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Margaret was not Malcolm’s first wife; she was his second. His first wife was Ingibjorg, the daughter of Thorfi
Scotland’s first royal saint, Margaret, was not born in Scotland; in fact, she had spent most of her formative years in exile in Hungary. While taking refuge with her family in Scotland, she married Malcolm at Dunfermline sometime in 1069 or 1070. Margaret didn’t really want to marry Malcolm. She would’ve preferred to have entered a religious life, but given the circumstances, she had little choice but to agree to the arrangement. The marriage lasted 23 years and produced six sons and two daughters, all of whom survived to adulthood. The offspring didn’t do too badly for themselves: three of the sons became king of Scotland, and her daughter Maud or maybe Matilda (historians aren’t sure of her name) married Henry I of England in 1100.
From an early age, Margaret had established a reputation for devotion and piety, as is evident in her youthful desire to become a nun. Her biography (written around 1100 by her former chaplain, Turgot) is full of references to Margaret’s compassion toward children (especially orphans) and the poor, as well as the severity of her self-denial, including a lot of fasting. According to Turgot, Margaret supported 24 poor people year-round, washed the feet of 6 of them during Lent and Advent, and had 300 people fed before her in the royal hall.
But Margaret was not just a devoted disciple of God; she was also an i
Receive communion more frequently than once a year at Easter.
Abstain from ordinary labour on Sundays.
Observe the Lent fast from Ash Wednesday instead of the Monday following.
Forbid marriage between a man and his stepmother or sister-in-law.
Celebrate the Mass with a universally accepted ritual.
Replace Celtic dialects with Latin as the language of the Mass.
Of course, none of these reforms would’ve been possible without the support and goodwill of her husband. Turgot stresses the extent to which Malcolm was a helpmate to her in dealing with the clergy and her charitable work. He also acted as an interpreter in clerical conferences for her because her first tongue was English, not French, as was the custom at the time.
Margaret was also a benefactor of various monastic orders. She had the church in which she was married in Dunfermline converted into a Benedictine priory. More famously, there was the construction of the chapel of St Margaret at Edinburgh Castle – the first building in Scotland to be built in the Norman style. She persuaded Malcolm to abolish the charges on the crossing over the Firth of Forth to Fife (later known in her honour as Queensferry) for genuine pilgrims heading for St Andrews, a shrine she greatly venerated. The Céli Dei at Loch Leven also benefited from her generosity.
Margaret established a reputation for her religious work, a reputation that went well beyond Scotland. She was the subject of many eulogies from chroniclers who praised her ‘virtue and holy life’. She died of a broken heart on 16 November 1093 at Edinburgh Castle a few days after hearing of the death of Malcolm III. She was buried in the monastic church she had founded at Dunfermline where, in the reign of her son Alexander I (1107–1124), she was joined by her husband’s body. Strangely enough, that was not the end of the story. During the Reformation, Philip II of Spain had the remains of Malcolm and Margaret transferred to a chapel in the Escorial (royal residence) at Madrid.
In spite of her reputation for devotion and piety and a cult that developed around her in Scotland, it took more than 150 years for Margaret to be recognised as a saint by the papacy, and that was only after a sustained campaign by Scotland’s most senior clergy.
There is no doubt that Malcolm and Margaret were the greatest husband-and-wife team to rule Scotland. Through their efforts, Scotland became a very different kingdom to what it had been before 1050:
It was more clearly defined territorially.
It was more Anglo-Norman than Celtic.
It was more firmly positioned within western European Catholicism.
They were modernisers who literally put Alba or Scotland on the European map.
The Four Stooges: Donald, Duncan, Edgar and Alexander
There was a series of short-lived kingships between the death of Malcolm III and the assumption of David I to the throne of Scotland. Indeed, the typically medieval scramble for power took place with its recurring stories of betrayal and bloodshed.
On Malcolm’s death, his brother, Donald Bane, pushed his nephews aside and claimed the throne for himself as Donald III. It didn’t last long. Malcolm’s son by his first marriage, Duncan, with the support of Norman knights from England, mounted a successful invasion of Scotland to depose Donald. But Duncan had little support in the country, particularly among the old Celtic aristocracy; in any case, Duncan was soon murdered by the mormaer of Moray, one of the descendants of Macbeth, and the mormaer’s son Lulach. Donald III was back on the throne by the end of 1094. Three years later, his other nephew, Edgar, Malcolm’s fourth son, with the help of the English king, invaded and Donald was quickly eliminated. Long live King Edgar of the Scots!
