Margaret of Wessex

Overview

Title social-status

queen of Scotland

Date of Death

1093

Biography

The life of Margaret, queen of Scotland, wife of Malcolm Canmore, which was written for her daughter, queen Matilda, by Margaret’s chaplain Turgot, shows her active in secular administrative and judicial matters, learned in religion, and saintly in her care for the poor.(1) He says she took part in religious councils, arguing for Roman observances, and debated subtle questions with learned men. She was considered a saint, canonized in 1249, and gave the Scottish court a reputation as “a nursery of saints,” as Aelred of Rievaulx called it.(2) Margaret, granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and therefore a direct descendant of king Alfred, was Malcolm’s second wife.(3) She had eight children with him, six sons and two daughters. Three of her sons ruled Scotland successively between 1097 and 1153, Edgar, Alexander (I), and David (I). Her daughter Matilda married Henry I of England, her daughter Mary married Eustace of Boulogne. Both had daughters of their own who were their fathers’ heirs; Matilda’s daughter, empress Matilda, did not rule but passed the crown to her son, Henry II; Mary’s daughter, queen Matilda, passed the county of Boulogne to her husband king Stephen.(4)

Letters to Margaret of Wessex

A letter from Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury (1070-1089)