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- Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
Queen consort of England
Tenure 939 - 944
Died 944
Burial Shaftesbury Abbey
Spouse Edmund I, King of England
Issue Eadwig, King of England
Edgar, King of England
Mother Wynflaed
Will of Wynflæd (British Library Cotton Charters viii. 38)[5]
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, also known as Saint Elgiva[1]
(died 944) 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,[2]
where she was buried and soon revered as a saint. According
to a pre-Conquest tradition from Winchester, her feast day is
18 May.[3][4]
Contents
1 Family background
2 Married life
3 Sainthood
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
6.1 Primary sources
6.2 Secondary sources
7 Further reading
Family background
Her mother appears to have been an associate of
Shaftesbury Abbey called Wynflaed (also
Wynnflæd). The vital clue comes from a charter of
King Edgar, in which he confirmed the grant of an
estate at Uppidelen (Piddletrenthide, Dorset) made
by his grandmother (ava) Wynflæd to
Shaftesbury.[6] She may well be the nun or vowess
(religiosa femina) of this name in a charter dated
942 and preserved in the abbey's chartulary. It
records that she received and retrieved from King
Edmund a handful of estates in Dorset, namely
Cheselbourne and Winterbourne Tomson, which somehow ended up in the possession of the community.[7]
Since no father or siblings are known, further speculation on Ælfgifu's background has largely depended on the
identity of her mother, whose relatively uncommon name has invited further guesswork. H. P. R. Finberg
suggests that she was the Wynflæd who drew up a will, supposedly sometime in the mid-10th century, after
Ælfgifu's death. This lady held many estates scattered across Wessex (in Somerset, Wiltshire, Berkshire,
Oxfordshire, and Hampshire) and was well connected with the nunneries at Wilton and Shaftesbury, both of
which were royal foundations. On that basis, a number of relatives have been proposed for Ælfgifu, including a
sister called Æthelflæd, a brother called Eadmær, and a grandmother called Brihtwyn.[8]
The remains of the Norman buildings which replaced the earlier ones at Shaftesbury
Abbey.
There is, however, no consensus among scholars about Finberg's suggestion. Simon Keynes and Gale R. Owen
object that there is no sign of royal relatives or connections in Wynflæd's will and Finberg's assumptions about
Ælfgifu's family therefore stand on shaky ground.[9] Andrew Wareham is less troubled about this and suggests
that different kinship strategies may account for it.[10] Much of the issue of identification also seems to hang on
the number of years by which Wynflæd can plausibly have outlived her daughter. In this light, it is significant
that on palaeographical grounds, David Dumville has rejected the conventional date of c. 950 for the will,
which he considers “speculative and too early” (and that one Wynflæd was still alive in 967).[11]
Married life
The sources do not record the date of Ælfgifu's marriage to Edmund. The eldest son Eadwig, who had barely
reached majority on his accession in 955, may have been born around 940, which gives us only a very rough
terminus ante quem for the betrothal. Although as the mother of two future kings, Ælfgifu proved to be an
important royal bed companion, there is no strictly contemporary evidence that she was ever consecrated as
queen. Likewise, her formal position at court appears to have been relatively insignificant, overshadowed as it
was by the queen mother Eadgifu of Kent. In the single extant document witnessed by her, a Kentish charter
datable between 942 and 944, she subscribes as the king's concubine (concubina regis), with a place assigned to
her between the bishops and ealdormen. By comparison, Eadgifu subscribes higher up in the witness list as
mater regis, after her sons Edmund and Eadred but before the archbishops and bishops.[12] It is only towards
the end of the 10th century that Æthelweard the Chronicler styles her queen (regina), but this may be a
retrospective honour at a time when her cult was well established at Shaftesbury.
Much of Ælfgifu's claim to
fame derives from her
association with
Shaftesbury. Her patronage
of the community is
suggested by a charter of
King Æthelred, dated 984,
according to which the
abbey exchanged with King
Edmund the large estate at
Tisbury (Wiltshire) for
Butticanlea (unidentified).
Ælfgifu received it from her
husband and intended to
bequeath it back to the
nunnery, but such had not
yet come to pass (her son
Eadwig demanded that
Butticanlea was returned to
the royal family first).[13]
Ælfgifu predeceased her
husband in 944.[14] In the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury wrote that she suffered from an illness
during the last few years of her life, but there may have been some confusion with details of Æthelgifu's life as
recorded in a forged foundation charter of the late 11th or 12th century (see below).[15] Her body was buried
and enshrined at the nunnery.[16]
Sainthood
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,[17] and these were apparently attracting some local attention.
