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Margaret, of Wessex, St. Margaret of Scotland

Female 1053 - 1093  (40 years)


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  • Name Margaret  
    Suffix of Wessex, St. Margaret of Scotland 
    Born 1046/53  Hungary Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died 16 Nov 1093  Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • From Foundation for Medieval Genealogy:
      "m [secondly] (Dunfermline Abbey 1070) MARGARET of England, daughter of EDWARD ætheling of England & his wife Agatha --- ([in Hungary] [1046/53]-Edinburgh Castle 16 Nov 1093, bur Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, transferred to Escorial, Madrid, her heaead bur Jesuit College, Douai). Although Margaret's birth is often placed in [1045/46], a later birth would be more consistent with the "German" theory of her mother's origin (as discussed in ANGLO-SAXON KINGS). Margaret's birth as late as 1053 would still be consistent with her having given birth to four children before her daughter Edith/Matilda (later wife of Henry I King of England), whose birth is estimated to have taken place in [1079/80]. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Margaret left England with her mother in Summer 1067 and found refuge at the court of Malcolm King of Scotland. Florence of Worcester records that "clitone Eadgaro et matre sua Agatha duabusque sororibus suis Margareta et Christina" left England for Scotland, in a passage which deals with events in mid-1068. Florence of Worcester records that "regina Scottorum Margareta" died from grief after learning of the death of her husband and oldest son. The Annals of Ulster record that "his queen Margaret…died of sorrow for him within nine days" after her husband was killed in battle. She was canonised in 1250, her feast day in Scotland is 16 Nov."

      From “History & Lives of the British Royals”, Facebook post:
      “On a Day Like Today ~ November 16, 1093. Margaret of Wessex, Queen of Scotland, later known as Saint Margaret of Scotland, granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, King of the English, died.
      Margaret was born circa 1045 in the Kingdom of Hungary as the second child and eldest daughter of Edward the Exile and his wife Agatha. Her father was a son of Edmund Ironside. Upon the death of her grandfather the new King Cnut sent her father and his brother to the court of the Swedish King Olof Skötkonung, and they eventually made their way to Kiev. As an adult, her father travelled to Hungary, where in 1046 he supported the successful bid of King Andrew I for the Hungarian crown. It was during this time that Margaret and her siblings were born.
      Margaret came to England with the rest of her family when her father, Edward the Exile, was recalled in 1057 as a possible successor to her great-uncle, the childless King Edward the Confessor. Whether from natural or sinister causes, her father died immediately after landing, and Margaret, still a child, continued to reside at the English court where her brother, Edgar Ætheling, was considered a possible successor to the English throne. When Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, Harold Godwinson was selected as King, possibly because Edgar was considered too young.
      After Harold's defeat at the Battle of Hastings later that year, her brother Edgar was proclaimed King of England but when the Normans advanced on London, the Witenagemot presented Edgar to William the Conqueror, who took him to Normandy before returning him to England in 1068, when Edgar, Margaret, Cristina, and their mother Agatha fled north to Northumbria, England.
      Her widowed mother, Agatha, left Northumbria, England with her children and return to the continent. However, a storm drove their ship north to the Kingdom of Scotland, where they were shipwrecked in 1068. There they were given refuge by King Malcolm III of Scotland. King Malcolm was a widower with two sons and circa 1070 Margaret and Malcolm married making Margaret, Queen Consort of Scotland. The marriage produced 8 children, all of which survived into adulthood.
      Margaret was a very pious Christian, and among many charitable works she established a ferry across the Firth of Forth in Scotland for pilgrims travelling to St Andrews in Fife, which gave the towns of South Queensferry and North Queensferry their names. Margaret was the mother of three kings of Scotland, or four, if Edmund of Scotland, who ruled with his uncle, Donald III of Scotland, is counted.
      Margaret died at Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland November 1093, 3 days after receiving the news of her husband and eldest son's death at the Battle of Alnwick.
      In 1250, Pope Innocent IV canonized her, and her remains were reinterred in a shrine in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland. Her relics were dispersed after the Scottish Reformation and subsequently lost. Mary, Queen of Scots, at one time owned her head, which was subsequently preserved by Jesuits in the Scots College, Douai, France, from where it was subsequently lost during the French Revolution.”
    Person ID I11899  Lowell&Block
    Last Modified 18 Nov 2022 

    Father Edward “The Exile”,   b. 1016,   d. Feb 1057  (Age 41 years) 
    Mother Agatha 
    Family ID F4144  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Malcolm III ““Caennmor Bighead”,   b. Abt 1031,   d. 13 Nov 1093, Alnwick, Northumberland, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 62 years) 
    Children 
     1. Edward
     2. Edmund
     3. Edgar
     4. Alexander I, of Scotland,   b. Abt 1078, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Ethelred
     6. Matilda or Eadgyth, Queen Consort of England,   b. 1080,   d. 1 May 1118, Westminster Abbey, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 38 years)
     7. David I, King of Scotland,   b. Abt 1084,   d. 24 May 1153, Carlisle, Cumberland Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 69 years)
     8. Mary
    Family ID F4139  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

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