Margaret of Wessex: Student - Teacher Edition

By Laurel A. Rockefeller

The inspiring story of Margaret of Wessex, queen consort to Malcolm III Canmore of Alba comes to life in this special student-teacher edition designed for educational and home school use. Questions practicing reading comprehension, logic, and critical thinking skills pair with history learning to create a robust yet accessible addition to, or focal point for, social studies units and classes. Appendices at the end of the book provide key reference information, including a detailed timeline covering over 3000 years of Scotland’s history. Medieval units of time are both explained in the accompanying appendix and practiced in the narrative.

A must have addition to every secondary social studies course. For ages 12+.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laurel A. Rockefeller
• Release date: Mar 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463762714

Laurel A. Rockefeller

Born, raised, and educated in Lincoln, Nebraska USA Laurel A. Rockefeller’s passion for animals comes through in everything she writes. First self-published in 2012 as social science fiction author (the Peers of Beinan series), Laurel has expanded her work into the animal care/guide, history, historical fiction, and biography genres.Find Laurel’s books in digital, paperback, and hardcover in your choice of up to ten languages, including Welsh, Chinese, and Dutch. Audio editions are published in all four available languages for audible: English, French, Spanish, and German.Besides advocating for animals and related environmental causes, Laurel A. Rockefeller is a passionate educator dedicated to improving history literacy worldwide, especially as it relates to women’s accomplishments. In her spare time, Laurel enjoys spending time with her cockatiels, travelling to historic places, and watching classic motion pictures and classic television series.

Book preview

Margaret of Wessex

Student-Teacher Edition

By Laurel A. Rockefeller

Cover art: the stained-glass window at St. Margaret’s Chapel, Edinburgh Castle.

Window created by Douglas Strachan, 1922.

Featured Heraldry (left to right):

House Wessex, King Edward the Confessor, King Harold II Godwinson, King William I the Conqueror, Royal Lion of Scotland

This book is a work of narrative history based on events in the life of Margaret of Wessex and constructed using primary and secondary historical sources, commentary, and research. Except when quoting primary sources, dialogue and certain events were constructed and/or reconstructed for dramatization purposes according to the best available research data.

In this student/teacher edition, study guide questions immediately follow each chapter. In most cases, there are no right or wrong answers. Instead, the purpose is to provoke critical thinking while practicing reading and improving reading comprehension skills.

Consulted sources appear at the end of this book. Interpretation of source material is at the author’s discretion and utilized within the scope of the author’s imagination, including names, events, and historical details.

Special thanks to translators Christina Löw for her assistance with the German, and Laura Lucardini for her assistance with the Latin portions of this book.

Check out these related biographies from the Legendary Women of World History Series

Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, the Warrior Princess of Deheubarth

Empress Matilda of England

Mary Queen of the Scots: the Forgotten Reign

Discover the entire Legendary Women of World History biography series and more at www.laurelarockefeller.co.uk

©2020 Laurel A. Rockefeller

All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Family Trees

Prologue

Chapter One: Hungarian Exiles

Chapter Two: Edward the Confessor

Chapter Three: Conquest

Chapter Four: Jorvik

Chapter Five: Escape to Dunfermline

Chapter Six: Saxon Queen

Chapter Seven: Saint Margaret

Epilogue

Puzzles for Margaret of Wessex

Prayers in Latin and Their Translations

Medieval Time

Timeline

Suggested Reading and Bibliography

Answer Key for Puzzles

About This Series

Family Trees

The Reichsalder eagle of the Empire of the Romans.

Duke William of Normandy/King William I the Conqueror.

King Harold II Godwinson of Wessex

The wyvern of House Wessex

Edward the Confessor

The lion rampant of Scotland

House Wessex

House of Dunkeld

Prologue

The White Tower of London rose up against the foggy Thames River, its glistening white limestone walls concealing its true purpose as a symbol of conquest and dominion over the Saxons and its ruling House Wessex. A royal barge glided up to the Tower from the Thames. Four royal guards marched from the Tower to meet the docking barge as two more guards on the boat rose expectantly. Soberly the princess royal, Matilda, Kaiserin of the Empire of the Romans, stepped onto English soil for the first time in fifteen years. Ceremoniously the guards marched the unwilling princess from the Thames to King Henry’s throne room.

Bowing, Kaiserin Matilda found herself face to face at last with the father she barely knew as a child, Salve Henrice rege Angliae et Normaniae.

Salve Matilde, imperatrix romanorum! saluted King Henry in return. Welcome home, Matilda. How was your journey? asked King Henry.

Je ne comprends pas. Je ne parle pas Anglais, replied Matilda in French.

Henry rose from his throne sternly, You did not answer my question.

Deutsch ist meine Muttersprache. Wie sollte es das auch nicht sein? Immerhin habt Ihr mich als dessen Braut an den Hof des Kaisers gesandt - dort bin ich aufgewachsen. Das römisch-deutsche Reich ist meine wahre Heimat. Dort möchte ich leben und sterben, nicht in England und erst recht nicht in London! added Matilda defiantly in German.

King Henry slapped his daughter, You sound like a Saxon!

Ich bin die römisch-deutsche Kaiserin, asserted Matilda as she rose to her feet from the blow, her eyes burning with anger and hatred.

Not here! roared King Henry. Here you are my daughter and my heir. Here you are Princess of England. You will do as you are told, Matilda.

Matilda struggled to switch to English, her words slow and her accent thick with a mix of German, Dutch, French, and Latin, Ich – I allein alone survive of my mother’s children. I only I have the blood of Wessex, Máel Coluim Ceann Mhor, and yours of Normandy. No one else can rule England after you but me. Take care of your treasure, Henri Roi de Angleterre et de Normandie. Without me, you cannot rule your lands. Without me, there is no more Norman England.

King Henry hit Matilda again, No one defies me! Not in Yorkshire, not in Scotland, and certainly not you! You will obey me. You will be the perfect English princess or I will beat you until everything German bleeds out of you. Now go to your apartment! You will stay there until I send for you again. With a click of his fingers, two guards seized Matilda and escorted her to her rooms.

Did you have to defy him? asked Agnes as she helped Matilda out of her traveling clothes, her accent thickly German.

He treats me as his subject when I outrank him! exclaimed Matilda. "What is England? A minor territory compared with our holdings in France. Normandy is the greater realm. At least in Normandy everyone speaks the same dialect of French. This England has not a single form of the language that everyone within its realm speaks with the same words. Norman nobles speak Norman French; they don’t’ even try to speak the local language which is different depending on what city or shire you are in. Do you think the English spoken in Manchester is the same as it is in London? In Lincoln? In York? In Bristol?

Maybe someday it will be, but right now it’s a simmering blend of languages representing every culture to set foot on these islands. Latin from the Romans added into the native Brythonic dialects. Angles in the old Iceni lands and in Northumbria. Jutes in Sussex. Saxons here in the southeast. And that’s before the Danes invaded England and the Norwegians invaded Orkney. Each of these speak different languages and dialects. Every plant, every animal has multiple names depending on local preferences. Yet my father expects me to be fluent in this odd language? Even when I was little, before I learned German in my Heinrich’s court, how far would that English have taken me?

Agnes pulled a bliaut over the Kaiserin’s head and worked at its laces, I heard you speak English a couple times at court; your father’s messengers did not speak German when they came to you. If English is as confused as the Tower of Babel in the Bible, how was that even possible?

"The English you heard was the dialect House Wessex used in its courts. It’s not completely forgotten, at least not in