Edgar’s reign was uneventful but lasted only ten years; when he died in 1107, unmarried and childless, he was succeeded by his brother Alexander I. As decreed in Edgar’s will, the kingdom of Alba was virtually split in two, with David controlling the lands south of the Forth and Alexander the lands north of the Forth. Alexander died in 1124 a widower. With no legitimate heirs, the crown fell to David, something that did not go uncontested (see ‘David I: The Revolutionary King’, later in this chapter).
The minor kings were deeply religious and carried on their mother’s tradition as benefactors of religious establishments. Edgar founded the Benedictine priory at Coldingham, Berwickshire; his brother Alexander went even further. Monastic communities were founded at Scone in Perthshire and at Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth. The most fashionable of Continental religious orders were brought to Scotland – for example, the Tironensians, a mainly French order, arrived in Selkirk in 1113. But their achievements pale in comparison to the reign of arguably Scotland’s greatest king, David I, the youngest son of Malcolm and Margaret.
The Englishing of Scotland
Despite being rather undistinguished Scottish kings, these monarchs – Donald, Duncan, Edgar and Alexander – advanced the process of Anglicising Scotland begun in Malcolm’s reign. Here are some examples:
Donald III was the last king to be buried in Iona. From that point onward, monarchs were buried on the Scottish mainland in churches or monasteries based on the Norman model laid down by Margaret.
The names of the descendant kings of Malcolm and Margaret were close to those of English and European rulers. For example, David was not only the greatest king in the Bible but also the name of a recent Hungarian ruler; Alexander was named after Pope Alexander II; and Edgar was as English as you can get.
These kings spent a good portion of their lives at the English court and, thus, could not help but be influenced by their time there.
Intermarriage did a lot to strengthen ties between the Scots and the English. Alexander I was married to Henry I’s illegitimate daughter, Sybilla, and in 1113, David married Matilda, the widowed daughter of the earl of Northumbria, who at 40 was 10 years his senior.
David I: The Revolutionary King
David had a difficult start to kingship because a number of the Celtic Scottish nobility felt the sons of Donald, especially Alexander, had superior claims. David had to fight his way to the throne. But he had one advantage the others didn’t – the support of Henry I of England! Not only had David spent his adolescence at the English court, but he’d also become a member of the royal household when his sister married Henry I in 1100.
Malcolm chose to fight for his crown, but he was in no position to defeat David and his retinue of heavily armoured Norman knights. Outnumbered and outfought in two battles, Malcolm escaped into parts of Scotland that weren’t yet under the rule of the king to fight another day.
Like all Scottish kings, David’s kingship was inaugurated at Scone, although as a foretaste of what was to come, he nearly didn’t go through with it. He was deeply religious and showed no desire to take part in what was essentially a pagan ceremony. However, once possessed of the rod or wand of kingship, David went about his task of changing the face of Scotland – both religiously and politically – with gusto.
The governance of Scotland
While ruling southern Scotland, David I showed that his time at the court of Henry I had left its mark. David perceived lordship solely in feudal terms and invited followers from Normandy and England into Scotland – for example, Robert de Brus (Bruce) and the Fitzalans, who in time became the house of Stewart! They had extensive tracts of land or
fiefs
settled on them in return for military service. De Brus was settled in A
But David was a pragmatist – he realised that if he tried to impose feudalism on the hereditary Celtic and Norse dynasties of Scotland, he would face revolt. So, he allowed older governing arrangements to stand in those areas, which created the basis for peaceful relations between himself and the Celtic and Norse aristocracies.
The only exception to peaceful co-existence was the revolt by Malcolm and his ally Angus, Mormaer of Moray, and a descendant of Lulach, Macbeth’s son, in 1130. Sneakily taking advantage of David’s absence in England, Angus landed an army near the River North Esk, Brechin, in Angus, but it was decimated by royal troops, with the mormaer himself being killed along with 4,000 of his men. David a
It didn’t end there. Another four years of civil war continued until, in 1134, Malcolm was captured and imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle. From that point onward, nothing more is heard of him. You can probably guess what happened!
To consolidate his rule, David introduced sweeping reforms in government. These reforms were based on those in place in Anglo-Norman England. New sheriffdoms were created to administer royal lands at Berwick, Perth, Scone, Roxburgh and Stirling; they were also responsible for collecting the king’s taxes.
Justiciars