EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%20K ings.htm [ÆLFGIVA], daughter of ---. The information about the paren tage of the first "wife" of King Æthelred is contradictory. Accordin g to Florence of Worcester´s genealogies, she was Ælfgiva, daughte r of Ealdorman "Ægelberht", as he names "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberht i filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwiu m et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham" [1]. (It should be not ed in passing that this is the only example of the root "Ægel-" bein g found in an Anglo-Saxon name; it is therefore possible that "Ægelbe rhti" represents a transcription error, maybe for "Æthelberhti".) O n the other hand, Ailred Abbot of Rievaulx records that she was ---, d aughter of Thored Ealdorman of York, naming "filia Torethi… comitis " as the mother of "Edmundum" [King Edmund "Ironsides"] [2]. The ''Est oire de Seint Aedward le Rei'', written in [1245], must have used Ailr ed as its source as it states that the first wife of King Æthelred I I was the daughter of "Count Torin" [3]. Roger of Wendover is unspecif ic, noting that "rex Ethelredus" married "cujusdam ducis filiam" by wh om he fathered "filium… Eadmundum", although in a later passage he s ays that King Eadmund had "matrem quondam ignobilem fœminam" [4]. N o trace of King Æthelred´s first wife has been found in any other co ntemporary document. In charters dated 996, King Æthelred's mother co untersigns "Ælfthryth regina", but there is no mention of the king' s wife. This suggests that Ælfgiva (if indeed that was her name) wa s an "unofficial" wife, having a similar status to Æthelflæd, firs t "wife" of King Eadgar, King Æthelred´s father. The will of her so n ætheling Æthelstan, dated [1014], refers to "the soul of Ælfthryt h my grandmother who brought me up" but makes no mention of his mothe r [5], which suggests that she played little part in his early life. T his seems suprising if she was in fact the mother of all King Æthelre d's children who were not born to his known wife Emma, as is generall y reported in most secondary sources. There must therefore be some dou bt whether [Ælfgiva] was the king's only wife or concubine before hi s marriage to Emma de Normandie. [1] ''Florentii Wigornensis Monach i Chronicon'', Vol. I, ''Genealogia regum West-Saxonum'', p. 275. [2 ] ''Aelredus Rievallensis Abbas, Genealogia Regum Anglorum'', Migne, P atrologia Latina, Vol 195, col. 730B. [3] ''La Estoire de Seint Aedwa rd le Rei'', MS Cantab. Ee III 59, from Bishop Moore's Library, 11, pp . 195-218, cited in Ronay, G. (1989) ''The Lost King of England, The E ast European Adventures of Edward the Exile'' (Boydell Press), p. 8 . [4] Roger of Wendover, Vol. I, pp. 422 and 451. [5] EHD, 129, pp . 593-6.