Queen St Margaret, Queen of Scotland (1045/6–1093)

Nicolas Largillière (Paris 1656 - Paris 1746). Oil painting on canvas, Queen St Margaret, Queen of Scotland (1045/6–1093) by Nicolas Largillière (Paris 1656 – Paris 1746), signed on the footstool: N. de Largillierre Pinx./Ao. 169[2?]. In blue and scarlet robes, kneeling before a table on which are a crown and sceptre, and looking to the skies where appears a triangular sign. St Margaret was the wife of Malcolm III of Scotland, sister of Edgar Atheling. Margaret was granddaughter of the English King Edmund Ironside, and, after moving in exile from the Continent to Scotland, was compelled to marry King Malcolm III in 1067. She introduced Roman practice (for which, and for her good works, she was canonised in 1250) to the church, and more civilised ways to the court. It was her relic of the True Cross that her son, David I, gave to his monastic foundation, hence its name of Holyrood. This picture of the ancestress of the Stuarts was painted for Mary of Modena, and Gantrel’s engraving of it was dedicated to her by the Scotch College at Douai, which possessed the relic of St Margaret’s head. Sizergh Castle, Cumbria