The Queen who became a Saint
Born in 1045 in Hungary, Margaret was the daughter of an English Prince, Edward the Exile. She returned to Britain in 1057 when the childless Edward the Confessor required a successor because her father and subsequently her brother were considered to be legitimate heirs to the English throne. In the event the crown went to Harold Godwinson whose ruin came in 1066 with the Norman invasion under Duke William. The Norman victory at Hasting and rapid advance prompted Margaret, her mother and her brother-who had recently and briefly taken the throne-to flee to Northumberland. Margaret's mother decided the family's safety lay in returning to the continent, but a storm at sea drove their vessel ashore in Scotland where they sought the protection of the king, Malcolm III. He and Margaret were subsequently married. The Norman domination of England soon brought about the infamous 'harrying of the north' and there followed a series of border engagements between the Normans and Malcolm's Scots motivated principally by Malcolm's support for Margaret's brother Edgar's territorial claims. These border wars cost Margaret the lives of her husband and her eldest son who were both killed at Alnwick in 1093. The queen survived them by just three days. Margaret was well known for her charitable works to the extent that in 1250 she was canonised by Pope Innocent IV. This concise overview of the life of St Margaret, Queen of Scotland, is available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.
