Ealhswith or Ealswitha (died 5 December 902) was the wife of

King Alfred the Great 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 ...

. Her father was a Mercian nobleman,

Æthelred Mucel Æthelred Mucel was an Anglo-Saxon noble from Mercia who was the father of Ealhswith, the wife of Alfred the Great. Æthelred witnessed several charters between 867 and 895; he may be the same man as an ealdorman called 'Mucel' who witnesse ...

, Ealdorman of the

Gaini The Gaini were an Anglo-Saxon tribe which occupied part of the kingdom of Mercia. The Gaini are only recorded in Asser's life of King Alfred the Great, written in 893, which stated that in 868, before he became king, Alfred married Ealhswith, daug ...

, which is thought to be an old Mercian tribal group. Her mother was Eadburh, a member of the Mercian royal family. Ealhswith is commemorated as a saint in the Christian East and the West on 20 July.

Descent

A charter of 897 (S 1442) discusses the responsibilities of Ealhswith's brother Æthelwulf towards the monastery of Winchcombe, and

Barbara Yorke Barbara Yorke FRHistS FSA (born 1951, Barbara Anne Elizabeth Troubridge) is a historian of Anglo-Saxon England, specialising in many subtopics, including 19th-century Anglo-Saxonism. She is currently emeritus professor of early Medieval histor ...

argues that as this monastery was claimed as a possession by the family of Ceolwulf and Coenwulf, brothers who were both kings of Mercia, Ealhswith was probably a member of this family. Richard Abels goes further, stating that she was descended from King Coenwulf.

Life

She was married to Alfred in 868 at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. His elder brother Æthelred was then king, and Alfred was regarded as

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

.Costambeys, ''Ealhswith'' The Danes occupied the Mercian town of Nottingham in that year, and the marriage was probably connected with an alliance between Wessex and Mercia.Williams, ''Ealhswith'' Alfred became king on his brother's death in 871. Ealhswith is very obscure in contemporary sources. She did not witness any known charters during the reign of her husband, and while

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 ...

details her parentage and the date of their marriage, he did not identify her by name in his "Life of King Alfred" calling her only "a noble Mercian Lady". 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 inadvertently poisoned her husband when trying to poison another. After Alfred's death, in 901, Ealhswith did witness one charter during the reign of her son King Edward in which she is identified as "Ealhswið mater regis", Ealhswith mother of the king. Her name is subscribed immediately after King Edward, and before Edward's wife Ælfflæd. Alfred left his wife three important symbolic estates in his will, Edington in Wiltshire, the site of one important victory over the Vikings,

Lambourn Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of ra ...

in Berkshire, which was near another, and

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

, his birthplace. These were all part of his

bookland "Bookland" is the informal name for the Unique Country Code (UCC) prefix allocated in the 1980s for European Article Number (EAN) identifiers of published books, regardless of country of origin, so that the EAN namespace can catalogue books by IS ...

, and they stayed in royal possession after her death. It was probably after Alfred's death in 899 that Ealhswith founded the convent of

St Mary's Abbey, Winchester St. Mary's Abbey, also known as the ''Nunnaminster'', was a Benedictine nunnery in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded between 899 and 902 by Alfred the Great's widow Ealhswith, who was described as the 'builder' of the Nunnaminster in ...

, known as the Nunnaminster. She died on 5 December 902, and was buried in her son Edward's new

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

abbey, the

New Minster, Winchester The New Minster in Winchester was a royal Benedictine abbey founded in 901 in Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. Alfred the Great had intended to build the monastery, but only got around to buying the land. His son, Edward the Elder, ...

. She is commemorated in two early tenth century manuscripts as "the true and dear lady of the English". Ealhswith's brother Æthelwulf was ealdorman of western and possibly central Mercia under his niece's husband,

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians (or Ealdorman Æthelred of Mercia; died 911) became ruler of English Mercia shortly after the death or disappearance of its last king, Ceolwulf II in 879. Æthelred's rule was confined to the western half, as ea ...

, in the 890s. He died in 901.''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', s.a. 901

Children

Alfred and Ealhswith had five children who survived to adulthood. *

Æthelflæd Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ( 870 – 12 June 918) ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith. Æthe ...

(d. 918), Lady of the Mercians, married

* Edward the Elder (d. 924), King of the Anglo-Saxons * Æthelgifu, made abbess of her foundation at

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...

by her father *

Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders Ælfthryth of Wessex (c. 877 – 7 June 929), also known as Elftrudis (Elftrude, Elfrida), was an English princess and a countess consort of Flanders to Baldwin II. Life She was the youngest daughter of Alfred the Great, the Saxon King of ...

(d. 929), married Baldwin II, Count of Flanders * Æthelweard (d. c. 920)

References

Sources

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External links