Edith was born in Dunfirmline about 1079, the daughter of Malcolm III Canmore, king of Scots, and St. Margaret of Wessex. She was destined to become a nun, and went to Romsey where her aunt Christina was the abbess. However in 1100 Henry I, the new king of England, demanded her hand in marriage and on 11 November 1100 at Westminster she became his queen. She adopted the name Matilda in honour of the king's mother. They had two, possibly three children. Queen Matilda built a leper hospital at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London, and founded the Augustinian Priory at Aldgate. She was aged only about 38 when she died on 1 May 1118.