Æthelgifu (, fl. 870s to 890s) was a daughter of

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bo ...

, King of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

. She was the third surviving child of the marriage between Alfred and

Ealhswith Ealhswith or Ealswitha (died 5 December 902) was the wife of King Alfred the Great. Her father was a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini, which is thought to be an old Mercian tribal group. Her mother was Eadburh, a member o ...

in 868. Alfred's biographer,

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his ...

, wrote that "Æthelgifu, devoted to God through her holy virginity, subject and consecrated to the rules of monastic life, entered the service of God'. Asser recorded that Alfred founded Shaftesbury Abbey for nuns. It is not known when the abbey was founded, but it must be by 893 when Asser was writing. Alfred appointed Æthelgifu as its first abbess and she was joined by "many other noble nuns". Alfred granted the abbey one sixteenth of his royal revenues. According to a tradition recorded at the abbey, she adopted a religious life due to ill health. In Alfred's will he left Æthelgifu estates at Candover, probably

Preston Candover Preston Candover is a village and large civil parish in Hampshire, England. It has two churches, only one of which is still in use. Its nearest town is Basingstoke, approximately away. It has an acreage of , which lies on comparatively low groun ...

, and Kingsclere, both in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. The estates do not appear to have ever been held by the abbey, and she may not have survived her father, who died in 899.

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aethelgifu Alfred the Great 9th-century English women Anglo-Saxon abbesses House of Wessex Anglo-Saxon royalty 9th-century English people Daughters of kings