Edith the Fair (, "Edyth the Gentle Swan"; born c. 1025, died c. 1086), also known as Edith Swanneck,Her first name is also spelled Ealdgyth, Aldgyth, ''Edeva'' or Eddeva, and sometimes appears as ''Ēadgȳð'' and ''Ēadgifu''. (Compare ''Godgifu'' which was modified to ''Godiva'' in Latin texts.) was one of the wealthiest magnates in England on the eve of the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

, and may also have been the first wife of King

Harold Godwinson Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the decisive battle of the Norman ...

. "Swanneck" (or Swan-Neck) comes from the folk etymology which made her in Old English as ''swann hnecca'', "swan neck", which was actually most likely a corrupted form of ''swann hnesce, ''"Gentle Swan"'' ''. She is sometimes confused with

Ealdgyth, daughter of Earl Ælfgar Ealdgyth (''fl. c''. 1057–1066), also Aldgyth or Edith in modern English, was a daughter of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia, the wife of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (d. 1063), ruler of all Wales, and later the wife and queen consort of Harold Godwinson, ki ...

of Mercia, who was queen during Harold's reign.

Early life

Edith was born circa 1025, and is thought by some to have been a daughter of

Thorkell the Tall Thorkell the Tall, also known as Thorkell the High in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (Old Norse: Þorke(ti)ll inn hávi; ; Swedish: ''Torkel Höge''; ), was a prominent member of the Jomsviking order and a notable lord. He was a son of the Scan ...

and his wife, a daughter of Ethelred the Unready.

Marriage

Edith may have been the mother of Harold's daughters Gunhild of Wessex, who became the mistress of Alan Rufus, and Gytha of Wessex, who was taken by her grandmother to Denmark in 1068. Gytha was addressed as "princess" and married the Grand Duke of Kiev,

Vladimir II Monomakh Vladimir II Monomakh (; Christian name: ''Vasily''; 26 May 1053 – 19 May 1125) was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1113 to 1125. He is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is celebrated on May 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics), May 6 ...

. Though Harold is said to have lawfully married Ealdgyth, the daughter of Earl Ælfgar, the widow of the Welsh ruler

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ( – 5 August 1063) was the first and only Welsh king to unite all of Wales under his rule from 1055 to 1063. He had also previously been King of Gwynedd and Powys from 1039 to 1055. Gruffudd was the son of Llywelyn ap ...

whom he had defeated in battle, that marriage in spring 1066 is seen by most modern scholars as one of political convenience.

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

were allied against England, and the marriage gave the English claim in two very troublesome regions, and also gave Harold Godwinesson a marriage deemed "legitimate" by the clergy, unlike his long time common law marriage with Edith the Fair.

Walsingham visionary

Flint identifies Edith as the visionary known colloquially as "Rychold" or "

Richeldis de Faverches Richeldis de Faverches, also known as Recholdis or Rychold, was a devout English Christian noblewoman and widow, traditionally recognised as the Lady of the Manor of Little Walsingham and credited with establishing the original shrine of Our L ...

", who authored

Our Lady of Walsingham Our Lady of Walsingham is a title given to Mary, the mother of Jesus, venerated by Catholics and high-church Anglicans. According to tradition, the title is linked to a Marian vision experienced in 1061 by Lady Richeldis de Faverches, an Angl ...

. The identification of Edith as the Walsingham visionary is rooted in his belief that the earlier date of the shrine's foundation, given by

Richard Pynson Richard Pynson (c. 1449 – c. 1529) was one of the first printers of English books. Born in Normandy, he moved to London, where he became one of the leading printers of the generation following William Caxton. His books were printed to a high s ...

as 1061, is credible. Pynson's history, which is given in a narrative poem known as the ''Pynson Ballad'', had been previously thrown out by historians on the grounds it was unreliable as an oral narrative, but Flint defends the ballad on the grounds that Pynson was a respected historian, employed by

King Henry VII Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry ...

, who also collaborated with John Leland. Flint contests the theories of J.C. Dickinson (1959) on the grounds that the 1131 Norfolk Roll, which Dickinson claims refers to the foundation of the shrine, actually refers to the foundation of the Priory of the Austin Friars, which preceded the foundation of the Walsingham Shrine (see p. xxii). He also notes that Edith Swanneshals was known within the court as "Rychold", meaning "fair and rich", and the appellatory title given by Pynson could therefore refer to the Anglo-Saxon Queen—a reference which is consistent with the original date given in the Pynson Ballad as 1061, for Edith Swaneshals was the Lady of the Walsingham Manor in this period (p. xxvii). Flint therefore establishes Edith Swaneshals as a Christian queen and the legitimate spouse of Harold Godwinson; as well as defending her Christian character as the probable visionary of the Shrine of Walsingham. In defending Edith's Christian character Flint cites her friendship with Wulfstan of Worcester.

Folklore

According to folklore, Edith identified Harold's mutilated body after his loss to

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

at the

Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place appr ...

. Despite pleas by Harold's mother, Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, for William to surrender Harold's body for burial, the Norman army refused, even though Gytha offered Harold's weight in gold. It was then that Edith the Fair walked through the carnage of the battle so that she might identify Harold by markings on his chest known only to her. It was because of Edith the Fair's identification of the body that Harold was given a Christian burial by the monks at

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the London metropolitan area, metropolitan and urban area of London, England, East London, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich ...

. This legend is recounted in the well-known poem by

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

, "''The Battlefield of Hastings''" (1855), which features Edith the Fair (as Edith Swan-Neck) as the main character and claims that the "marks known only to her" were love bites.

Notes

Citations

Sources

* '' A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3500 BC - 1603 AD'' by

Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama ( ; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a professor of history and art history at Columbia Uni ...

, BBC/Miramax, 2000 *''Edith the Fair'', Bill Flint, 2015, Gracewing Press * ''The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English in Twenty Volumes'' by Kuno Francke * ''Great Tales from English History: The Truth About King Arthur, Lady Godiva, Richard the Lionheart, and More'' by Robert Lacey, 2004 * ''House of Godwine: The History of Dynasty'' by Emma Mason, 2004 * ''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'' by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 176–2, 176A-4, 177–1
'Who Was Eddeva?'
by J.R. Boyle, F.S.A.; ''Transactions of East Riding Antiquarian Society'', Volume 4 (1896); pages 11–22 {{DEFAULTSORT:Edith the Fair Anglo-Norse women Anglo-Norse people 1020s births 1060s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain House of Godwin Anglo-Saxon royal consorts 11th-century English landowners 11th-century English women Women in medieval European warfare People from Walsingham Harold Godwinson 11th-century women landowners