Margaret of Wessex
1045 – 1093 · Generation VIII · Queen consort of Scots · House of Wessex
Margaret of Wessex (1045–1093). Queen consort of Scots. Married Malcolm III of Scotland in 1070. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Canonized in 1250; through her the old Wessex blood returned to the English throne. Born in Hungary around 1045 to Edward the Exile, a son of Edmund Ironside, she came to England in 1057 when her father was recalled as a possible heir to Edward the Confessor; he died almost on landing. After the Norman Conquest her brother Edgar Ætheling’s claim came to nothing, and in 1068 the family fled north, reaching Scotland — by tradition after a shipwreck — where the widowed Malcolm III gave them refuge. Her piety became celebrated: she brought Benedictine monks to Dunfermline, established ferries across the Forth for pilgrims bound for St Andrews — the origin of the Queensferry names — and pressed the Scottish Church toward continental practice. Three of her sons became kings of Scots, and her daughter Edith, renamed Matilda, married Henry I of England. She died in 1093, reportedly of grief, three days after her husband and eldest son were killed at Alnwick.
Place in the family
- The archive records 147 of her descendants, across 32 generations.
One of 22 people of House of Wessex (until 1093) in this archive. Alfred’s line: kings of Wessex who became the first kings of all England.
Line of descent: King Alfred the Great → King Edward The Elder → King Edmund → King Edgar → King Aethelred II The Unready → King Edmund II lronside → Edward the Exile → Margaret of Wessex.
Parents
- Edward the Exile (1016 – 1057)
- Agatha of the East (1020 – 1070)
Partners
- Married King Malcolm III of Scotland (1031 – 1093) in 1070 — one child together
Children
- Matilda of Scotland (1080 – 1118)
Life
- 1045 — Born
- 1070 — Married Malcolm III of Scotland
- 1093 — Died