The reign of Malcolm Canmore (1057-1093) brought Scotland in closer connection with western Europe and western Christianity. The Norman Conquest (1066) increased the tendency of the English-speaking people of Lothian to acquiesce in the rule of a Celtic king, rather than in that of the adventurers who followed William of Normandy. Norman operations did not at first reach Cumberland, which Malcolm held; and, on the death of his Norse wife, the widow of Duncan's foe, Thorfinn (who left a son, Duncan), Malcolm allied himself with the English Royal House by marrying Margaret, sister of Eadgar AEtheling, then engaged in the hopeless effort to rescue northern England from the Normans. The dates are confused - Malcolm may have won the beautiful sister of Edgar, rightful king of England, in 1068, or at the time of his raid into Northumberland in 1070, said to have been of savage ferocity, and his yet more cruel reprisals for Gospatric's harrying of Cumberland. In either case, St. Margaret's biographer, Turgot, had lived at her Court and whether or not he was her Confessor, represents the Saint as subduing the savagery of Malcolm, who passed wakeful nights in weeping for his sins. A lover of books (which Malcolm could not read), an expert in "the delicate, and gracious, and bright works of women," Margaret brought her own gentleness and courtesy among a so-called rude people, built the abbey church of Dunfermline, and presented the churches with many beautiful golden reliquaries and fine sacramental plate. In 1072, to avenge a raid of Malcolm's in 1070, the Conqueror brought an army and a fleet to Abernethy on Tay, where Malcolm "became his man" and handed over his son Duncan as a hostage for peace in exchange for English manors. The English view is that Malcolm became William's "man for all that he had" - or for all south of Tay. In 1091, after various raidings of northern England and the death of the Conqueror, Malcolm renewed the treaty of Abernethy in Lothian, now secure in his twelve English manors. William Rufus then took and fortified Carlisle, seized part of Malcolm's lands in Cumberland and summoned him to Gloucester, where the two Kings quarrelled and did not meet. No sooner had Malcolm returned home than he led an army into Northumberland, where he was defeated and slain, near Alnwick, on November 13, 1093. His son Edward fell with him, and his wife, St Margaret, died in Edinburgh Castle - her body was carried under cloud of night through the host of rebel Celts and buried at Dunfermline. Sources From A Short History of Scotland, "Malcolm-Canmore - The Norman Conquest" Image of Malcolm III and St. Margaret in public domain from Wikipedia Commons