Edith of Wessex ( 1025 – 18 December 1075) was
Queen of England from her marriage to
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
in 1045 until Edward died in 1066. Unlike most English queens in the 10th and 11th centuries, she was crowned. The principal source on her life is a work she herself commissioned, the ''
Vita Ædwardi Regis
The ''Vita Ædwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium Requiescit'' ( en, Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster) or simply ''Vita Ædwardi Regis'' ( en, Life of King Edward) is a Latin biography of King Edward the Confessor completed by an an ...
'' or the ''Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster'', which is inevitably biased.
Early life
Edith was the daughter of
Godwin, the most powerful earl in England. Her mother
Gytha was sister of
Ulf
Ulf, or Ulv is a masculine name common in Scandinavia and Germany. It derives from the Old Norse word for "wolf" (''úlfr'', see Wulf).
The oldest written record of the name's occurrence in Sweden is from a runestone of the 11th century.
The fe ...
, a Danish earl who was
Cnut the Great
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
's brother-in-law. She was probably born in or before 1027.
[ Edith was originally named Gytha, but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she married King Edward the Confessor.]Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...
Her brothers were Sweyn Sweyn is a Scandinavian masculine given name which may refer to:
Kings:
* Sweyn Forkbeard (960–1014), King of Denmark, England, and Norway as Sweyn I
* Sweyn or Svein Knutsson (c. 1016–1035), King of Norway as Sweyn II
* Sweyn II of Denmark (10 ...
(c. 1020 – 1052), Harold
Harold may refer to:
People
* Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
* Harold (surname), surname in the English language
* András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold"
Arts a ...
(later Harold II) (c. 1022 – 1066), Tostig
Tostig Godwinson ( 102925 September 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold Godwinson. After being exiled by his brother, Tostig supported the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada's invasion of England, and was kille ...
(c. 1026 – 1066), Gyrth
Gyrth Godwinson (Old English: ''Gyrð Godƿinson''; 1032 – 14 October 1066) was the fourth son of Earl Godwin, and thus a younger brother of Harold Godwinson. He went with his eldest brother Sweyn into exile to Flanders in 1051, but unlike S ...
(c. 1030 – 1066), Leofwine (c. 1035 – 1066), and Wulfnoth (c. 1040 – 1094). Edith was the firstborn of Godwin's three daughters, which included her sisters Gunhild (or Gunhilda) (c. 1035 – 1080) and Ælfgifu (c. 1035 – ?). The exact birthdates of the Godwin children are unknown, but Sweyn was the firstborn and Harold was the second son.[Mason ''House of Godwine'' p. 10] Harold was aged about 25 in 1045, which makes his birth date around 1020.[Rex ''Harold'' p. 31]
Edith was brought up at Wilton Abbey
Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539.
History Foundation
Wilton Abbey is first reco ...
. She was an educated woman who spoke several languages, skills she probably acquired at Wilton. She remained attached to it, and in later years rebuilt its church. Her niece, Gunhild of Wessex
Gunhild of Wessex (fl. 1066–1093) was a younger daughter of Harold Godwinson and his first wife, Edyth Swannesha, who was most likely the wealthy magnate Edyth the Fair from the Domesday Book.
Life
Gunhild remained in England after her fath ...
, would also be educated at Wilton.
The ''Vita Edwardi'' emphasised her piety. She helped Giso, the Bishop of Wells
The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.
The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...
, secure the endowments of his see, and gave lands to Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey ( '' " St Mary's Abbey " '' ) was a Benedictine monastery located in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames beside the River Thames.
The abbey was founded c.675 AD in honour of The Virgin Mary.
The Domesday Book of 1086 informs ...
, but the monks of Evesham alleged that she had the relics of many monasteries brought to Gloucester so that she could select the best for herself. When Gervin, abbot of Saint-Riquier
Saint-Riquier () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Geography
The commune is situated northeast of Abbeville, on the D925 and D32 crossroads.
Abbey
Saint-Riquier (originally ''Centula'' or ''Centulum' ...
, who was visiting the English court, rejected her kiss of greeting, she took offence. Edward reproved her, and she accepted the rebuff, even going on to urge English churchmen not to kiss women, although they did not object to the custom.[
Edith lost four of her brothers in a very short span. Tostig died on 25 September 1066 during the ]Battle of Stamford Bridge
The Battle of Stamford Bridge ( ang, Gefeoht æt Stanfordbrycge) took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, in England, on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading No ...
. Three others – Harold, Gyrth, and Leofwine – all died on 14 October 1066, during the Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...
.
Marriage and life as queen
Edith married Edward on 23 January 1045.[ Unlike most wives of the Saxon kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Edith was crowned queen. The marriage produced no children. Later ecclesiastical writers claimed that this was either because Edward took a vow of celibacy, or because he refused to consummate the marriage because of his antipathy to Edith's family, the Godwins. However, this is dismissed by modern historians. In the view of Edward's biographer, Frank Barlow, "the theory that Edward's childlessness was due to deliberate abstention from sexual relations lacks authority, plausibility and diagnostic value."
