Agatha (before 1030 – after 1070) was married to Edward the Exile, a candidate for the throne of England, and mother of Edgar Ætheling, Saint Margaret of Scotland and Cristina. Her antecedents are unclear and the subject of much speculation.Lauder-Frost, Gregory M.S., FSA Scot.,"Agatha - The Ancestry Dispute" in The Scottish Genealogist, Edinburgh, Sept 2002, vol.xlix no.3, p.71-2.

Life

Nothing is known of Agatha's early life, and what speculation has appeared is inextricably linked to the contentious issue of Agatha's paternity, one of the unresolved questions of medieval genealogy. As the birth of her children is speculatively placed at around the year 1045, her own birth was probably before about 1030. She came to England with her husband and children in 1057, but was widowed shortly after her arrival. Following the Norman Conquest, in 1067 she fled with her children to Scotland, finding refuge under her future son-in-law Malcolm III. Simeon of DurhamHistoria Regum, vol.II, pp. 190–192 carries what appears to be the last reference to her in 1070.Foundations (Journal of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy), vol. 1, no. 4, July 2004, pp. 302–303, ISSN 1479-5078

Origin

Medieval sources Agatha's origin is alluded to in numerous surviving medieval sources, but the information they provide is sometimes imprecise, often contradictory, and occasionally demonstrably false. The earliest-surviving source, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, along with John of Worcester's Chronicon ex chronicis and its associated genealogical tables (sometimes named separately as Regalis prosapia Anglorum), Symeon of Durham (thaes ceseres maga) and Ailred of Rievaulx describe Agatha as a kinswoman of "Emperor Henry", the latter explicitly making her daughter of his brother (filia germani imperatoris Henrici). It is not clear whether the "Henry" mentioned was Henry II or Henry III, although Regalis prosapia Anglorum specifies Henry III.

Later sources of dubious credibility such as the Chronicle of Melrose call her daughter of Henry, while Matthew of Paris calls her the emperor's sister (soror Henrici imperatoris Romani). Geoffrey Gaimar in Lestoire des Engles states that she was daughter of the Hungarian king and queen (Li reis sa fille), although he places the marriage at a time when Edward is thought still to have been in Kiev, while Orderic Vitalis in Historiae Ecclesiasticae is more specific, naming her father as king Solomon (filiam Salomonis Regis Hunorum), even though he was actually a contemporary of Agatha's children. William of Malmesbury in De Gestis Regis Anglorum states that Agatha's sister was a Queen of Hungary (reginae sororem) and is echoed in this by Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, while, less precisely, Ailred says of Margaret that she was derived from English and Hungarian royal blood (de semine regio Anglorum et Hungariorum extitit oriunda).

Finally, Roger of Howden and the anonymous Leges Edwardi Confessoris indicate that while Edward was a guest of Kievan "king Malesclodus" he married a woman of noble birth (nobili progenio), Leges adding that the mother of St Margaret was of Rus royal blood (ex genere et sanguine regum Rugorum).René Jetté, "Is the Mystery of the Origins of Agatha, Wife of Edward the Exile, Finally Solved?", in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 150 (October 1996), pp. 417-432; Gabriel Ronay, The Lost King of England: the East European adventures of Edward the Exile, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Wolfeboro, N.H., USA : Boydell Press, 1989, , pp. 109-121

Onomastics Onomastic analysis has also been brought to bear on the question. The name Agatha itself is rare in western Europe at this time. Likewise, those of her children and grandchildren are either drawn from the pool of Anglo-Saxon names to be expected given her husband's membership of the royal family of Wessex, or else are names not typical of western Europe. There is speculation that the latter derive from Agatha's eastern European ancestry. Specifically, her own name, the names of her daughters Cristina and Margaret, and those of her grandchildren Alexander, David and Mary, have been used as possible indicators of her origins.

