The Poiver which Enabled and Suggested the Production 317 



the earldom of Northampton during her Mfetime, and a claim to the 

 earldom of Northumberland, which David practically made good during 

 the latter half of his reign. ^ 



The prince of Scotland [Henry, David's son] was then the represen- 

 tative of the old Anglo-Saxon kings, to whom the Enghsh had still a 

 strong affection. Stephen therefore treated him [1136] with all the 

 honors due to the first prince of the blood. ^ 



Edgar the ^EtheUng, with his mother Agatha, his sisters Margaret 

 and Christina, and the last relics of the English nobihty, resolved to 

 sail for Wearmouth, and to seek a shelter at the court of Malcolm, King 

 of Scotland.^ 



This prudent queen directed all such things as it was fitting for her 

 to regulate ; the laws of the realm were administered by her counsel ; 

 by her care the influence of religion was extended, and the people re- 

 joiced in the prosperity of their affairs. Nothing was firmer than her 

 fideUty, steadier than her favour, or juster than her decisions ; noth- 

 ing was more enduring than her patience, graver than her advice, 

 or more pleasant than her conversation.* 



There is perhaps no more beautiful character recorded in history 

 than that of Margaret. For purity of motives, for an earnest desire to 

 benefit the people among whom her lot was cast, for a deep sense of 

 religion and great personal piety, for the unselfish performance of what- 

 ever duty lay before her, and for entire self-abnegation, she is unsur- 

 passed, and the chroniclers of the time all bear testimony to her exalted 

 character.^ 



Margaret became the mirror of wives, mothers, and queens, and none 

 ever more worthily earned the honors of saintship. Her gentle influence 

 reformed whatever needed to be reformed in her husband, and none 

 labored more diligently for the advance of temporal and spiritual en- 

 lightenment in her adopted country.^ 



It is owing in great measure to this virtuous education given by Mar- 

 garet to her sons that Scotland was governed for the space of 200 years 

 by seven excellent kings, that is, by her three sons, Edgar, Alexander, 

 David, by David's two grandsons, Malcolm IV. and WiUiam, and 



^ Brown 1. 74-5. 



2 Guthrie, p. 306. 



^ Turgot, Lije of St. Margaret, tr. Forbes-Leith, p. 11. 



« Turgot, p. 29. 



" Skene 2. 344. 



® Freeman, Norman Conquest 3. 12. 



(105) 



