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- Ealhswith
Queen consort of Wessex
Reign 23 April 871 – 26 October 899
Died 902
Burial New Minster, Winchester
Spouse Alfred, King of Wessex
Issue
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
Edward, King of England
Æthelgifu
Æthelweard of Wessex
Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders
Father Æthelred Mucel
Mother Eadburh
Ealhswith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 of the Mercian royal family, and according to the historian Cyril Hart she was a descendant of King Coenwulf of Mercia.[1]
Life
She was married to Alfred in 868. His elder brother Æthelred was then king, and Alfred was regarded as heir apparent.[2][3] The Danes occupied the Mercian town of Nottingham in that year, and the marriage was probably connected with an alliance between Wessex and Mercia.[4] Alfred became king on his brother's death in 871. Ealhswith is very obscure in contemporary sources. She did not witness any known charters, and Asser did not even mention her name in his life of King Alfred. In accordance with ninth century West Saxon custom, she was not given the title of queen. According to King Alfred, this was because of the infamous conduct of a former queen of Wessex called Eadburh, who had accidentally poisoned her husband.[5]
Alfred left his wife three important symbolic estates in his will, Edington in Wiltshire, the site of one important victory over the Vikings, Lambourn in Berkshire, which was near another, and Wantage, his birthplace. These were all part of his bookland, and they stayed in royal possession after her death.[3] It was probably after Alfred's death in 899 that Ealhswith founded the convent of St Mary's Abbey, Winchester, known as the Nunnaminster. She died on 5 December 902, and was buried in her son Edward's new Benedictine abbey, the New Minster, Winchester. She is commemorated in two early tenth century manuscripts as "the true and dear lady of the English".[3]
Ealhswith had a brother called Æthelwulf,[3] who was ealdorman of western and possibly central Mercia under his niece's husband, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, in the 890s.[6] He died in 901.[7]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ealhswith.
Children
Alfred and Ealhswith had five children who survived to adulthood.[3]
Æthelflæd (d. 918), Lady of the Mercians, married Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians
Edward the Elder (d. 924), King of the Anglo-Saxons
Æthelgifu, made abbess of her foundation at Shaftesbury by her father
Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders (d. 929), married Baldwin II, Count of Flanders
Æthelweard (d. c.920)
References
1. Keynes & Lapidge, Asser, pp. 77; 240-41; Hart, Æthelstan, p. 116 n.
2. Keynes & Lapidge, Asser, p. 77
3. Costambeys, Ealhswith
4. Williams, Ealhswith
5. Keynes & Lapidge Asser, pp. 71-72, 235-236
6. Hart, Æthelstan, p. 116
7. PASE, Æthelwulf 21 (http://pase.ac.uk/jsp/pdb?dosp=PAGE_CHANGE&N=1)
Sources
Costambeys, Marios (2004). "Ealhswith (d. 902), consort of Alfred, king of the West Saxons". Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39226. Retrieved
25 October 2012. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
Hart, Cyril (1973). "Athelstan 'Half King' and his family". Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University
Press. 2: 115–144. ISBN 0 521 20218 3. doi:10.1017/s0263675100000375.
Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael, eds. (1983). Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other
Contemporary Sources. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-04440-94.
Williams, Ann (1991). "Ealhswith wife of King Alfred d. 902". In Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth and D.
P. Kirby eds. A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain. Seaby. ISBN 1 85264 0472.
External links
Ealhswith 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Ealhswith at Find a Grave
St. Mary's Abbey
Preceded by
Wulfthryth?
Consort of the King of Wessex
871–899
Succeeded by
Ecgwynn or Ælfflæd
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ealhswith&oldid=784388793"
Categories: 9th-century English people 10th-century English people 9th-century women
10th-century women Anglo-Saxon royal consorts English Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns
902 deaths Alfred the Great House of Wessex
This page was last edited on 8 June 2017, at 01:46.
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In accordance with ninth century West Saxon custom, she was not given the title of queen, and did not witness any known charters.
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852 - 902 (50 years)
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