Edith of England, also spelt Eadgyth or Ædgyth (, ; 910–946), a member of the

House of Wessex The House of Wessex, also known as the House of Cerdic, the House of the West Saxons, the House of the Gewisse, the Cerdicings and the West Saxon dynasty, refers to the family, traditionally founded by Cerdic of the Gewisse, that ruled Wessex in ...

, was the East Frankish ( German) queen from 936, by her marriage to King

Otto the Great Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), known as Otto the Great ( ) or Otto of Saxony ( ), was East Frankish ( German) king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the eldest son of Henry the Fowler and Matilda ...

Life

Edith was born to the reigning English king

Edward the Elder Edward the Elder (870s?17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousi ...

by his second wife,

Ælfflæd Ælfflæd is a name of Anglo-Saxon England meaning Ælf (Elf) and flæd (beauty). It may refer to: * Saint Ælfflæd of Whitby (654–714) * Ælfflæd of Mercia, daughter of Offa, wife of King Æthelred I of Northumbria * Ælfflæd, wife of Edwa ...

, and hence was a granddaughter of King

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 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 both died when Alfr ...

. She had an older sister, Eadgifu. She apparently spent her early years near Winchester in Wessex, moving about frequently with the court,Morris, Steven. "Remains of first king of England's sister found in German cathedral", ''The Guardian'', June 16, 2010
/ref> and may have spent her later youth, with her mother, living for a time at a monastery. At the request of the East Frankish king

Henry the Fowler Henry the Fowler ( or '; ; – 2 July 936) was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the king of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non- Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emper ...

, who wished to stake a claim to equality and to seal the alliance between the two Saxon kingdoms, her half-brother King

Æthelstan Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ; ; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern histori ...

sent his sisters Edith and Edgiva to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Henry's eldest son and heir to the throne Otto was instructed to choose whichever one pleased him best. Otto chose Edith, according to Hrotsvitha a woman "of pure noble countenance, graceful character and truly royal appearance", and married her in 930. In 929 King Otto I had granted the city of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

to his Edith as

dower Dower is a provision accorded traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support should she become widowed. It was settlement (law), settled on the bride (being given into trust instrument, trust) by agreement at the time of t ...

. She had a particular love for the town and often lived there.Löffler, Klemens. "Magdeburg." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. Ankunft Ottos I

In 936 Henry the Fowler died and his eldest son Otto, Edith's husband, was crowned king at

Aachen Cathedral Aachen Cathedral () is a Catholic Church, Catholic church in Aachen, Germany and the cathedral of the Diocese of Aachen. One of the oldest cathedral buildings in Europe, it was constructed as the royal chapel of the Palace of Aachen of Holy Rom ...

. A surviving report of the ceremony by the medieval chronicler Widukind of Corvey makes no mention of his wife having been crowned at this point, but according to Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg's chronicle, Eadgyth was nevertheless

anointed Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or oth ...

as queen, albeit in a separate ceremony. As queen consort, Edith undertook the usual state duties of a "First Lady": when she turns up in the records it is generally in connection with gifts to the state's favoured monasteries or memorials to holy women and saints. In this respect she seems to have been more diligent than her now widowed and subsequently sainted mother-in-law, Queen Matilda, whose own charitable activities only achieve a single recorded mention from the period of Eadgyth's time as queen. There was probably rivalry between the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

Monastery of St Maurice founded at

by Otto and Eadgyth in 937, a year after coming to the throne, and Matilda's foundation

Quedlinburg Abbey Quedlinburg Abbey ( or ) is a former abbey of secular canonesses ''( Frauenstift)'' in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Matilda, the widow of the East Frankish King Henry the Fowler, as h ...

, intended by her as a memorial to her husband, the late King Henry. Edith accompanied her husband on his travels, though not during battles. While Otto fought against the rebellious dukes

Eberhard of Franconia Eberhard (c. 885 – 2 October 939), a member of the Conradines, Conradine dynasty, was Duchy of Franconia, Duke of Franconia, succeeding his elder brother, King Conrad I of Germany, Conrad I, in December 918. From 926 to 928, he also acted as ru ...

and Gilbert of Lorraine in 939, she spent the hostilities at

Lorsch Abbey Lorsch Abbey, otherwise the Imperial Abbey of Lorsch (; or ''Laurissa''), is a former Imperial abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about east of Worms, Germany, Worms. It was one of the most important monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ru ...

