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PREFACE
The accompanying
narrative of the Life of Queen Margaret will be interesting to all
students of history as being a subject which seldom attracts the
attention of the historian. The Life of Queen Margaret was a wonderful
life during the twenty-three years she was Queen of Scotland; but the
records of it are meagre and disappointing. We are not altogether
surprised at this, as in that primitive age, the eleventh century, both
King and people were unable to read or write. These offices were
performed by the Monks, until civilization was more developed; but in
the meantime Queen Margaret’s life and administration have, in the eyes
of posterity, greatly suffered for want of material. It is evident that
the Queen’s was a saintly life, full of benevolent and good deeds, while
her knowledge of the Scriptures was conspicuous in many of her
administrative acts.
The influence of her example on the people of that turbulent time cannot
be overestimated, while she was undoubtedly a great power for good at a
dark period of Scottish History. Although superstition was then rampant,
we have no record and no incident connecting Queen Margaret with it. We
cannot however deny that she had great trouble throughout the whole
course of her life. From the day she left Hungary until she married King
Malcolm III she had nothing but trials to endure, these being
accentuated by the arbitrary conduct of William the Conqueror. Her
married life was full of care, anxiety and responsibility, culminating
in the tragic death of her husband, and her eldest son, at the Siege of
Alnwick Castle. She bestowed great care on the training of her children,
and to that care may be said is due the enlightened administrative
policy of her three sons, who afterwards succeeded her on the throne.
The treatment of her remains after her canonization in 1250 is a subject
that cannot be approached without vexation and dismay. The details I
have given in Chapter VIII, so far as these can be found recorded or are
accessible; but the sum of the whole matter is, that they have gone to
the Escurial and cannot now be identified.
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