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On the unspoiled, beautiful Island of South Ronaldsay (Orkney) which is linked to Mainland by Churchill barrier lies the village of St. Margaret's Hope, a town of silver-grey, two-storey houses, sheltered in a bay.
The village was named after the young Norwegian Princess, Margaret.
By the late thirteenth century, following the Battle of Larg, the Norse threat to Scotland had receded and the English menace became paramount. And it was then in 1286 that the death of King Alexander III. plunged Scotland into sudden turmoil. Alexander's heir-apparent was his grandchild Margaret, the merely three years old infant daughter of the King of Norway.
The Scots - it was to be found - were not the only ones interested in the welfare of the young Queen. King Edward I of England immediately saw the chance to gain, what he already believed to be his right, but what he and his predecessors had always found so hard to govern and secure: the overlordship over Scotland. The Scots being without a King - and the nobles struggeling without end - would find it hard to resist his power and so he found a way of protecting the rights of his son and little Margaret all as one and the act of protecting her rights would give him effective control and power over Scotland if he had legal rights as to a kind of wardship over the Queen.
Magnus, Earl of <Orkney (son of Magnus, Gilbride's son, given the title of Earl by King Magnus of Norway in 1276) declares Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, the nearest heir of the throne in a document, dated 5th February
