Introduction

The introduction outlines the subject, sources, methodology, and the scope of the monograph. It then provides the synopsis of St Margaret’s legend – her noble origins, Christian education by the nurse, encounter with the pagan prefect Olibrius, arrest, torture, imprisonment, assault by a demonic dragon, interrogation of the black demon, heavenly apparitions, beheading by Malchus, burial, and posthumous miracles. It then discusses the structure and the content of the legend, highlighting its dichotomies: private–public, country–city, enclosure–spectacle, Christian–pagan, wholeness–fragmentation, and, of course, divine–demonic, action–reaction.

Virginity, sexuality, and temptation

Chapter 9 attempts to redirect the focus of attention from virginity as a sexually appealing category and from the saint’s corporeality as an inevitable reason for the saint’s sexual temptation. It suggests that in the early Latin passiones Margaret regards her embodiment as of secondary importance compared to her spirituality and inner self. The chapter then focuses on the nuptial rhetoric of the legend, which is closely linked with virginity in medieval theology and liturgy.

Evidence for the cult of St Margaret in late medieval England

Chapter 8 discusses the evidence for the cult of St Margaret in late-medieval England. A map is used to plot the ecclesiastical dedications to the saint and known locations of production or circulation of her life’s manuscripts. The chapter offers suggestions for St Margaret’s greater popularity in the region of East Anglia.

East Anglian Margarets: Lydgate, Bokenham, and the Harley 4012 compiler

Given that the cult of St Margaret was particularly strong in the East Anglian region (a quarter of all church dedications to St Margaret in England are found in Norfolk and Margaret was the most popular late-medieval name in that region), it is unsurprising that fifteenth-century East Anglia engendered three lives of St Margaret, commissioned by local patrons: by John Lydgate, by Osbern Bokenham, and by a compiler of MS BL Harley 4012, which used to belong to Anne Harling of East Harling. Chapter 6 discusses their sources, context, patrons, special features, and manuscripts.

St Margaret on the stage

Chapter 5 surveys the known references to St Margaret appearing in medieval English religious drama, parish pageants in London and East Anglia, and civic triumphs of Queen Margaret of Anjou. It also introduces a discussion of a link between St Margaret and St George in late-medieval culture.

Sanctae Margaretae, virginis et martyris: Latin texts of the later Middle Ages and their derivatives

Chapter 3 focuses on the Latin versions of St Margaret’s vita, circulating in medieval England. These include the one from the Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea), which became a base for many other versions, both Latin and vernacular. Its influence is also found in some of the English breviaries, discussed in the second section of the chapter. The chapter proceeds with an overview of Latin verses and hymns to St Margaret and finally discusses the vernacular texts influenced by the Legenda Aurea: the two Middle English translations, the Gilte Legende and Caxton’s Golden Legend; Nicholas Bozon’s Anglo-Norman verse life, and St Margaret’s legend from the Scottish Legendary.

The legend is born: early Greek, Latin, and insular versions

Chapter 1 is dedicated to the early distribution of the relics of St Margaret/Marina, the early versions of her passio (Greek, Latin, and Old English), and their interrelations. It also discusses the proper names and the place names found in her legend: of Margaret/Marina herself and its conflation with Pelagia, of her father Theodosius, the evil prefect Olibrius, her executioner Malchus, a matron Sinclitica, the supposed author Theotimus, the dragon Rufus, and of Pisidian Antioch. It then examines the three extant Old English versions of St Margaret’s life from the ninth to the early twelfth century: the Old English Martyrology, the Cotton Tiberius version, and the Corpus Christi life. The chapter proceeds with a discussion of the Anglo-Norman poem about the saint by Wace, an overview of Margaret’s early cult in England, and concludes with a study of the life of St Margaret from the Katherine Group.

The significance of the demonic episode in the legend of St Margaret

Chapter 11 focuses on St Margaret’s encounter with the dragon and the black demon. It argues that the saint’s conversation with the black demon, in which Margaret is tempted with arcane knowledge and then casts out the devil, is an act of exorcism influenced by the early Judaeo-Christian writings such as the Testament of Solomon or Questions of Bartholomew. Margaret’s role as an exorcist connects her with King Solomon who was also believed to be efficient against the demons harming expectant mothers and newborn children. This, and not her miraculous ‘birth’ from the dragon, may have initially made her specialise in protecting women in labour – the specialisation that later made Margaret the patron saint of childbirth.

St Margaret’s afterlife

Although the intercessions of St Margaret and other virgin martyrs are no longer relevant to the majority of the population residing in their former constituencies, the saints’ presence is still tangible in everyday life. The story of St Margaret did not end at the Reformation, and the saint continued reappearing in England in the modern period. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many newly built Protestant churches, as well as existing ones whose original dedications had been forgotten, were dedicated to St Margaret without even pretending that this was St Margaret of Scotland....

Done to death: the torture of St Margaret in historical perspective

Chapter 10 discusses the part played in the martyrdom narrative of torture, redirecting attention from its sexual component and the interplay between violence and desire to examination of the variety of the torture employed in the legend and the way it changes through time and between languages. The chapter suggests that despite the stability of the martyr narrative the types of torture could vary from one version to another depending on the time and place of composition. Even if the change in punitive practices had little direct impact on the development of the legend, it is useful to consider the diverse ways these practices may have been perceived throughout the centuries of the legend’s lively circulation in medieval Europe.