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Saint Margaret of Scotland
When about 12 years old she and her family returned to England where her Saxon great-uncle Edward the Confessor was now king. Her father died soon after his return and his son, Margaret's brother, Edgar the Ætheling was a possible successor to the English throne. After the Norman conquest of 1066 however, Agatha and Margaret set sail for the continent. According to legend a storm drove them ashore in Scotland. They sought refuge from the Scottish king, Malcolm III (Canmore) - and in 1070 Margaret married the king. They had eight children; six sons, three of whom were to become kings of Scots themselves (Edgar 1097-1107; Alexander I 1107-1124 and David I 1124-1153) and two daughters. The elder of these daughters, Edith (later known as Matilda) married the English king Henry I, and through her Margaret is an ancestress of the current Royal family of England & Scotland.
Margaret was deeply religious and introduced Anglo-Norman manners and institutions to the Scottish court. She was strong-willed and very influential, and by all accounts a very good mother to her extensive family. She also followed quite an ascetic lifestyle of fasting and religious observance. She was also noted for her concern for orphans and the poor.
Malcolm was treacherously killed near Alnwick on 13th November 1093 along with their eldest son, Edward. Grief-stricken at the news and worn down by years of austerity and fasting Margaret died just three days later on 16th November. Though originally buried elsewhere, both Malcolm and Margaret were reburied together at Dunfermline Abbey.
She was almost immediately considered a saint by the Scottish people, and her youngest son David, who as David I became one of Scotland's greatest kings, had a chapel built at Edinburgh Castle which he dedicated to her and which still stands - the oldest part of that castle to survive intact.
In 1250 Pope Innocent V canonised Margaret and she became Saint Margaret of Scotland. Her feast day is 16th November, the day of her death, and she is considered a saint by both the Catholic and Anglican churches.
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