Living

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. NORTHUMBRIA, Edith of was born after 1009 in Northumberland, England; died after 1048 in Northumberland, England.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Differentiator: Æthelred has been credited with the formation of a local investigative body made up of twelve thegns who were charged with publishing the names of any notorious or wicked men in their respective districts. Because the members of these bodies were under solemn oath to act in accordance with the law and their own good consciences, they have been seen by some legal historians as the prototype for the English Grand Jury.
• Relation to Me: 32 GGF
• Name: Æthelred the Unready, King Æthelred the II
• Royalty & Nobility: 18 Mar 978-1013, 1014-23 Apr 1016; King of the English

Notes:

Later perspectives of Æthelred have been less than flattering. Numerous legends and anecdotes have sprung up to explain his shortcomings, often elaborating abusively on his character and failures. One such anecdote is given by William of Malmesbury (lived c. 1080-c. 1143), who reports that Æthelred had defecated in the baptismal font as a child, which led St. Dunstan to prophesy that the English monarchy would be overthrown during his reign. This story is, however, a fabrication, and a similar story is told of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus, another mediaeval monarch who was unpopular among certain of his subjects.

Efforts to rehabilitate Æthelred's reputation have gained momentum since about 1980. Chief among the rehabilitators has been Simon Keynes, who has often argued that our poor impression of Æthelred is almost entirely based upon after-the-fact accounts of, and later accretions to, the narrative of events during Æthelred's long and complex reign.

II + YORK, Elfgifu of. Elfgifu was born in 970; died in 1002. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Relation to Me: 32 GGM
• Royalty & Nobility: Queen Consort of England

Other Events and Attributes:

• Differentiator: Some see Edgar's death as the beginning of the end of Anglo-Saxon England, followed as it was by three successful 11th century conquests — two Danish and one Norman.
• Relation to Me: 33 GGF
• Name: Edgar the Peaceful or the Peaceable
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 959 and 975; King of England

Notes:

Edgar was crowned at Bath and anointed with his wife Ælfthryth, setting a precedent for a coronation of a queen in England itself. Edgar's coronation did not happen until 973, in an imperial ceremony planned not as the initiation, but as the culmination of his reign (a move that must have taken a great deal of preliminary diplomacy). This service, devised by Dunstan himself and celebrated with a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, forms the basis of the present-day British coronation ceremony.

Known as a reformer. Edgar oversaw realignment of county boundaries that woudl endure for more than 1000 years (until 1974) and also reformed weights and measures and the coinage.

I + AELFTHRYTH. (daughter of ORDGAR) was born in 945; died in 1000. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Relation to Me: 33 GGM
• Name: Ælfthryth
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 965 and 975; Queen Consort of England

Notes:

The first king's wife known to have been crowned and anointed as Queen of the Kingdom of England. Mother of King Æthelred the Unready, she was a powerful political figure. She was linked to the murder of her stepson King Edward the Martyr and appeared as a stereotypical bad queen and evil stepmother in many medieval histories.

King Edgar organised a second coronation on 11 May 973 at Bath, perhaps to bolster his claim to be ruler of all of Britain. Here Ælfthryth was also crowned and anointed, granting her a status higher than any recent queen.The only model of a queen's coronation was that of Judith of Flanders, but this had taken place outside England. In the new rite, the emphasis lay on her role as protector of religion and the nunneries in the realm. She took a close interest in the well-being of several abbeys, and as overseer of Barking Abbey she deposed and later reinstated the abbess.

Ælfthryth played a large role as forespeca, or advocate, in at least seven legal cases. As such, she formed a key part of the Anglo-Saxon legal system as a mediator between the individual and the crown, which was increasingly viewing its role in the courts as a symbol of its authority as protector of its subjects. Ælfthryth's actions as forespeca were largely for the benefit of female litigants, and her role as a mediator shows the possibilities for women to have legal and political power in late Anglo-Saxon England.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Relation to Me: 34 GGF
• Name: Called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 27 Oct 939 and 26 May 946; King of the English

Notes:

Shortly after his proclamation as king, he had to face several military threats. King Olaf III Guthfrithson conquered Northumbria and invaded the Midlands; when Olaf died in 942, Edmund reconquered the Midlands.[2] In 943, Edmund became the god-father of King Olaf of York. In 944, Edmund was successful in reconquering Northumbria.[3] In the same year, his ally Olaf of York lost his throne and left for Dublin in Ireland. Olaf became the king of Dublin as Amlaíb Cuarán and continued to be allied to his god-father. In 945, Edmund conquered Strathclyde but ceded the territory to King Malcolm I of Scotland in exchange for a treaty of mutual military support.[3] Edmund thus established a policy of safe borders and peaceful relationships with Scotland. During his reign, the revival of monasteries in England began.

Died at age 25 in a skirmish while attempting to defend his steward from a thief named Leofa.

Died:
Edmund was murdered by Leofa, an exiled thief, while attending St Augustine's Day mass in Pucklechurch (South Gloucestershire)

I + AELFGIFU. (daughter of Living) died in 944; was buried . [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Differentiator: Ælfgifu was venerated as a saint soon after her burial at Shaftesbury. Æthelweard reports that many miracles had taken place at her tomb up to his day,
• Relation to Me: 34 GGM
• Royalty & Nobility: Queen Consort of England
• Name: Saint Elgiva, Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury

Notes:

Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, also known as Saint Elgiva was the first wife of Edmund I (r. 939-946), by whom she bore two future kings, Eadwig (r. 955-959) and Edgar (r. 959-975). Like her mother Wynflaed, she had a close and special if unknown connection with the royal nunnery of Shaftesbury (Dorset), founded by King Alfred, where she was buried and soon revered as a saint. According to a pre-Conquest tradition from Winchester, her feast day is 18 May. According to William of Malmesbury, Ælfgifu would secretly redeem those who were publicly condemned to severe judgment, she gave expensive clothes to the poor, and she also had prophetic powers as well as powers of healing.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Relation to Me: 34 GGF
• Royalty & Nobility: Ealdorman of Devon (early version of Earl)