Margaret of Scotland: The biography of an eleventh-century queen and saint

Margaret of Scotland is a significant historical figure; she was an Anglo-Saxon princess, Queen of Scotland, mother to three kings of Scotland and a queen of England, and a saint. As such, she features prominently in historical studies of Scotland, England, and the early Medieval Church. However, current analyses of her life and influence typically rely primarily on her hagiography, which can lead to distorted interpretations. Thus, Margaret is either a colonizing Norman agent or an inconsequential ruler, a forceful Church reformer or an ineffective presence, an uncompromising disciplinarian or a benevolent saint. My thesis considers Margaret and her life within a cultural context in order to identify and examine those forces that shaped her world and molded her character, revealing in the process a more nuanced and detailed portrait. This exploratory study asks questions, identifies sources, and posits theories, providing a platform for further analysis. The events affecting Margaret's life are studied in chronological order. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)