Edward Atheling was the Saxon heir to the throne of England when the Danes took over the country for a time. This put Edward in danger, and so he was forced to find safety at the court of King Andrew in Hungary. At that time, the Hungarian court was a place that fostered Christianity and welcomed royal exiles. There, Edward Atheling found both refuge and a pious wife, Agatha, who was a German princess. There, too, Edward and Agatha started a family. Their first child was Margaret, born in 1045, followed by Christina and Edgar. In Hungary, Margaret was trained to be a princess by her parents and taught to be a devout Christian by Benedictine nuns. She absorbed the lessons well.

Back in England, the Saxons threw out the Danes and Edward the Confessor became king in 1042. He had no children, so in 1054 he asked his nephew Edward Atheling to return with his family to England and prepare to become king when the time came.

Edward Atheling, Agatha, and their children arrived in England around 1057. Before the end of the year, Edward Atheling was dead, never having met his uncle King Edward the Confessor. According to the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles , Edward Atheling's death made William the Conqueror's Norman Conquest at the Battle of Hastings, and thus the end of Anglo-Saxon England, inevitable. When Edward the Confessor died in 1066, no one of the Saxon royal house remained to become a strong king.

Once again, Margaret's family had to seek refuge. This time, they found it in Scotland, landing at a spot known since then as St. Margaret's Hope.