. In 941 she effected a reconciliation between her husband and his mother. Like her brother, Æthelstan, Edith was devoted to the cult of their ancestor Saint

Oswald of Northumbria Oswald (; c 604 – 5 August 641/642Bede gives the year of Oswald's death as 642. However there is some question of whether what Bede considered 642 is the same as what would now be considered 642. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and H ...

and was instrumental in introducing this cult into Germany after her marriage to the emperor. Her lasting influence may have caused certain monasteries and churches in the

Duchy of Saxony The Duchy of Saxony () was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 CE and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 84 ...

to be dedicated to this saint. Eadgyth's death in 946 at around the age of thirty-six,"Princess Eadgyth", Athelstan Museum, Malmesbury
/ref> was unexpected. Otto apparently mourned the loss of a beloved spouse. He married

Adelaide of Italy Adelaide of Italy (; 931 – 16 December 999 AD), also called Adelaide of Burgundy, was Holy Roman Empress by marriage to Emperor Otto the Great. She was crowned with him by Pope John XII in Rome on 2 February 962. She was the first empress des ...

in 951.

Children

Edith and Otto's children were: *

Liudolf, Duke of Swabia Liudolf ( – 6 September 957), a member of the Ottonian dynasty, was duke of Swabia from 950 until 954. His rebellion in 953/54 led to a major crisis in East Francia. Rise Liudolf was the only son of the Saxon duke Otto the Great, son and hei ...

(930 – 6 September 957) * Liutgarde (931 – 18 November 953), married the

Lotharingia Lotharingia was a historical region and an early medieval polity that existed during the late Carolingian and early Ottonian era, from the middle of the 9th to the middle of the 10th century. It was established in 855 by the Treaty of Prüm, a ...

n duke Conrad the Red in 947 both buried in St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz (since destroyed).

Tomb

Initially buried in the St Maurice monastery, Edith's tomb since the 16th century has been located in

Magdeburg Cathedral Magdeburg Cathedral (), officially called the Cathedral of Saints Maurice and Catherine (), is a Protestant Church in Germany, Lutheran cathedral in Germany and the oldest Gothic architecture, Gothic cathedral in the country. It is the proto-cat ...

."Bones confirmed as those of Saxon Princess Eadgyth", University of Bristol, June 17, 2010
/ref> Long regarded as a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

, a lead coffin inside a stone sarcophagus with her name on it was found and opened in 2008 by archaeologists during work on the building. An inscription recorded that it was the body of Eadgyth, reburied in 1510. The fragmented and incomplete bones were examined in 2009, then brought to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England, for tests in 2010. The investigations at Bristol, applying

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

tests on tooth enamel, checked whether she was born and brought up in

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

and

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 ...

, as written history indicated. Retrieved from Internet Archive 14 February 2014. Testing on the bones revealed that they are the remains of Eadgyth, from study made of the enamel of the teeth in her upper jaw. Testing of the enamel revealed that the individual entombed at Magdeburg had spent time as a youth in the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

y uplands of

. The bones are the oldest found of a member of English royalty. Following the tests the bones were re-interred in a new titanium coffin in her tomb at Magdeburg Cathedral on 22 October 2010.Königin Editha im Magdeburger Dom bestattet
in:

Spiegel Online ' () is a German news website. It was established in 1994 as ''Spiegel Online'' as a content mirror of the magazine ''Der Spiegel''. In 1995, the site began producing original stories and it introduced ''Spiegel Online International'' for artic ...

vom 22. Oktober 2010

References

Sources

*Freytag von Loringhoven, Baron. Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, 1965. *Klaniczay, Gábor. ''Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses'', 2002.

External links

How the study of teeth is revealing our history, Mike Pitts, ''The Guardian'', 17 June 2010
* , - {{Authority control 910 births 946 deaths 10th-century English people 10th-century English women Anglo-Saxon women Ottonian dynasty Queens consort of East Francia 10th-century German nobility Burials at Magdeburg Cathedral Duchesses of Saxony House of Wessex English princesses Saxon princesses 10th-century German women German people of English descent Daughters of kings Otto the Great