Throughout History there have been a number of Kings and Queen’s who after their death
were treated very poorly.
Catherine of Valois was a Queen of England who’s remains for 450 years were left unburied
inside of Westminster Abbey.
People would flock to visit the bones of her, and some even handled them and even kissed
her skeleton.
It was considered great luck for someone to touch the bones of a monarch, but this of
course today would be viewed as disturbing and shocking.
The Queen of Richard II inside of Westminster Abbey also even had her bones taken from her
coffin, and these were removed from a hole in the side of the tomb.
People made off with her remains and still today these have not been returned, and have
been lost.
But there was one Scottish Queen who’s remains were also tampered with, and they went on
a remarkable journey.
It was said that even Margaret of Scotland’s head was once owned by Mary Queen of Scots,
but over the centuries it’s believed that her remains and bones have been lost.
But there is a part of her remains which shockingly can still be seen.
But what is the story of the horrific afterlife of the Forgotten Scottish Queen?
Margaret was born in 1046 and was a member of the House of Wessex.
She was a direct descendant of King Alfred the Great, and was the granddaughter of King
Edmund Ironside through his son Edward.
Along with her family, Margaret had been exiled to the east when King Canute and his Viking
Danish Army arrived in England and caused chaos and much bloodshed.
Margaret was known for being a beautiful and pious woman, and she was educated in Hungary.
However towards the end of her great uncle Edward the Confessor’s reign, Margaret and
her family came back to England.
Her younger brother Edgar the Aetheling was considered a strong claimant to the English
throne, and he was the only one who claimed the throne following Edward’s death who
possessed royal blood.
But the Witan and English nobility would select and elect Harold Godwinson as the successor
to Edward’s throne.
With this, Harold II was crowned and he was a popular Earl of Wessex, but a man who also
claimed the throne was William the Conqueror who would kill and defeat Harold’s army
at the Battle of Hastings.
Margaret and her family were some of the last remaining Saxon royals in England, as with
the Normans advancing, they feared for their lives and they fled to the north.
Their ship was destined for Europe, however they were blown off course and they landed
in Scotland and specifically in Fife.
Because of this, the Scottish King Malcolm III then offered the family and Margaret royal
protection.
However he had a soft spot for Margaret, and he proposed to her, and she initially refused
to marry the Scottish King as she wanted to stay pure.
However, Malcolm would be very persistent and the couple would marry in Dunfermline
in 1069, and together they would have 8 children, six sons and two daughters.
A number of those would go on to become Kings of Scotland, and one of her daughter’s would
become Queen of England.
The Scots liked Margaret, and she brought a number of positives to the Scottish court,
and made it more civilised.
Margaret and her religious devotion was also a good influence on her husband, and she was
a leading figure behind reform in the Scottish church.
The working class greatly respected her, and she went on to found churches, monasteries,
pilgrimage hostels and a royal mausoleum at Dunfermline Abbey.
She also allowed and paid for a crossing for pilgrims to visit the Shrine of St Andrew.
She brought the Scottish church in line with the Catholic beliefs dominating European worship,
but she was greatly respected also for her attitude towards the needy and the poor.
She cared for the poor and orphans, and she would fast greatly, but this caused damage
to her health.
In the weeks before her death in 1093, she was informed that her husband and her eldest
son had been ambushed and brutally killed at the Battle of Alnwick in Northumbria.
Just 3 days after her husband and son’s death, Margaret too would die on the 16th
November 1093 allegedly from grief.
She had already been ill, but she was then buried in Dunfermline Abbey.
However in the centuries after, her remains would be tampered with, and shocking events
would occur around them.
In 1245, it was noted that brilliant flashes of light were coming from her tomb.
An appeal was made to the Pope and she was canonised.
The Pope said that, ‘"A precious pearl saw the light in Hungary, and lived at the court
of the Confessor, a School of Holiness.
Torn from homeland, you embraced another.
You became Queen and Mother, the glory of Scots.
Your Queen's crown, a crown of Charity.
