Harold and the Norman reigns of terror, it almost appears as if an overruling Providence had guarded these descendants of the great Alfred, for the purpose of continuing the lineage of that patriot king on the throne of these realms, through the marriage of Henry I. with the daughter of Margaret Atheling, Matilda of Scotland. This princess, the subject of our present memoir, is distinguished among the many illustrious females that have worn the crown matrimonial of England, by the title of the good queen;" a title which, eloquent in its simplicity, briefly implies that she possessed not only the great and shining qualities calculated to add lustre to a throne, but that she employed them in promoting the happiness of all classes of her subjects, affording at the same time a bright example of the lovely and endearing attributes which should adorn the female character.

Some historians call this princess, Matilda Atheling, and by these she is almost invested with the dignity of a queen-regnant, and styled the heiress of the AngloSaxon monarchs. In the same spirit, her grandson and representative Henry II. is designated "the restorer of the English royal line." This is, however, as Blackstone justly observes, "a great error, for the rights of Margaret Atheling to the English succession were vested in her sons, and not in her daughter." James I., on his accession to the throne of England, failed not to set forth that important leaf in his pedigree, and laid due stress on the circumstance of his descent from the ancient line of English sovereigns by the elder blood.

1 Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i.

Alexander, the Archdeacon of Salisbury, who wrote the tracts of the Exchequer quoted by Gervase of Tilbury in his celebrated Dialogues of the Exchequer, has gravely set forth in his red book a pedigree of Matilda of Scotland, tracing her descent in an unbroken line up to Adam. There is a strange medley of christian kings and pagan sinners, such as Woden and Balder, with the Jewish patriarchs of holy writ, in this royal genealogy.1

Matilda is the only princess of Scotland who ever shared the throne of a king of England. It is, however, from her maternal ancestry that she derives her great interest as connected with the annals of this country. Her mother, Margaret Atheling, was the grand-daughter of Edmund Ironside and the daughter of Edward Atheling, surnamed the outlaw, by Agatha, daughter of the Emperor Henry II. of Germany. Her brother, Edgar Atheling, so often mentioned in the preceding memoir, feeling some reason to mistrust the apparent friendship of William the Conqueror, privately withdrew from his court, and in the year 1068, the same year in which Henry I. was born, took shipping with Margaret and her younger sister Christina and their mother Agatha, with intent to seek a refuge in Hungary with their royal kindred; but, by stress of weather, the vessel in which they, with many other English exiles, were embarked, was driven into the Frith of Forth. Malcolm Canmore, the young unmarried king of Scotland, who had just regained his dominions from the usurper Macbeth, happened to be present when the royal fugi1 Lib. Rub., fol. notata, 49, a.

was, in

tives landed, and was so struck with the beauty of the Lady Margaret Atheling, that in a few days he asked her in marriage of her brother. Edgar joyfully gave the dowerless princess in marriage to the young and handsome sovereign, who had received the exiled English in the most generous and honourable manner, and whose disinterested affection was sufficient testimony of the nobleness of his disposition. The spot where Margaret first set her foot on the Scottish land memory of that circumstance, called Queen's Ferry. The Saxon chronicle, of whom this lady is an especial favourite, indulges in a most edifying homily on the providence which led the holy Margaret to become the spouse of the king of Scotland, who is evidently regarded by the cowled historian as little better than a pagan. Certain it is, that the mighty son of the gracious Duncan could neither read nor write. After her marriage, the Saxon princess became the happy instrument of diffusing the blessings of Christianity throughout her husband's dominions, commencing the work of conversion in the proper place, her own household and the court. The influence which her personal charms had in the first instance won over the heart of her royal husband, her virtues and mental powers increased and retained to the last hour of Malcolm's existence. reposed the most unbounded confidence, not only in the principles, but the judgment of his English consort, who became the domestic legislator of the realm. She dismissed from the palace all persons who were convicted of leading immoral lives, or who were guilty of fraud or injustice, and allowed no persons to hold offices in the

He

royal household, unless they conducted themselves in a sober and discreet manner; and observing, moreover, that the Scotch nobles had an irreverent habit of rising from table before grace could be pronounced by her pious chaplain Turgot, she rewarded those of the more civilised chiefs, who could be induced to attend the performance of that edifying ceremony, with a cup of the choicest wine. The temptation of such a bribe was too powerful to be resisted by the hitherto perverse and graceless peers, and by degrees the custom became so popular, that every guest was eager to claim his "gracecup;" the fashion spread from the palace to the castles of the nobility, and thence descending to the dwellings of their humbler neighbours, became an established usage in the land. Many deeply interesting, as well as amusing particulars, connected with the parents of Matilda of Scotland, the subject of our present memoir, have been preserved by the learned Turgot, the historian of this royal family, who, in his capacity of confessor to Queen Margaret, and preceptor to her children,1 en

1

Turgot was a Saxon of good family, born in Lincolnshire. He was delivered as a hostage to William the Conqueror, and shut up by him in Lincoln Castle. From thence he escaped to Norway. Returning from that country, he was shipwrecked on the English coast, and having lost everything he possessed in the world, he became a priest, and distinguished himself so much by his learning and piety that he was promoted to be prior of Durham. When Margaret Atheling became Queen of Scotland, she preferred him to the office of her confessor. He followed the fortunes of his royal pupil Matilda, the daughter of his illustrious patroness, after her marriage with Henry 1.; and we find that the English monarch, who possibly wished to remove him from the queen, in 1107 warmly recommended him to his royal brother-in-law, Edgar of Scotland, as a fit

joyed opportunities of becoming acquainted, not only with all personal particulars respecting these illustrious individuals, but of learning their most private thoughts and feelings.

Turgot gives great commendation to his royal mistress for the conscientious care she bestowed on the education of her children, whose preceptors she enjoined to punish them as often as their faults required correction.

Matilda, the subject of this memoir, was her eldest daughter, and was probably born in the year 1077. This we infer from the remarkable circumstance of the elder brother of her future husband, Robert Courthose, being her godfather.1 Malcolm Canmore, her father, invaded England in that year, and Robert of Normandy was, on his reconciliation with his father, William the Conqueror, sent with a military force to repel this northern attack.2 Robert, finding his forces inadequate to maintain successfully a war of aggression, entered into a negociation with the Scottish monarch, which ended in a friendly treaty. Malcolm renewed his homage for Cumberland; and Robert, who, whatever his faults might be as a private character, was one of the most courteous knights and

ever,

person to be appointed to the bishopric of St. Andrew's. Turgot, howdied prior of Durham. He is said to have been the author of the "Chronicle of Durham," which goes by the name of "Simeon of Durham," and has been appropriated by a cotemporary monk of that name. Turgot's Chronicle of the Lives of his royal mistress, Margaret Atheling, and her consort, Malcolm Canmore, king of Scotland, has been preserved by Fordun, and is frequently cited by Sir David Dalrymple.-Nicholson. Henry.

1 Sir J. Hayward.

See the preceding memoir, Life and Times of Matilda of Flanders.