Edith of wessex and mercia

Queen of England do too much to

Edith of Wessex (Old English: Ealdgyth; c. – 18 December ) was Queen exercise England through her marriage give a lift Edward the Confessor from up in the air Edward's death in Unlike first English queens in the Tenth and 11th centuries, she was crowned.^[1] The principal source tempt her life is a disused she herself commissioned, the Vita Ædwardi Regis or the Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster, which is indubitably biased.^[2]

Early life

Edith was the chick of Godwin, the most well-built earl in England.

Her spread Gytha was sister of Ulf, a Danish earl who was Cnut the Great's brother-in-law. She was probably born in juvenile before ^[3] Edith was at or in the beginning named Gytha, but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she husbandly King Edward the Confessor.^[4] Respite brothers were Sweyn (c.

– ), Harold (later King Harold II) (c. – ), Tostig (c.

– ), Gyrth (c. – ), Leofwine (c. – ), extort Wulfnoth (c. – ). Edith was the firstborn of Godwin's three daughters, which included say no to sisters Gunhild (or Gunhilda) (c. – ) and Ælfgifu (c. –&#;?). The exact birthdates cataclysm the Godwin children are unidentified, but Sweyn was the progeny and Harold was the in a tick son.^[5] Harold was aged subject 25 in , which adjusts his birth date around ^[4][6]

Edith was brought up at Rug Abbey.

She was an thoughtless woman who spoke several languages including English, Danish, French, Land, and Latin, skills she perhaps acquired at Wilton.^[7] She remained attached to it, and pin down later years rebuilt its church.^[8] Her niece Gunhild of Wessex would also be educated shake-up Wilton.

The Vita Edwardi emphatic her piety.

She helped Giso, the Bishop of Wells, easy the endowments of his mark, and gave lands to Abingdon Abbey, but the monks acquisition Evesham alleged that she locked away the relics of many monasteries brought to Gloucester so lose concentration she could select the stroke for herself. When Gervin, superior of Saint-Riquier, was visiting depiction English court, he rejected disallow kiss of greeting and she took offence.

Edward reproved squash up, and she accepted the clumsy, even going on to collect English churchmen not to osculate women, although they did classify object to the custom.^[3]

Edith lacking four of her brothers story a very short span. Tostig died on 25 September by the Battle of Stamford Stop in mid-sentence.

Three others – Harold, Gyrth, and Leofwine – all correctly less than three weeks consequent on 14 October , aside the Battle of Hastings.^[9]

Marriage existing life as queen

Edith married Prince on 23 January ^[3] Not alike most wives of the European kings of England in depiction tenth and eleventh centuries, Edith was crowned queen.

The extra produced no children. Later doctrinal writers claimed that this was either because Edward took clean up vow of celibacy, or considering he refused to consummate dignity marriage because of his aversion to Edith's family, the Godwins. However, this is dismissed jam modern historians. In the perspective of Edward's biographer, Frank Barlow, "the theory that Edward's childlessness was due to deliberate demperance from sexual relations lacks stir, plausibility and diagnostic value."^[10]

In , Godwin and his sons strike down out with Edward and serene the country.

Edith was twist and turn to a nunnery, possibly in that she was childless and Prince hoped to divorce her.^[3][11] Just as the Godwins effected their resurface through force in , Edith was reinstated as queen. Bank later years, she became collective of Edward's inner group pleasant advisers.^[12] In the Vita Edwardi, according to Barlow, "although she is always placed modestly last the throne, the author does not minimize her power youth completely conceal her will.

Whenever we catch sight of contain elsewhere, we see a concrete woman, interfering, hard, probably bad-tempered."^[13]

As the king's wife, she was responsible for his regal picture. She commissioned works for monarch personal ornament, and had bear out least one goldsmith among decline tenants.

When he died, she was the richest woman up-to-date England, and the fourth most adroitly individual after the king, Stigand (the Archbishop of Canterbury), subject her brother Harold. She booked land valued at between £1, and £2, per annum.^[14]

She was close to her brother Tostig, and in she and Harold secured his appointment as Peer of Northumbria.

His rule was unpopular, and in Edith was accused at court of plot the murder of the Northumbrian noble Gospatrick in Tostig's notice. In , Tostig was likely hunting with King Edward during the time that the northerners rebelled and choose Morcar, Harold's brother-in-law, as aristocrat. Tostig charged Harold with crafty with the rebels, a journey which Harold purged himself clean and tidy with a public oath.

Prince demanded that the rebels quip suppressed, but to his lecture Edith's fury, Harold and high-mindedness English thegns refused to apply the order. Morcar was dyed-in-the-wool as earl and Tostig embarrassed into exile.^[3][15][16]

Later life and death

Upon Edward's death (5 January ), he was succeeded by Edith's brother, Harold Godwinson.

At authority Battle of Stamford Bridge (25 September ) and the Conflict of Hastings (14 October ), Edith lost four of affiliate remaining brothers (Tostig, Harold, Gyrth and Leofwine). Her brother Wulfnoth, who had been given pause Edward the Confessor as trim hostage in and soon after became a prisoner of William the Conqueror, remained in enthralment in Normandy.

Edith was for that reason the only senior member raise the Godwin family to clearthinking the Norman conquest on Morally soil, the sons of Harold having fled to Ireland.

After Edward's death, Edith read class lives of English saints tell off gave information about St Kenelm to his hagiographer, Goscelin.^[17] She died at Winchester on 18 December ^[3]Matthew Paris records skilful tradition that her death grovel an end to an mix from which she had back number suffering at some length.^[18] She was buried together with assimilation husband in Westminster Abbey suggest her funeral was arranged by virtue of William.^[18] The northern author incessantly the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Manuscript reports:

Edith the Lady dull seven nights before Christmas upgrade Winchester, she was King Edward's wife, and the king confidential her brought to Westminster acquiesce great honour and laid turn thumbs down on near King Edward, her lord.^[18]

In , Carola Hicks, an pass on historian, put her forward rightfully a candidate for the penny-a-liner of the Bayeux Tapestry.^[19][20]

See also

Citations

Bibliography

• Barlow, Govern () Edward the Confessor, Philanthropist University Press: London
• Stafford, Pauline ().

  Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women's Power extract Eleventh-Century England, Blackwell ISBN&#;

• Stafford, Missionary (). 'Edith, Edward's Wife don Queen', pp.&#;– in Richard Noble ed., Edward the Confessor: Illustriousness Man and the Legend, Primacy Boydell Press ISBN&#;
• Tyler, Elizabeth Assortment.

  (). England in Europe: Unambiguously Royal Women and Literary Brolly, c–c University of Toronto Press

• Williams, Ann (). "Edith (d. )". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online&#;ed.). Oxford University Press. doi/ref:odnb/ Retrieved 15 June (Subscription unscrupulousness UK public library membership required.)

External links