Margaret of Scotland (1045 – 1093)
Introduction:
There have been millions of incredible women who have served in God’s kingdom. For the last few months on this blog we have been focusing on women who have served in the church that Jesus Christ established. That is because most church history books leave out women’s stories. The mistaken impression is given that women did nothing of importance since time began. I hope to change that impression on this blog site.
We have seen that even in the earliest centuries, women evangelized, prayed, taught, preached, pastored, went on pilgrimages, reigned over kingdoms, founded monasteries, and took care of the poor. These women contributed greatly to the Kingdom of God, not so they could be remembered, but so they could serve the Lord Jesus by serving others.
We have steadily moved from the stories of women in the Bible to our recent series on women in the Medieval Era. So far, we have looked at the stories of women from the earliest Middle Ages such as Genovefa, Brigid of Ireland and Radegund (5th and 6th centuries). Then we moved on to the 7th and 8th centuries with stories of abbesses and queens such as Gertrude, Frideswide, and Lioba. For the last few weeks we recounted the stories of 9th and 10th century women such as Dhuoda (writer and Theologian), and Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora who were Byzantine empresses. Then we presented the story of the amazingly gifted Hrotsvitha, a poet and a playwright whose works are still influential today. Then we related the story of a strong, passionate, and gifted queen and empress – Adelheid. This week we will take a journey to Scotland and recount the story of another amazing queen – Margaret.
Introduction
Out, damned spot! out, I say!–One: two: why,
then, ’tis time to do’t.–Hell is murky!–Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?–Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him. Lady Macbeth[1]
Most of us studied Shakespeare in high school. One play that is popular is “Macbeth”. Like many young people who didn’t study much history, I thought the whole play came from Shakespeare’s imagination. As a matter of fact, many of Shakespeare’s serious plays were based on actual historical English or Scottish rulers. Our subject this week, Queen Margaret of Scotland will come into this history, though she wasn’t mentioned in Shakespeare’s play.
As in the play, the real Macbeth lived in Scotland. When King Malcolm II died in 1034, he left no heir. Macbeth and Duncan were cousins who vied for the throne. Duncan became the king, but he was a weakling and a terrible ruler. Macbeth and his wife plotted to kill King Duncan and succeeded in 1040 AD. Macbeth then ruled for seventeen years while Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, remained in exile. Though he appears a villain in the play, Macbeth was actually a wise and respected ruler. Prince Malcolm never gave up on trying to get his throne back. He finally succeeded when in 1057 when he defeated Macbeth at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire. Malcolm took the throne as Malcolm III of Scotland.
In the meantime – in the south of Britain in Merry old England – the Danish army had overrun England and King Canute had taken control in 1016 AD. Naturally, Canute wanted his own sons to succeed him. The descendants of the rightful English king, Edward Atheling, were now in a dangerous position. The English royal family decided to flee for their safety. They fled to Hungary where they were welcomed and cared for.
While the royal family was exiled in Hungary, Margaret was born in 1045. She could trace her imperial ancestry to King Alfred the Great. She was the granddaughter of King Edmund. Evan as a young child her nobility was apparent to all, but she was chiefly admired for her intelligence, beauty, and devotion to God. It was while she was in exile at the Hungarian court that Margaret received a formal education.
After a few years, Canute’s sons died. When the family felt that it was safe, they returned to England. Margaret’s great uncle, Edward the Confessor was reigning. Edward the Confessor had no children so there were claimants vying for power when he died. Margaret’s father, Edward Atheling died, and so Margaret’s brother Edgar was in line for the kingship. However, he wasn’t strong enough to hold out against the English nobility. Harold, the Saxon son of Earl Godwine seized the throne. However, the Saxon rule was to be short-lived because the Normans were advancing on England and war was inevitable again.[2]
In 1057 (while her future husband Malcolm III was gaining the throne in Scotland) Margaret and her family were again embroiled in conflict in England. Margaret’s family represented the last of the Saxon line so when the Normans succeeded in gaining the rule, Margaret’s family was in danger again. They decided to flee. This time as they were traveling back to Hungary, their ship was blown off course and they ended up in Fife, Scotland. There, Malcolm III extended a welcome to them.
Malcolm was recently widowed and so it is not surprising that he was attracted to the beautiful, twenty-one-year old
Margaret. Malcolm proposed to Margaret several times. Margaret had been contemplating a life of solitude, piety, and virginity in a religious house. But, the church in Scotland was in disarray and so there was no decent convent for her to go to. She could not return to England where the enemy Normans were ruling. Her family did not wish to return to Hungary. Malcolm was persistent in pressing his suit so when Margaret realized that there were no other good options, she decided to accept. Margaret and Malcolm III were married in Dunfermline around the year 1070.
Margaret was marrying the king, so life should have been easy and luxurious. But Margaret had her work cut out for her. Malcolm was really an out-and-out barbarian. He was illiterate and his favorite past time was making savage raids on the English. The Scottish court was crude and disgraceful. The pious and undaunted Margaret set about making changes. She would be remembered as a good influence on her husband. She is also remembered for her piety, charitable works, and the reform of the Scottish Church.
Next time, in Part 2 we will see how:
She was to increase God’s praise in the land and to direct the king from the erring path and to bend him to a better way, and his people with him; and to suppress the evil customs which the people had formerly used, even as afterwards she did.[3]
[1]William Shakespeare, Macbeth, ACT V, Scene 1. Dunsinane. Anteroom in the castle. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html
[2] Enter, William Duke of Normandy, also known as “The Conqueror,” who defeated the Saxons at the battle of Hastings in 1066 and was crowned king. A new era began in England.
[3] This passage is taken from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and quoted in Lavinia Byrne. The Life and Wisdom of Margaret of Scotland (New York: Alba House, 1998) p. 18.
