St. Margaret part I

["Spirit One Email" <laurel@spiritone.com>]

I notice that King David I was called a saint.   Was that just a nickname or
was he cannonized also?

I don't think we have fully resolved the conflict between Margaret being
buried in Scotland or Spain.

It is possible that there is truth in both statements.  Here is just one
senario:

Margaret dies in 1093 and is buried in Dumfermline  Abbey.   Everyone agrees
to this point.
She was still there in 1250 when Innocent IV canonized her.

Now Sinclair says 9 years later (19 June 1259) her remains were "moved to a
new shrine, the base of which is still visible beyond the modern east wall
of the Dunfermline church."  She is still probably on the Dunfermline
grounds but now being a national celebrity many want to make a pilgrimage to
her grave.

Maybe there is a clue in the contemporary history.  King Alexander III is
now 18.  He will marry Margaret d/o King Henry III of England.  Perhaps the
marriage was already on paper by then.  Henry got into financial problems
when he used the money he raised to launch another Crusade to try to
unsuccessfully purchase the kingdom of Sicily for his second son.  This left
him with an enormous debt.   Nevertheless one of his pursuits was to build
memorials , the greatest of which was the new Westminster Abbey to house the
shrine of his favourite saint, Edward the Confessor.  All over the country
his builders were at work on the royal castles also.
Also in 1059, Henry ratified the Treaty of Paris by which he renounced all
rights in Normandy, Maine and Anjou.   He just couldn't afford any more war,
he had no stomach for it, and many of his French relatives and the French
court swarmed to England to escape the austere court of Queen Blanche.

So with this example of his future father-in-law' shrine building, plus the
peace time between Catholic England and Scotland, it might make the time
ripe for the errection of a new and glorious shirne to hold St. Margaret's
remains that would vicariously honor his new wife, Margaret also??????
OR.....Perhaps Alexander's councelors thought that they would have a better
chance to contract this marriage if King Henry perceived that Alexander was
also interested in shrine building and Catholic things???  These events in
history usually don't spontaneously happen but are coldly calculated plans
to achieve some self-aggrandizing goal of these soverigns.

So let's say that it is in the realm of possibility that Margaret was moved
to this new shrine, still on Dunfermline grounds so technically still at
Dunfermline.  This could be denied or confirmed I'm sure with contact with a
historian there.

The next event in question is the acquiring of the head of Margaret by Mary
Queen of Scots during the Reformation.  Mary was queen 1542-1567.   When in
Aug. 1561, Mary arrived from France, a widow of King Francois II, the
Reformation was already underway in Scotland.  (With her were some Sinclair
ladies also)

This has gotten long enough and I'm going to go meet and celebrate with a
friend that has just quit her job.
Will get back to you later.
Laurel







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