Eadgifu of Kent

Picture of Queen Ediva from The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein

Eadgifu of Kent (also Edgiva or Ediva) (died August 25, 968) was the third wife of Edward the Elder, King of England.

Eadgifu was the daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent (died 903). She became the mother of two sons, Edmund I of England, later King Edmund I, and Eadred of England, later King Eadred, and a daughter, Saint Eadburh of Winchester. Eadgifu survived Edward by many years, dying in the reign of her grandson Edgar. As queen dowager, her position seem to have been higher than that of her daughter-in-law; In a Kentish charter datable between 942 and 944, her daughter-in-law Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury subscribes herself as the king's concubine (concubina regis), with a place assigned to her between the bishops and ealdormen. By comparison, Eadgifu subscribes higher up in the witness list as mater regis, after her sons Edmund and Eadred but before the archbishops and bishops.

See also

• House of Wessex family tree
• St. Odo, Archbishop and Confessor in The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein

References

Preceded by Ælfflæd, wife of Edward the Elder

Queen Consort of England 919–924

Succeeded by Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury