Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury (died 944) was the first wife of King

Edmund I 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. Afte ...

(r. 939–946). She was Queen of the English from her marriage in around 939 until her death in 944. Ælfgifu and Edmund were the parents of two future English kings,

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 ...

(r. 955–959) and

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and '' gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, r ...

(r. 959–975). Like her mother

Wynflaed Wynflaed (died ) was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, a major landowner in the areas of Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. There is some debate as to whether or not she should be assumed to be the same Wynflaed who was the mother of Aelfgifu o ...

, Ælfgifu had a close and special if unknown connection with the royal nunnery of Shaftesbury (Dorset), founded by

King Alfred Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who ...

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his ...

, ''Vita Ælfredi ''ch. 98. where she was buried and soon revered as a saint. According to a pre-Conquest tradition from

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, her feast day is 18 May.

Lantfred Lantfred of Fleury ( la, Lantfredus; ang, Landfrið; goh, Landfred), also known as Lantfred of Winchester, was a 10th and 11th century Anglo-Saxon monk who lived in Winchester, Hampshire, England. He was originally from the French town of Fleur ...

, ''Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni'': pp. 328-9 n. 299 (Lapidge's commentary).'' ''

Family background

Her mother appears to have been an associate of Shaftesbury Abbey called

(also Wynnflæd). The vital clue comes from a charter of King Edgar, in which he confirmed the grant of an estate at ''Uppidelen'' (

Piddletrenthide Piddletrenthide () is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is sited by the small River Piddle in a valley on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs, north of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

) made by his grandmother (''ava'') Wynflæd to Shaftesbury''.''S 744 (AD 966). Edgar's paternal grandmother was

Eadgifu of Kent Eadgifu of Kent (also Edgiva or Ediva) (in or before 903 – in or after 966) was the third wife of Edward the Elder, King of Wessex. Biography Eadgifu was the daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent, who died at the Battle of the Holme in 902. ...

. 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 A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll ('' rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the f ...

. It records that she received and retrieved from King Edmund a handful of estates in Dorset, namely

Cheselbourne Cheselbourne (sometimes spelled Chesilborne or Cheselborne) is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the Dorset Downs, north-east of Dorchester. The parish is at an altitude of 75 to 245 metres (approximately 250 to 800 fe ...

and Winterbourne Tomson, which somehow ended up in the possession of the community.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. 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 Herbert Patrick Reginald Finberg (1900–1974) was an English historian, typographer and publisher. After working at several publishing companies and founding his own (Alcuin Press), he joined the faculty of Leicester University in 1952. He became ...

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 la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

(in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

, and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, 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.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 grandmother. 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. 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.Keynes, “Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbey.” pp. 43-5; Owen, “Wynflæd's wardrobe.” p. 197 note 1; Yorke, ''Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses''. p. 100 note 136.

Andrew Wareham Andrew Wareham (born 1965) is a British historian who has written numerous books and articles on Anglo-Saxon history, Anglo-Norman history and the hearth tax. He is employed as a reader in the department of humanities at Roehampton University, Lo ...

is less troubled about this and suggests that different kinship strategies may account for it.Wareham, “Transformation of kinship.” pp. 382-3. 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).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); , PASE.

Married life

The sources do not record the date of Ælfgifu's marriage to

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings an ...

. 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. In a charter of doubtful authenticity dated 942–946, she attests as the king's concubine (''concubina regis''). but later in the century

Æthelweard the Chronicler Æthelweard, also spelled Ethelweard, Aethelweard, Athelweard, etc., is an Anglo-Saxon male name. It may refer to: * King Æthelweard of the Hwicce (''fl''. 7/8th century) * King Æthelweard of East Anglia (''fl.'' mid-9th century) * Æthelweard ( ...

styles her queen (''regina''). Shaftesbury Abbey 1

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).S 850 (AD 984). Ælfgifu predeceased her husband, probably in 944, and may have died in childbirth of Edgar. In the early 12th century,

William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as " ...

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).S 357; ''Gesta pontificum Anglorum'' vol II, pp. 130-1 (Thomson's commentary); Yorke, ''Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses'', p. 76. Her body was buried and enshrined at the nunnery.See

and Æthelweard below.

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,Æthelweard, ''Chronicon,'' book IV, chapter 6. and these were apparently attracting some local attention.

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”.Lantfred, ''Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni'', ch. 36. 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.Thacker.,“Dynastic monasteries.” p. 259; ''On the resting places of English saints'', ed. Liebermann, II no. 36. Ælfgifu is styled a saint (''Sancte Ælfgife'') in the D-text of the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of A ...

'' (mid-11th century) at the point where it specifies Eadwig's and Edgar's royal parentage.''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (D) s.a. 955. Her cult may have been fostered and used to enhance the status of the royal lineage, more narrowly that of her descendants.Yorke, ''Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses''. p. 83. 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.Yorke, ''Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses''. p. 115. 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.Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbey. Dorset County Council, 1999 Ælfgifu's fame at Shaftesbury seems to have eclipsed that of its first abbess, King Alfred's daughter Æthelgifu,Yorke, ''Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses,'' p. 77. 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

, although he gives her the name of Ælfgifu (''Elfgiva''),William of Malmesbury, ''Gesta regum'', ch. 122. while in his ''Gesta pontificum'', he credits Edmund's wife Ælfgifu with the foundation.William of Malmesbury, ''Gesta pontificum'', book 2, ch. 86. Either William encountered conflicting information, or he meant to say that Ælfgifu refounded the nunnery.William of Malmesbury, ''Gesta pontificum.'' Vol. II. p. 131. The latter suggestion was made by Patrick Wormald in correspondence with Thomson. 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'':William of Malmesbury, ''Gesta pontificum.'' Vol. II. p. 131. :

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). *''

'' (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). *

, '' 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 The ''Gesta Regum Anglorum'' ( Latin for "Deeds of the Kings of the English"), originally titled ("On the Deeds of the Kings of the English") and also anglicized as or , is an early-12th-century history of the kings of England by William of Ma ...

'', 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.

Secondary sources

* * 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. *