Your way, the Royal Way of the Cross....Once, mere men, placed crowns upon your head.
But I, Innocent, Peter's successor, Servant of Christ, now place upon your head, the greatest
crown of all, sainthood.”
But eight months after this, a new tomb had been completed for her and it was ready for
her remains.
On the 13th July 1250, the body of St Margaret which had been in the ground almost 200 years
was dug up and then moved in the presence of the Scottish King.
It was said of her exhumation, ‘with the utmost devoutness and honour, a silver shrine
set with gold and precious stones, and from her earlier tomb was given out a most sweet
smell, so that one would have thought the whole place was strewed with flowers.
God neither wished nor would allow the remains of the blessed Queen to be moved before the
coffin of her husband King Malcolm were opened and his body moved with such just honours,
since they were one flesh while they were in the world.’
Malcolm’s remains were also reinterred towards the new tomb of his wife.
Queens would turn to Saint Margaret of Scotland for protection during childbirth.
The daughter of Henry VII would pay to obtain Margaret’s protection.
For three centuries lights were burned around the tomb, and an oak cabinet was kept near
which held her relics.
This consisted of her skull which had auburn golden flowing hair and other bones.
However this tomb was later destroyed by Scottish religious reformers in 1560.
Margaret’s tomb was destroyed and desecrated.
The group destroyed parts of monastic buildings and Dunfermline Abbey was targeted and the
Shrine of St Margaret was broken and spoiled.
However the monks anticipating this had hidden away the reliquary of St Margaret.
But at this time, the head of Margaret was enclosed in a separate reliquary, and it was
taken to Edinburgh Castle at the request of Mary Queen of Scots who was awaiting the birth
of James VI.
Her head after this was then given to the Scots College at Douay in France where it
was worshipped and took care of.
Her full wa enclosed in a busy where there was a crown of silver gilt which was enriched
with pearls and precious stones.
On the eve of the French Revolution, the relic was still seen by a Scottish priest who said
it remained at the Scots College.
It was complete and the Queen’s auburn hair was still on it.
However during the chaos of the Revolution, it was said to have been hidden away but then
it disappeared.
The remaining relics of St Margaret were allegedly then carried to Flanders and found their way
into the possession of the Spanish monarchy.
It was said when the relics headed to Flanders, ‘The coffer wherein was the head and hair
of St Margaret, in the year 1597 was delivered into the hands of the Fathers of the Society
of Jesus, then Missioners in Scotland, who seeing it was in danger to eb lost, or profaned
by seditious heretics transported it to Antwerp.
The chapel where her remains were held was decorated in artwork dedicated to her, however
it would later be transported back to Scotland.
Two chests were found and one was marked with St Margaret’s name, and the other had her
husband’s name.
Inside of this chest marked with her name, the bone of the shoulder of St Target was
encased, measuring 7 inches in length and 5 inches in breadth.
This relic was then handed over to Scottish Bishop Gillies, and it was repatriated back
to Scotland.
It was said of her shoulder bone that, ‘the bone was carefully detached with a smaller
bone with a saw, sealed with wax and signed with the monasteries seal.’
It was housed inside of an ornate reliquary, and still today the relic and shoulder bone
of Saint Margaret can be viewed inside this container.
What remains a mystery today though is the location of the rest of Saint Margaret’s
remains and bones.
Her skull and head which was once in the possession of Mary Queen of Scots still is lost today,
and the whereabouts of her head are unknown.
It may have disappeared during the French Revolution, during this time of great upheaval
and chaos.
Forensic investigation has occurred on the remains of the skull, to try and work out
specifically what killed Saint Margaret.
Saint Margaret was a woman who devoted much of her life to the protection and help of
the poor and needy in society.
She was a Scottish Queen who would have in a different life have played an important
part in English politics too before the invasion of the Normans.
However in the centuries after her death, her remains were dug up and were then interred
inside a number of different places, before the only part of her to return to Scottish
soil was her shoulder.
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