Papers by Catherine Keene
Margaret’s identity cannot be understood without appreciating the deep role religion played in he... more Margaret’s identity cannot be understood without appreciating the deep role religion played in her public acts and private life. Like other royals of the time, she seamlessly melded religion, statecraft, and public and private devotion. The pious patronage of queens discussed previously remained firmly within the practical realm of statecraft, aligning them with the power and authority of the Church. Gisela and Anastasia in Hungary, and AElfthryth, Emma, and Edith in Anglo-Saxon England were active benefactors of the Church: procuring and donating treasured relics, granting lands, and rebuilding and endowing monasteries. All were also engaged in the management of the Church hierarchy, appointing bishops and founding monasteries. None of them, however, could be described as engaging in acts of personal devotion while queen. There is little evidence to suggest that their piety extended to such activities as attending to the poor and the sick, fasting rigorously, and praying continually. Margaret’s public acts of selfless charity and asceticism were therefore a departure from their example. They were instead a reflection of the beliefs and practices of the reform movement that was gaining momentum on the Continent.
On June 19, 1250, Margaret’s remains were translated a second time. The canonization process prec... more On June 19, 1250, Margaret’s remains were translated a second time. The canonization process preceding the translation was the result of the briefly coincident interests of Rome, Dunfermline Abbey, and the ruling dynasties of both Scotland and England. In the absence of a papal bull, however, the final outcome of the process is still contested. Otfried Krafft, in his monumental work on papal canonizations, concludes that the papacy stopped short of canonization, but opted to recognize Margaret’s veneration as a local saint by granting a remission of 40 days of enjoined penance for all who visited her shrine on her feast day.1 Roberto Paciocco reaches a similar conclusion.2 These doubtful arguments center on a lack of documentation (including, most importantly, a bull of canonization and a miracle collection), the order for a second inquest after the initial dossier was deemed insufficient, and the grant of only a minimal number of days of indulgences.
After leaving Hungary with her family, Margaret spent the remaining years of her childhood in the... more After leaving Hungary with her family, Margaret spent the remaining years of her childhood in the kingdom of Edward the Confessor. Little is known about her time there. The chronicles and her own vitae are mute regarding her activities from 1057 to 1066, a silence that echoes in the treatment of these nine years by modern biographers. T. Ratcliffe Barnett states that any consideration of this period “is all conjecture, and we must imagine for ourselves the life, the education, and the religious exercises of Margaret AEtheling during these nine years at [Edward the Confessor’s] Court.”1 While detailing historical events and genealogies, Samuel Cowen disregards her English sojourn, asserting that, “the Princess Margaret’s life, as known to us, began with her marriage in 1070 to Malcolm III.”2 A. M. D. Henderson-Howat devotes an entire chapter to this portion of Margaret’s life, but considers her experiences almost exclusively in relation to her sainted uncle.3 Alan J. Wilson dedicates only three paragraphs to the topic, concluding simply that Margaret and her family found the “religious atmosphere” in England “compatible.”4 Still, these were formative years for Margaret. She arrived in England as the daughter of the heir to the throne and the great-niece of the reigning king. As a member of the royal family, she would have been presented with established models of behavior and expectations regarding her formal role.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2013
Margaret firmly enters the historical record through her marriage to Malcolm, king of the Scots. ... more Margaret firmly enters the historical record through her marriage to Malcolm, king of the Scots. In many ways, however, her character becomes more obscure because of the muddled accounts the chronicles give of her marriage and elevation to queen. William of Malmesbury and AElred of Rievaulx, state simply that Margaret and Malcolm were married.1 Similarly, the E version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records blandly, “And that summer Edgar Cild went abroad, and Maerleswein, and many people with them, and went into Scotland. And King Malcolm received them all and married the aetheling’s sister, Margaret.”2 The Cotton manuscript declines to discuss the circumstances of the family’s arrival in the kingdom of the Scots, stating only that Margaret was married to Malcolm “by the desire of her friends rather than by her own, yea, rather by the appointment of God.”3 The Dunfermline Vita includes a more elaborate depiction of the meeting and marriage negotiations: And so Edgar aetheling, perceiving that the affairs of the English were troubled everywhere, tried to return by ship to the country in which he had been born, with his mother and his sisters, and by this plan of his mother and with her children she was eager to avoid the treachery of their adversaries under the protection of (her) paternal uncle, namely the emperor.4 In this case, the family is not merely fl eeing without a destination, but purposefully choosing to seek shelter with their kinsman, the emperor, at the suggestion of Margaret’s mother.
