Customer Reviews

St. Margaret: Queen of Scotland

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This book was first published in 1993, in time for the 900th anniversary celebrations of Margaret's death. Herein lies one of the major problems with this book as it accepts the official line of the organisers of the anniversary celebrations and does not seek to question some of the more mythical aspects of Margaret's life.

The book is easy to read but unfortunately trots out the traditional stereotypes about Margaret's life without providing much analysis of the small yet available body of chronicle evidence. Many of the current debates, particularly those dealing with the true extent of her pious works as Queen of Scotland, are largely glossed over and sometimes the author seems to be caught up in the cult of personality that continues to surround Margaret.

Wilson and Selby provide a useful starting point for those who want to know more about this elusive figure, however I would advise caution about accepting some of the myths about Margaret's family origins, birthplace and life which constitutes the proliferation of legends which are now being called into question by some notable academics.

A very scholastic book. For me the most interesting part was on the religious practices in Scotland. The least interesting was the chapter on St Maggie as I never got a feel for her personality, what it was like to be around her.

Having read another reviewer's dismissive opinion of this book, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised by this book, although my previous understanding was admittedly based on pamphlets and short hagiographic summaries.

I do think it is hilarious that the author proposes that King Malcolm's first wife, Ingibiorg, must have been an undocumented daughter of King Malcolm's dead rival Thorfinn of Orkney (who co-ruled Scotland with MacBeth), rather than exploring the possibility that she was the widow of his rival (and, if so, much older than Malcolm). The author doesn't speculate on what could have provoked Margaret to argue for such a sweeping change to marital customs (banning levirate and other 'inheritance' marriages) - cited as one of the five great works for which she deserved to be sainted. I think waiting two years for an elderly wife to die, or worse, nursing an aged first wife after marrying Malcolm, could have provided such passion. I admit, it could have been the then-almost commonplace practice of murdering relatives to obtain property through marriage to widows, without reference to any interesting factoids about Malcolm's first marriage.

Unless you are thoroughly steeped in cutting edge research into Saint Margaret's life, I think you would find this an interesting and informative book.