may thus be exaggerated; but the
introduction of English influences cannot be questioned. These
influences were mainly due to the personality of Malcolm's second wife,
the Saxon princess, Margaret. The queen was a woman of considerable
mental power, and possessed a great influence over her strong-headed and
hot-tempered husband. She was a devout churchwoman, and she immediately
directed her energies to the task of bringing the Scottish church into
closer communion with the Roman. The changes were slight in themselves;
all that we know of them is an alteration in the beginning of Lent, the
proper observance of Easter and of Sunday, and a question, still
disputed, about the tonsure. But, slight as they were, they stood for
much. They involved the abandonment of the separate position held by the
Scottish Church, and its acceptance of a place as an integral portion of
Roman Christianity. The result was to make the Papacy, for the first
time, an important factor in Scottish affairs, and to bridge the gulf
that divided Scotland from Continental Europe. We soon find Scottish
churchmen seeking learning in France, and bringing into Scotland those
French influences which were destined seriously to affect the
civilization of the country. But, above all, these Roman changes were
important just because they were Anglican--introduced by an English
queen, carried out by English clerics, emanating from a court which was
rapidly becoming English. Malcolm's subjects thenceforth began to adopt
English customs and the English tongue, which spread from the court of
Queen Margaret. The colony of English refugees represented a higher
civilization and a more advanced state of commerce than the Scottish
Celts, and the English language, from this cause also, made rapid
progress. For about twenty-five years Margaret exercised the most potent
influence in her husband's kingdom, and, when she died, her reputation
as a saint and her subsequent canonization maintained and supported the
traditions she had created. Not only did she have on her side the power
of a court and the prestige of courtly etiquette, but, as we have said,
she represented a higher civilizing force than that which was opposed to
her, and hence the greatness of her victory. It must, however, be
remembered that the spread of the English language in Scotland does not
necessarily imply the predominance of English blood. It means rather the
growth of English commerce. We can trace the a