Saint Margaret of England

Margaret of England (29 September 1240 – 26 February 1275) was Queen of Alba (Scotland) by marriage to King Alexander III. Margaret was the second child of King Henry III of England and his wife, Eleanor of Provence, and was born at Windsor Castle. Margaret's first appearance in historical record comes when she was three years old, when she and her brother, the future Edward I, took part in an event in London. King Alexander II of Scotland had previously been married to her paternal aunt, Joan of England. In 1244, her father and Alexander II met in Newcastle to resume peaceful relations between the two nations, and it was decided that the future Alexander III of Scotland should marry Margaret. She was betrothed the same year. She was married on 25 December 1251, when she was 11 years old, at York Minster, to King Alexander III of Scotland, who was 10 years of age. The couple remained in York until January of the following year, when they continued their residence in Edinburgh. Margaret is said to have been unhappy in Scotland and to have created some tension between England and Scotland by writing to her family in England that she was poorly treated in Scotland. Because of their age, it was not considered suitable for the royal couple to have sexual intercourse. Margaret was therefore not allowed to see Alexander very often, and because she had evidently been given a good impression of him and came to be fond of him, this made her displeased. Further more, she did not like the royal castle and hated Edinburgh, and the climate in Scotland, and she missed England and her family there. She wrote of her homesickness and complaints to her parents, who asked for her to visit them. The Scots, however, refused permission, because of the risk that she would never return. In 1255, Queen Eleanor sent her physician to Edinburgh to investigate Margaret's well-being. He reported that she was pale and depressed, and complained about loneliness and neglect.