Eadgifu of Wessex

Eadgifu of England

Eadgifu or Edgifu, also known as Edgiva or Ogive (Old English: Ēadgifu; 902 – after 955) was a daughter of Edward the Elder, King of Wessex and England, and his second wife Ælfflæd. She was born in Wessex.

Marriage to the French King

She was the second wife of King Charles III of France, whom she married in 919 after the death of his first wife, Frederonne. Eadgifu was mother to Louis IV of France.

Flight to England

In 922 Charles III was deposed and the next year taken prisoner by Count Herbert II of Vermandois, an ally of the then current king. To protect her son's safety Eadgifu took him to England in 923 to the court of her half-brother, Athelstan of England. Because of this, Louis IV of France became known as Louis d'Outremer of France. He stayed there until 936, when he was called back to France to be crowned King. Eadgifu accompanied him.

She retired to a convent in Laon. Some sources say that in 951, she left the convent and married Herbert III, Count of Vermandois son of Adalbert, but this is likely an error as Herbert was not born until 953. More likely she married the Herbert son of Herbert II, Count of Vermandois born about 920.

References

• Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. 88–89. 
• Williams, Ann; Alfred P. Smyth, D. P. Kirby (1991). A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales. Routledge. pp. 112. ISBN 1852640472. 

Preceded by Frederonne

Queen of Western Francia 919–922

Succeeded by Béatrice of Vermandois