THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF BUXTED & HADLOW DOWN
Administrator
Diocese of Chichester
The Parish Church of St Margaret the Queen in Buxted Park is dedicated to the 11th century Scottish Queen. She was canonised in 1250 AD, around the time that St Margaret's was built and this is presumably why St Margaret's church was dedicated to her. Very few churches in England are dedicated to Margaret of Scotland, as most churches bearing the title of St Margaret's are named after St Margaret of Antioch, the early church martyr.
Margaret, Queen of Scotland
c1045 - 1093
Margaret, also known as Margaret of Wessex, was the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile and his wife Agatha. She was a direct descendant of King Alfred and also the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, King of England. After the death of Edmund in 1016, Canute sent the infant Edward to the court of the Swedish king. In adulthood, Edward travelled to Hungary, where his daughter was born, circa 1045.
Margaret came to England with the rest of her family on 1057. Her father, Edward, died just a few days after returning; he had been recalled as a possible successor to her great uncle, the childless Kind Edward the Confessor. The widowed Agatha, together with her son, Edgar Ætheling, and daughters, Margaret and Cristina, continued to reside in the English court, where her son was now considered a possible successor to the English throne.
Stained glass window in the north porch, St Margaret's, Buxted,
After the death of Edward the Confessor in January 1066, Harold Godwinson was chosen as king, possibly because Edgar Ætheling was considered too young to be an effective leader. After Harold's defeat at the Battle of Hastings later that year, Edgar Ætheling was proclaimed King of England but, when the Normans advanced on London, The Witan (King's Council) resolved to meet William the Conqueror and submit the uncrowned king to him. William kept Edgar Ætheling in his custody and took him to his court in Normandy, before returning with him to England in 1068. It is unclear whether Edgar Ætheling was involved in rebellion or was perhaps attempting to return to Hungary with his family when his ship was blown off course, but he arrived that year, with his mother and sisters, at the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland.
Malcolm greeting Margaret at her arrival in Scotland; detail of a mural by Victorian artist William Hole
Malcolm III was a widower and would likely have been motivated by the idea of a union between himself and one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family. Malcolm and Margaret were married in 1070 and went on to have six sons and two daughters. Three of there sons went on to be kings of Scotland (Edgar, reigned 1097 - 1107, Alexander I, 1107-1124 and David I, 1124-1153)
Margaret, having been raised in the ultra-Catholic Hungarian Court, was devoutly religious and lived a life of repeated fasting and abstinence. She is believed to have had a civilising influence on her husband (who was widely regarded as a violent and uncouth man) and especially her youngest son, the future King David I of Scotland, to be just and holy rulers.
Rather than yield to her royal status, Margaret sought ways to use it as a means to better the lives of others - both spiritually and materially. Particularly caring of the poor and orphans, her charitable acts saw her put their needs before her own, such as serving them food before she ate and washing the feet of the poor in imitation of Christ. Margaret saw her service as an act of sacrifice and workship - in honouring the poor she was honouring Christ.
Along with her charitiable works, Margaret's life was dedicated to prayer and devotional reading. Every night she attended the midnight liturgy and it is said that she attended up to six Masses each day. Understanding the importance of monasteries to society, in 1072 she introduced a small community of Benedictine monks from Canterbury to the priory she founded in Dunfermline, on the site where she had married. This became the foundation for the first Benedictine monastery in Scotland. Margaret also endevoured to restore the ancient site of pilgrimage, Iona Abbey, which had been plundered repeatedly through the centuries by Viking raids.
Inspired by Lanfranc (a future Archbishop of Canterbury) and with his guidance, she was the principal instigator of religious reform within the Church of Scotland, aligning their worship and practices with those of Rome. By adopting Latin to celebrate the Mass, rather than the many dialects of Gaelic, she believed that all Scots could worship in unity, along with Christians of western Europe. Under her direction, Easter communion was encouranged, as well as abstinence from servile work on a Sunday to allow for more dedicated observance. It is thought that Margaret's ultimate goal was to unite both Scotland and England in an attempt to end warfare between the two countries.
A stained glass panel depicting St Margaret of Scotland (1045-1093) standing in a colourful, flower-filled meadow, with her husband, Malcolm III, behind her. She holds a scroll bearing a plan of the priory, which would later become Dunfirmline Abbey.
[Louis Davis 1860 -1941 glass maker]
Margaret was instrumental in establishing a ferry service across the Firth of Forth, some 10 miles to the north -west of Edinburgh, in order to assist pilgrims travelling from south of the Forth to St Andrew's in Fife. The towns that grew up on the banks of the Forth derive their names from the ferry service which Margaret instigated - South Queensferry and North Queensferry. A ferry service operated between the towns until 1964, when the Forth Road Bridge was opened.
On 13th November 1093, Margaret's husband and eldest son, Edward, were killed at the Battle of Alnwick, Northumbria, when forces led by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, took Malcolm III's army by surprise. Margaret received the terrible news from her son Edgar Ætheling. Already ill - her life of austerity and fasting is thought to have taken a toll on her body - she died three days later, reportedly from grief. She was buried in front of the high altar at the priory that she had initiated, Dunfermline.
In 1128, Margaret's son, King David I, raised the status of the priory at Dunfermline to Abbey. Along with other endowments, he funded the construction of a new church there, of which the impressive nave still survives. It is thought that its Romanesque pillars were carved by the same masons who carved those of Durham Cathedral.
Margaret was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1250, on account of her life of personal holiness, devotion to the church and her work on religious reform and charity.
St Margaret, as depicted on a medieval family tree
St. Margaret of Scotland is a patron saint for service to the poor and her feast day, originally 10th June, is now celebrated on 6th November.