Eadgifu of Kent (also Edgiva or Ediva) (in or before 903 – in or after 966) was the third wife of
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder (17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin ...
,
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
of Wessex.
Biography
Eadgifu was the daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent, who died at the
Battle of the Holme in 902. She married Edward in about 919 and became the mother of two sons,
Edmund I of England
Edmund I or Eadmund I (920/921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. After ...
, later King Edmund I, and
Eadred of England
Eadred (c. 923 – 23 November 955) was King of the English from 26 May 946 until his death. He was the younger son of Edward the Elder and his third wife Eadgifu, and a grandson of Alfred the Great. His elder brother, Edmund, was killed tryi ...
, later King Eadred, and two daughters, Saint
Eadburh of Winchester and Eadgifu.
[Stafford, Eadgifu] She survived Edward by many years, dying in the reign of her grandson
Edgar.
According to a narrative written in the early 960s, her father had given
Cooling
Cooling is removal of heat, usually resulting in a lower temperature and/or phase change. Temperature lowering achieved by any other means may also be called cooling.ASHRAE Terminology, https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/free-resources/as ...
in Kent to a man called Goda as security for a loan. She claimed that her father had repaid the loan and left the land to her, but Goda denied receiving payment and refused to surrender the land. She got possession of Cooling six years after her father's death, when her friends persuaded King Edward to threaten to dispossess Goda of his property unless he gave up the estate. Edward later declared Goda's lands forfeit and gave the charters to Eadgifu, but she returned most of the estates to Goda, although retained the charters. Some time after this her marriage to Edward took place. After his death King Æthelstan required Eadgifu to return the charters to Goda, perhaps because the king was on bad terms with his stepmother.
She disappeared from court during the reign of her step-son, King
Æthelstan
Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ang, Æðelstān ; on, Aðalsteinn; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his fir ...
, but she was prominent and influential during the reign of her two sons and attested many of their charters.
[ In charter S 562 in 953, a grant to her by Eadred of land at ]Felpham
Felpham (, sometimes pronounced locally as ''Felf-fm'') is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. Although sometimes considered part of the urban area of greater Bognor Regis, it is a village and civil parish in ...
in Sussex, she is described as ''famula Dei'', suggesting that she may have taken religious vows while continuing to live on her own estates.[Foot, ''Veiled Women'', p. 171]
Following the death of her younger son Eadred in 955, she was deprived of her lands by her eldest grandson, King Eadwig
Eadwig (also Edwy or Eadwig All-Fair, 1 October 959) was King of England from 23 November 955 until his death in 959. He was the elder son of Edmund I and his first wife Ælfgifu, who died in 944. Eadwig and his brother Edgar were young ...
, perhaps because she took the side of his younger brother, Edgar, in the struggle between them. When Edgar succeeded on Eadwig's death in 959 she recovered some lands and received generous gifts from her grandson, but she never returned to her prominent position at court. She is last recorded as a witness to a charter in 966.[
She was known as a supporter of saintly churchmen and a benefactor of churches.][
]
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 ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eadgifu of Kent
10th-century English women
10th-century English people
Wives of Edward the Elder
10th-century deaths
Year of birth unknown
Queen mothers