Window 10: Saint Margaret of Scotland.
Window 10: Saint Margaret of Scotland
The tenth window in the Creation and the New Creation series of windows at the church of
Saints Leonard and Fergus, Dundee.
Window 10: Saint Margaret of Scotland is the third window in the Spring series of windows to feature women. Margaret was the highly influential wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland. She brought a civilising influence to her rather rough-around-the-edges husband and royal court by introducing a Continental sense of manners and behaviour to Scotland.
Margaret, an English princess, was born in Hungary in about 1045 to the expatriate English prince Edward the Exile. She and her family returned to England in 1057 but were forced into exile again following the Norman Conquest after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. With her family, Margaret fled to Scotland where she was forced to marry the Scottish King Malcolm III. While this pious woman had originally hoped to become a nun, she excelled at being a Christian Queen. She had a strict routine of prayer and worship and was known for her charitable works founding schools, hospitals and orphanages in Scotland. The mother of eight children, she died in 1093 aged 47 or 48 and was canonised in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV.
One of the most famous stories about Margaret is that she established a mealtime custom which still survives in Scotland. Margaret found that at royal banquets, people were likely to simply get up from the table after they had had their fill without excusing themselves or saying a prayer of thanks for their meal. She changed
Saint Margaret offering the Grace Cup to King Malcolm.
The full-size, full-colour cartoon of Saint Margaret offering the Grace Cup to King Malcolm.
this practice by inviting guests to stay on after the final grace to receive a cup of fine wine, called the Grace Cup, also known as Saint Margaret’s Blessing. Nobody turned this offer of a drink of good wine down and so everyone remained until the end of the meal, after which they said a prayer of thanks and shared the Grace Cup. Over time, this practice became the custom for each meal in the royal court and became a widespread part of Scottish culture.
can see from the images, the finished painted medallion is a faithful rendering of the original design. Margaret looks refined and virtuous, while King Malcolm lovingly receives the Grace Cup from her. The other guest at the table looks on at this new-fangled practice with suspicion; perhaps he is keen to leave as he would do normally, but also wants to enjoy the fine wine on offer.
Back when Dad was designing these windows, he presented a full-size, full-colour cartoon (template) of a medallion featuring Saint Margaret of Scotland handing the Grace Cup to her husband. It was the only fully formed design feature of these windows that Fr McInally saw before commissioning Dad to make the windows. As you
Saint Margaret's Gospel lectionary, open at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel.
Margaret owned an illuminated pocket gospel book bound in gold and jewels. A painting of this book, open at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, can be seen in the window beneath the medallion of the Queen and King. Dad didn’t have a reference of this book so he and his colleague, Clive Sinclair, went to look at it in real life at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. There, they were left alone with the manuscript and were allowed to handle it and turn its pages, a very special experience. When the Bodleian Library purchased the book for £6 at an auction in 1887, they did not know that it had once belonged to Margaret herself. This fact was only discovered later by a 22-year-old scholar, Lucy Hill. While it is now possible to view this manuscript online, see fol. 003v and fol. 004r, Dad had to buy a postcard of the opening of Matthew’s Gospel to use as a reference for his painting.
Only one miracle is attributed to Saint Margaret during her lifetime, and it is attached to this gospel book which contains an introductory poem recounting the miraculous event. One day, when the Queen and her retinue were
crossing a river ford, the book fell into the water. Its absence was not noticed for some time, but it was eventually found at the bottom of the river with its pages open. When it was retrieved, it was found to be inexplicably undamaged, despite the protective silk covering the illuminations being torn away by the river current. According to the librarian, the poem about this event was written contemporary to the time of Saint Margaret.
To continue the floral theme of the Spring windows, at the bottom of this one are more flowers found in the Scottish countryside, including snowdrop, dog rose, dandelion, sweet pea and Scottish bluebell – also known as harebell. As well as the ubiquitous honeybees dotted around, there is also a spider and a wasp among the flowers. One of the honeybees, high up in the window above the Margaret and Malcolm medallion, is wearing a mortar board in recognition of this literate and well-read woman.
We have not included a close-up image of the transom of this window because it is a simple expression of the Celtic latticework pattern that features in all these windows. It provides a little extra colour to the cloud formations in the sky beyond but contains no painted detail.
More flowers at the bottom of the window.