Ælfflæd (wife of Edward the Elder)
Ælfflæd (fl. early 10th century) was the second wife of Edward the Elder, king of the English.
Ælfflæd was the daughter of an ealdorman Æthelhelm, presumed to be ealdorman Æthelhelm of Wiltshire who died in 897. Some historians, including Pauline Stafford and David H. Kelley, have identified him as Æthelhelm, a son of Edward's uncle, King Ethelred I.[1][2] Barbara Yorke rejected the idea, arguing that it does not appear to have been the practice for Æthelings (princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible to be king) to become ealdormen, that in a grant from King Alfred to Ealdorman Æthelhelm there is no reference to kinship between them, and that the hostile reception to King Eadwig's marriage to Ælfgifu, his third cousin once removed, shows that a marriage between Edward and his first cousin once removed would have been forbidden as incestuous.[3]
Ælfflæd married King Edward, c. 901 and became the mother of two sons, Ælfweard of Wessex and Edwin, and six daughters.[4]
Children
Sons
Daughters
- Eadgifu, wife of Charles the Simple
- Eadhild, wife of Duke Hugh the Great
- Eadgyth, wife of Otto I
- Ælfgifu (Adiva), wife of a continental nobleman
- Eadflæd, nun
- Eadhild or Æthelhild, religious woman
References
- ^ Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith, Blackwell, 2001, pp. 324-325
- ^ David H. Kelley, 'The House of Aethelred', Studies in Genealogy and Family History. Tribute to Charles Evans on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, ed. L.L. Brook, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy 1989, pp. 63-93
- ^ Barbara Yorke, 'Edward as Ætheling', in N. J. Higham & D. H. Hill eds, Edward the Elder 899-924, Routledge, 2001, pp. 33-34
- ^ "Edward the Elder". Anglo-Saxons.net. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
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