In 1067, Prince Edgar, a rival for William I’s crown, was forced to flee into Scotland with his mother and his sisters Christina and Margaret. It soon became plain that King Malcolm was determined to marry Margaret, even though she had decided to be a nun. Margaret relented at last, a decision the Chronicler held was good for Scotland.

Margaret had not wanted him for a husband, but after the wedding her noble character, befitting a descendant of the English kings, softened Malcolm’s roughness. The Chronicler believed that King and people alike benefited from her influence, and also that Malcolm, for all his faults, at least recognised that he owed God a debt of gratitude for his providence.

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