I am not aware of any record in which mention of this relique occurs before
the time of St. Margaret. It seems very probable that the venerated
crucifix which was so termed was one of the treasures which descended with
the crown of the Anglo-Saxon kings. When the princess Margaret, with her
brother Edgar, the lawful heir to the throne of St. Edward the Confessor,
fled into Scotland, after the victory of William, she carried this cross
with her amongst her other treasures. Aelred of Rievaulx (ap. Twysd. 350.)
gives a reason why it was so highly valued, and some description of the
rood itself:

"Est autem crux illa longitudinem habens palmæ de auro purissimo
mirabili opere fabricats, quæ in modum techæ clauditur et aperitur.
Cernitur in ea quædarn Dominicæ crucis portio, (sicut sæpe multorum
miraculorum argumento probatum est). Salvatoris nostri ymaginem habens
de ebore densissime sculptam et aureis distinctionibus mirabiliter
decoratam."

St. Margaret appears to have destined it for the abbey which she and her
royal husband, Malcolm III., founded at Dunfermline in honour of the Holy
Trinity: and this cross seems to have engaged her last thoughts for her
confessor relates that, when dying, she caused it to be brought to her, and
that she embraced, and gazed steadfastly upon it, until her soul passed
from time to eternity. Upon her death (16th Nov., 1093), the Black Rood was
deposited upon the altar of Dunfermline Abbey, where St. Margaret was
interred.

The next mention of it that I have been enabled to make note of, occurs in
1292, in the Catalogue of Scottish Muniments which were received within the
Castle of Edinburgh, in the presence of the Abbots of Dunfermline and Holy