The critical first step in the cultivation of the memory of Margaret was the composition of her V... more The critical first step in the cultivation of the memory of Margaret was the composition of her Vita sometime between 1100 and 1107 by Turgot in response to a request by Margaret’s daughter, now queen of England. How much of this written record was the creation of Turgot, and how much was an accurate reflection of Margaret’s words and actions? To what extent was it a collaboration between the author, the subject, and the patron? Here, the hagiographical interpretation encroaches upon the historical record, informing and shaping the final product. The initial task, then, is to identify and to assess a hypothetical original. Of the surviving versions of the Vita, the Cotton Tiberius Ei manuscript is outside the temporal framework of this study and the Acta Sanctorum edition of the lost Vaucelles manuscript is somewhat redundant because it is almost identical to the Cotton Tiberius Diii manuscript. This analysis therefore focuses on a comparison between the versions of the Vita in the Cotton Tiberius Diii and Dunfermline manuscripts, hypothesizing that those passages that are common to both texts are most likely to have been original to Turgot. After having identified this hypothetical original text, it is then possible to ascertain Turgot’s perception of both Margaret and his own role in the creation of her memory.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2012
Miracle collections reflect two groups’ perspectives: those receiving and those recording the mir... more Miracle collections reflect two groups’ perspectives: those receiving and those recording the miracles. Thus, they offer insight into the processes of collective remembrance. Memory is inherently collective, as outlined in the introduction, involving communal decisions regarding the inclusion or omission of points of remembering. In miracle collections, supplicants receive supernatural aid in a way that is socially recognized and valued. Those recording the miraculous events then sift through these accounts, selecting which to document and determining how to relate them. The result is a coded map of memories that, as Aviad Kleinberg notes, forgets the saint of reality in order to create an image of the saint that is comfortably recognizable to those constructing her memory.1 The historical Margaret of Scotland (d. 1093) is hardly represented in her miracle collection. Daughter of the royal Anglo-Saxon house, wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland, and mother to three kings of Scotland and a queen of England, she is portrayed primarily as the supernatural protector of both her dynasty and the abbey housing her shrine.2 The saint identifies herself in the many visions included in her miracle collection not as a wife, mother, sister, or even saint but as the queen of her people: “Ego sum Margarita, Scotorum regina.” The number of visions of the saint and the frequency with which she introduces herself are unusual and, upon closer examination, provide clues to the collective mnemonic preferences of the community constructing her memory.
Even the barest of facts about Margaret’s birth are subject to debate. She was probably born abou... more Even the barest of facts about Margaret’s birth are subject to debate. She was probably born about 1046, perhaps as early as 1045, but certainly not after 1050; and she— again probably—was born in Hungary, but could possibly have been born in Kievan Rus’.1 Still, her early years were undoubtedly spent in Hungary, and there can therefore be no doubt that the unique influences of the Hungarian kingdom provided some of the models of sanctity and queenship on which she would later draw as queen of the Scots.
When Margaret married King Malcolm III, she became queen, the exact implications of which can onl... more When Margaret married King Malcolm III, she became queen, the exact implications of which can only be surmised since little information exists on any previous Scottish queens (with the possible exception of the fictionalized Lady Macbeth). Their absence from the historical record indicates that the queens of the early medieval kingdom of the Scots had no established administrative office, no official function, and no tradition of queenship such as that of their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. This nearly total lack of precedent allowed Margaret to articulate her own interpretation of queenship based on her accumulated experience.
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, Dec 6, 2013
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2013
Saint Margaret, Queen of the Scots, 2013
Magistra, 2018
Introduction: In the frontispiece of one of her Gospel Books, Judith of Flanders (d. 1094) is dep... more Introduction: In the frontispiece of one of her Gospel Books, Judith of Flanders (d. 1094) is depicted — or chose to have herself depicted — in close, even intimate, conversation with Jesus Christ (fig. 1). The two stand side by side, in three-quarter profile, compatibly inclining their heads toward one other, communicating through their exchange of books. She is positioned on Christ’s right side, offering her book with her left hand, which he receives in his right, while holding a book of his own in his left hand. Occupying the space more typically reserved for the Virgin Mary, she corresponds directly with Christ by means of their shared interest in the object of the book, both the book that she holds in this image, and the Gospel Book in which the image is depicted. By now, the affinity that medieval women had for the written word has been well established. This paper focuses instead on what gave rise to it, asserting that it is in part grounded in the medieval understanding of the Virgin Mary as a metaphorical book. Through repeated associations between the Virgin and the book — textually and pictorially — women were authorized to commission, read, and engage with the written word in a type of imitatio Mariae, just as this image of Judith suggests.
Reading Memory and Identity in the Texts of Medieval European Holy Women, 2012
Reading Memory and Identity in the Texts of Medieval European Holy Women, 2012
Saint Margaret, Queen of the Scots, 2013
Saint Margaret, Queen of the Scots, 2013
Saint Margaret, Queen of the Scots, 2013
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Papers by Catherine Keene