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St. Margaret was the grandaughter of King Edmund Ironside of England th r o u g h h is son Edward the Aethling. She had been exiled to the eastern c o n t i n ent with the rest of her family when the Danes overran England. Sh e w a s w e l l educated, mostly in Hungary. She returned to England during t h e r e i g n of her great-uncle, Edward the Confessor, but, as one of the l a s t r e m aining members of the saxon Royal Family, she was forced to flee n o r t h t o t he Royal Scots Court at the time of the Norman Conquest. Beaut i f u l , i ntelligent and devout, Margaret brought some of the more detaile d p o i n t s of current European manners, ceremony and culture to the Scott is h C o u r t and thus highly improved its civilized reputation. She had a t a s t e f o r the finer things in life and, in 1069, she won over the Scots K i n g , M a lcolm Canmore, and married him. Their union was exceptionally ha p p y a n d f ruitful for both themselves and the Scottish nation. Margaret w a s o n e o f t he principal agents of the reform of the Church of Scotland w h i c h w a s, at the time, at a low point in its history. Church councils n o w p r o m oted Easter communion and abstinence from servile work on a Sund a y . M a r garet founded churches, monasteries and pilgrimage hostels, incl u d i n g t he revival of Iona, the building of the tiny chapel which still b e a r s h e r name at Edinburgh Castle and establishment of the Royal Mausol e u m o f D u nfermline Abbey with monks from Canterbury. She was especially d e v o t e d to Scottish saints and instigated the Queen's Ferryover the Fort h s o t h a t p ilgrims could more easily reach the Shrine of St. Andrew. In h e r p r i v ate life, Margaret was much given to prayer, reading and ecclesi a s t i c al needlework. She also gave alms lavishly and liberated a number o f A n g l o -Saxon captives.
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1045 - Abt 1093 (48 years)