Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

SAINT MARGARET. 25
Queen Margaret was devoted to piety, charity, and virtue, and all good
works, and did much to enlighten and civilise her adopted country. She also
did much to Romanise its Church, which, until her day, had principally held to
the primitive rule of Columba and the Culdee establishments. As a reward
for her orthodoxy she was canonised in 125 1 by Pope Clement IV., and her
relics were supposed to work many miracles. Amongst others, they resolutely
refused to be removed to a more honourable resting-place without those of her
husband, her coffin becoming so heavy as it was being carried past the king's
that no number of men could lift it ; but when his led the way, hers became as
light as an infant's. The sarcophagus which is said to have been the first
resting-place of her mortal remains still lies, an empty shell, outside the church
at Dunfermline. At the time of the Reformation her relics were removed from
Scotland to Spain, and deposited (along with the remains of her husband) in a
chapel of the Escurial built for them by Philip II. Whoso would make a
pilgrimage to her shrine may still read —
" Saint Malcolm King, Saint Margaret Queen. They were lovely in their
lives, and in their deaths were not divided."
" St Margaret's Cove," or " Oratory in the Rock," is still shown on the
banks of the Ferm in what was then the " Foreste of Donnfermelyn," in
whose wilds Sir William Wallace in after days eluded the English invaders;
and many other sites bear her name. Perhaps even then the Ferm water was
found available for the brilliant dyes of the tartan, as we are told that Queen
Margaret clothed her servants in party-coloured raiment, which she taught them
to weave.
The children of Malcolm Csenmore by Queen Margaret were —
1st. Edward, killed at Alnwick whilst defending his father.
2d. Ethelred, Earl of Fife, and Abbot of Dunkeld before its erection into a
bishopric, and whilst it was still under Columbite rule. He gave the lands of
Ardmore to the Culdees of Loch Leven, and was buried at St Andrews,
3d. Edmund, who is said to have shared for a time the throne with his uncle,
Donald-bain. He became a monk after Donald's deposition in the Cluniae
Priory of Montague in Somersetshire, and died there in the odour of sanctity.
— Sir James Balfour.
4th. Edgar, who brought the news of his father's and brother's death to
Queen Margaret at Dunfermline (according to Turgot, her confessor and
biographa-).
5th. Alexander I., surnamed the Fierce. He had the gift of the earldom of
Innergoury, from his father's brother (Donald-bain), at his baptism.
6th. David I., the Saint.
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