Lantfred of Winchester, who wrote in the 970's and so can be called the earliest known witness of her cult, tells
of a young man from Collingbourne (possibly Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire), who in the hope of being
cured of blindness travelled to Shaftesbury and kept vigil. What led him there was the reputation of “the
venerable St Ælfgifu [...] at whose tomb many bodies of sick person receive medication through the
omnipotence of God”.[18] Despite the new prominence of Edward the Martyr as a saint interred at Shaftesbury,
her cult continued to flourish in later Anglo-Saxon England, as evidenced by her inclusion in a list of saints'
resting places, at least 8 pre-Conquest calendars and 3 or 4 litanies from Winchester.[19]
Ælfgifu is styled a saint (Sancte Ælfgife) in the D-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (mid-11th century) at the
point where it specifies Eadwig's and Edgar's royal parentage.[20] Her cult may have been fostered and used to
enhance the status of the royal lineage, more narrowly that of her descendants.[21] Lantfred attributes her
healing power both to her own merits and those of her son Edgar. It may have been due to her association that
in 979 the supposed body of her murdered grandson Edward the Martyr was exhumed and in a spectacular
ceremony, received at the nunnery of Shaftesbury, under the supervision of ealdorman Ælfhere.[22]
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. [23]
Ælfgifu's fame at Shaftesbury seems to have eclipsed that of its first abbess, King Alfred's daughter
Æthelgifu,[24] so much so perhaps that William of Malmesbury wrote contradictory reports on the abbey's early
history. In the Gesta regum, he correctly identifies the first abbess as Alfred's daughter, following Asser,
although he gives her the name of Ælfgifu (Elfgiva),[25] while in his Gesta pontificum, he credits Edmund's
wife Ælfgifu with the foundation.[26] Either William encountered conflicting information, or he meant to say
that Ælfgifu refounded the nunnery.[27] In any event, William would have had access to local traditions at
Shaftesbury, since he probably wrote a now lost metrical Life for the community, a fragment of which he
included in his Gesta pontificum:[28]
Latin text Translation
Nam nonnullis passa annis morborum
molestiam,
defecatam et excoctam Deo dedit animam.
Functas ergo uitae fato beatas exuuias
infinitis clemens signis illustrabat Deitas.
Inops uisus et auditus si adorant tumulum,
sanitati restituti probant sanctae meritum.
Rectum gressum refert domum qui accessit
loripes,
mente captus redit sanus, boni sensus locuples
For some years she suffered from illness,
And gave to God a soul that it had purged and purified
When she died, God brought lustre to her blessed
remains
In his clemency with countless miracles.
If a blind man or a deaf worship at her tomb,
They are restored to health and prove the saint's merits.
He who went there lame comes home firm of step,
The madman returns sane, rich in good sense.[29]
See also
Ælfgifu of Exeter
Notes
References
Primary sources
Anglo-Saxon charters
S 514 (AD 942 x 946), King Edmund grants land. Archive: Canterbury.
S 850 (AD 984), King Æthelred grants estates to Shaftesbury. Archive: Shaftesbury.
S 744 (AD 966). Archive: Shaftesbury.
S 485 (AD 942). Archive: Shaftesbury.
S 1539, ed. and tr. Dorothy Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills. Cambridge Studies in English Legal
History. Cambridge, 1930. pp. 10–5 (with commentary, pp. 109–14).
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS D), ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A
Collaborative Edition. Vol. 6. Cambridge, 1983.
Æthelweard, Chronicon, ed. and tr. Alistair Campbell, The Chronicle of Æthelweard. London, 1961.
Lantfred of Winchester, Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni, ed. and tr. M. Lapidge, The Cult of St
Swithun. Winchester Studies 4. The Anglo-Saxon Minsters of Winchester 2. Oxford, 2003. 252-333.
On the resting places of English saints, ed. F. Liebermann, Die Heiligen Englands. Angelsächsisch und
lateinisch. Hanover, 1889. II no. 36 (pp. 17–8).
William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, ed. and tr. M. Winterbottom and R.M. Thomson,
William of Malmesbury. Gesta Pontificum Anglorum The History of the English Bishops. OMT. 2 vols
(vol 1: text and translation, vol. 2: commentary). Oxford: OUP, 2007.
William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R.A.B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M.
Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum. The History of the English Kings. OMT.
2 vols: vol 1. Oxford, 1998.
1. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3090
2. Asser, Vita Ælfredi ch. 98.
3. Lantfred, Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni: pp. 328-9
n. 299 (Lapidge's commentary).
4. Elgiva May 18 (http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/sai
ntse.htm). Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of
Rome.
5. Charter S 1539 (http://www.esawyer.org.uk/charter/153
9.html) at the Electronic Sawyer
6. S 744 (AD 966). Edgar's paternal grandmother was
Eadgifu of Kent.
7. S 485 (AD 942); Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-
Saxon royal houses. pp. 82-3. See further Kelly,
Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey. pp. 53-9.
8. S 1539; Finberg, The Early Charters of Wessex. p. 44.
Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon wills, p. 109, identifies the
testatrix with the religiosa femina of S 485 (AD 942),
but she is silent about Edgar's grandmothe.r Brihtwyn
has been tentatively identified as the wife of Alfred,
bishop of Sherborne, but this has been disputed. See
Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills; Owen, “Wynflæd's
wardrobe.” p. 197, note 2.
9. Keynes, “Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbe.y”
pp. 43-5; Owen, “Wynflæd's wardrobe.” p. 197 note 1;
Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. p.
100 note 136.
10. Wareham, “Transformation of kinship.” pp. 382-3.
11. Dumville, “English square minuscule.” p. 146 note 75.
The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England also links
Wynflæd with the noble matrona of that name, who
appears in as late as 967 receiving royal grants of land
in Hampshire. S 754 (AD 967);W ynnflæd 3 (http://pas
e.ac.uk/jsp/DisplayPerson.jsp?personKey=12720,)
PASE.
12. S 514 (AD 942 x 946).
13. S 850 (AD 984).
14. Æthelweard, Chronicon, book IV, chapter 6, which
assigns her death to the year thatA mlaíb Cuarán and
Ragnall were expelled from York.
15. S 357; Gesta pontificum Anglorum vol II, pp. 130-1
(Thomson's commentary); Yorke, Nunneries and the
Anglo-Saxon royal houses, p. 76.
16. See Lantfred and Æthelweard below.
17. Æthelweard, Chronicon, book IV, chapter 6.
18. Lantfred, Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni, ch. 36.
19. Thacker.,“Dynastic monasteries.” p. 259;O n the
resting places of English saints, ed. Liebermann, II no.
36.
20. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (D) s.a. 955.
21. Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. p.
83.
22. Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. p.
115.
23. Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbe.y
Dorset County Council, 1999
24. Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses, p.
77.
25. William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, ch. 122.
26. William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum, book 2, ch.
86.
27. William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum. Vol. II. p.
131. The latter suggestion was made by Patrick
Wormald in correspondence with Thomson.
28. William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum. Vol. II. p.
131.
29. William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum, book 2, ch.
86.
Secondary sources
Ælfgifu 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 2009-3-27.
Dumville, David. “English Square Minuscule Script: the mid-century phases” Anglo-Saxon England; 23
(1994): 133-64.
Finberg, H. P. R. The Early Charters of Wessex. Leicester, 1964.
Owen, Gale R. “Wynflæd's wardrobe.” Anglo-Saxon England 8 (1979): 195–222.
Thacker, Alan. “Dynastic Monasteries and Family Cults. Edward the Elder's sainted kindred.” In Edward
the Elder, 899-924, ed. N. J. Higham and David Hill. London: Routledge, 2001. 248-63.
Wareham, Andrew. "Transformation of Kinship and the Family in late Anglo-Saxon England." Early
Medieval Europe; 10 (2001). 375-99.
Yorke, Barbara. Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses. London, Continuum, 2003.
Further reading
Foot, Sarah. Veiled Women. 2 vols: vol. 2 (Female Religious Communities in England, 871-1066).
Aldershot, 2000.
Jackson, R. H. “The Tisbury landholdings granted to Shaftesbury monastery by the Saxon kings.” The
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 79 (1984): 164-77.
Kelly, S. E. Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey. (Anglo-Saxon Charters; 5.) London, 1996.
Keynes, Simon. “Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbey.” In Studies in the Early History of
Shaftesbury Abbey, ed. Laurence Keen. Dorchester: Dorset County Council, 1999. 17-72.
Murphy, E. “The Nunnery that Alfred Built at Shaftesbury.” Hatcher Review; 4 (1994): 40-53.
Preceded by
Eadgifu of Kent
as Queen of the Anglo-Saxons
Queen Consort of England
939–944
Succeeded by
Æthelflæd of Damerham
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925 - 944 (19 years)
