spare the fate of the small chapel.
Buried at Dunfermline Abbey, Margarets tomb was laid waste to during the Reformation and at this time her skull somehow passed into the possession of Mary Queen of Scots, it was later secured by the Jesuits at Douai, where it is believed to have been destroyed during the French Revolution.
There are many, many statues of St Margaret, most in Catholic churches, the first pic is at Farm Street Church in London, the second at Madeleine church in Paris. The third pic is the War Memorial in Alloa and was made by Pilkington Jackson, most famous for the statue of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
More on Margaret here https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/23700/beloved-queen-st-margaret-of-scotland-honored-nov-16