In 1051 Godwin and his sons fell out with Edward and fled the country. Edith was sent to a nunnery, possibly because she was childless and Edward hoped to divorce her.][ When the Godwins effected their return through force in 1052, Edith was reinstated as queen. In later years, she became one of Edward's inner group of advisers. In the ''Vita Edwardi'', according to Barlow, "although she is always placed modestly behind the throne, the author does not minimize her power or completely conceal her will. Whenever we catch sight of her elsewhere, we see a determined woman, interfering, hard, probably bad-tempered."
As the king's wife, she was responsible for his regal presentation. She commissioned works for his personal ornament, and had at least one ]goldsmith
A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...
among her tenants. When he died, the Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
shows that she was the richest woman in England, and the fourth wealthiest individual, after the king, Stigand
Stigand (died 1072) was an Anglo-Saxon churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England who became Archbishop of Canterbury. His birth date is unknown, but by 1020 he was serving as a royal chaplain and advisor. He was named Bishop of Elmham in 104 ...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
, and her brother Harold
Harold may refer to:
People
* Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name
* Harold (surname), surname in the English language
* András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold"
Arts a ...
. She held land valued at between £1,570 and £2,000 per annum.
She was close to her brother Tostig
Tostig Godwinson ( 102925 September 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold Godwinson. After being exiled by his brother, Tostig supported the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada's invasion of England, and was kille ...
, and in 1055 she and Harold secured his appointment as Earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria or Ealdorman of Northumbria was a title in the late Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The ealdordom was a successor of the Norse Kingdom of York. In the seventh century, the Anglo-Saxo ...
. His rule was unpopular, and in 1064 Edith was accused at court of engineering the murder of the Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
n noble Gospatrick in Tostig's interest. In 1065 Tostig was probably hunting with King Edward when the northerners rebelled and elected Morcar, Harold's brother-in-law, as earl. Tostig charged Harold with conspiring with the rebels, a charge which Harold purged himself of with a public oath. Edward demanded that the rebels be suppressed, but to his and Edith's fury Harold and the English thegn
In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there w ...
s refused to enforce the order. Morcar was confirmed as earl and Tostig forced into exile.[
]
Later life and death
Upon Edward's death (5 January 1066), he was succeeded by Edith's brother, Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...
. At the Battle of Stamford Bridge
The Battle of Stamford Bridge ( ang, Gefeoht æt Stanfordbrycge) took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, in England, on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading No ...
(25 September 1066) and the Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...
(14 October 1066), Edith lost four of her remaining brothers (Tostig
Tostig Godwinson ( 102925 September 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold Godwinson. After being exiled by his brother, Tostig supported the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada's invasion of England, and was kille ...
, Harold, Gyrth
Gyrth Godwinson (Old English: ''Gyrð Godƿinson''; 1032 – 14 October 1066) was the fourth son of Earl Godwin, and thus a younger brother of Harold Godwinson. He went with his eldest brother Sweyn into exile to Flanders in 1051, but unlike S ...
and Leofwine). Her brother Wulfnoth, who had been given to Edward the Confessor as a hostage in 1051 and soon afterwards became a prisoner of William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
, remained in captivity in Normandy. Edith was therefore the only senior member of the Godwin family to survive the Norman conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
on English soil, the sons of Harold having fled to Ireland.
Carola Hicks
Carola Hicks (7 November 1941 – 23 June 2010) was a British art historian.
She was born Carola Brown in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, and educated at the Lady Eleanor Holles School and the University of Edinburgh, where she took a first in archa ...
, an art historian, has recently put her forward as a candidate for the author of the Bayeux Tapestry.
After Edward's death, Edith read the lives of English saints, and gave information about St Kenelm to his hagiographer, Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (or Goscelin of Canterbury, born c. 1040, died in or after 1106) was a Benedictine hagiographical writer. He was a Fleming or Brabantian by birth and became a monk of St Bertin's at Saint-Omer before travelling to Englan ...
.[Stafford, 2009, p. 125] She died at Winchester on 18 December 1075.[Williams, ODNB, Edith] Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris ( la, Matthæus Parisiensis, lit=Matthew the Parisian; c. 1200 – 1259), was an English Benedictine monk, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey ...
records a tradition that her death brought an end to an illness from which she had been suffering at some length. She was buried together with her husband in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
and her funeral was arranged by William.[Stafford, ''Queen Emma and Queen Edith'', pp. 278–9.] The northern author of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Manuscript D, reports:
See also
*House of Wessex family tree
This is a list of monarchs of Wessex until AD 886. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure.
The names are give ...
* Godwin family tree
* Cnut the Great's family tree
Citations
Bibliography
* Barlow, Frank (1997) ''Edward the Confessor'', Yale University Press: London
* Stafford, Pauline (1997). ''Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women's Power in Eleventh-Century England'', Blackwell
* Stafford, Pauline (2009). 'Edith, Edward's Wife and Queen', pp. 129–138 in Richard Mortimer ed., ''Edward the Confessor: The Man and the Legend'', The Boydell Press
*
External links
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edith Of Wessex
1020s births
1075 deaths
Anglo-Saxon women
Anglo-Saxon royal consorts
House of Godwin
11th-century English people
11th-century English women
Burials at Westminster Abbey
House of Wessex
Daughters of British earls