Danish theory Among the earliest theories put forward was by Elias Reusner, writing in 1592, arguing that Agatha was either the daughter or granddaughter of the English and Danish king Cnut.Eliae Revsneri, Basilicon Opus Genealogicum Catholicum (Frankfort: Nicholai Bassaei, 1592), part V, p. 3. Felch dismisses the connection on chronological grounds, but while Reusner names Agatha as Cnuti Dani F[ilii] he used the name Cnut for both the king now remembered by that name and for his son Harthacnut, so his intent is unclear. This theory was reiterated in 1634 by Johann Adolf Cypraeus.Iohanne Adolpho Cipraeo, Annales Episcoporvm Slesvicencivm, (Woringen:Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1634), p. 468. The evidence to support this theory hinges on the definition of Agatha being the kinswoman of Emperor Henry III through marriage instead of blood; as Henry's first wife was Cnut's daughter Gunhilda, this would make Agatha Henry's niece, if she were the daughter of Harthacnut. This theory has been largely ignored since the 18th century in favour of other possible reconstructions.

German and Hungarian theories While various sources repeat the claims that Agatha was daughter or sister of either Emperor Henry, it seems unlikely that such a sibling or daughter would have been ignored by the German chroniclers.Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England: its causes and its results, Third Edition, Revised, Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1877, pp. 668-673.

The description of Agatha as a blood relative of "Emperor Henry" may be applicable to a niece of either Henry II or Henry III, emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (although John of Worcester in Regalis prosapia Anglorum specifies Henry III). Early attempts at reconstructing the relationship focused on the former. Georgio Pray (1764, Annales Regum Hungariae), P.F. Suhm (1777, Geschichte Dänmarks, Norwegen und Holsteins) and Istvan Katona (1779, Historia Critica Regum Hungariae) each suggested that Agatha was the daughter of Henry II's brother Bruno of Augsburg (an ecclesiastic described as beatae memoriae, with no known issue), while Daniel Cornides (1778, Regum Hungariae) tried to harmonise the German and Hungarian claims, making Agatha daughter of Henry II's sister Giselle of Bavaria, wife of Stephen I of Hungary.Ronay, The Lost King of England, pp. 109-121. This solution remained popular among scholars into the second half of the twentieth century.e.g. Sandor Fest, "The sons of Edmund Ironside Anglo-Saxon King at the Court of St. Stephen", in Archivum Europae Centro-Orientalis vol. 4 (1938), pp. 115-145; G. Andrews Moriarty, "Agatha, wife of the Atheling Eadward", in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 106 (1952), pp. 52-60; Gregory Lauder-Frost, "Agatha-The Ancestry Dispute", in The Scottish Genealogist, Vol. 49, No.3 (September 2002), pp. 71-72.

As tempting as it may be to thus view St. Margaret as a granddaughter of another famous saint, Stephen of Hungary, this popular solution fails to explain why Stephen's death triggered a dynastic crisis in Hungary, or at least that Agatha's family failed to play a role in that strife. If St. Stephen and Giselle were indeed Agatha's parents, her offspring would have had a strong claim to the Hungarian crown. Actually, there is no indication in Hungarian sources that any of Stephen's children outlived him. Likewise, all of the solutions involving Henry II would seem to make Agatha much older than her husband, and prohibitively old at the time of the birth of her last child, Edgar.

Based on a more strict translation of the Latin description used by John of Worcester and others as well as the supposition that Henry III was the Emperor designated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, genealogist Szabolcs de Vajay popularised another idea first suggested in 1939. In that year, Jozsef Herzog published an analysis suggesting that Agatha was daughter of one of Henry's half-brothers, born to his mother Gisela of Swabia by her earlier marriages to Ernest I of Swabia and Bruno of Brunswick, probably the former based on more favourable chronology.Jozsef Herzog, "Skóciai Szent Margit származásának kérdése" [The problem of St Margaret of Scotland's Scottish origins], in Turul vol. 53 (1939), pp. 1-42; Marcellus D. R. von Redlich, "The Parentage of Agatha, Wife of Prince Edward the Exile", National Genealogical Society Quarterly, vol. 28 (1940), pp. 105-109; G. Andrews Moriarty, "Agatha, wife of the Atheling Eadward", in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 106 (1952), pp. 52-60; Szabolcs de Vajay. "Agatha, Mother St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland", in Duquesne Review, vol. 7, no. 2 (Spring 1962), pp. 71-80; Gábor Klaniczay, Holy rulers and blessed princesses: dynastic cults in medieval central Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 132-133 De Vajay reevaluated the chronology of the marriages and children of Gisela and concluded that Agatha was the daughter of Henry III's elder (uterine) half-brother, Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia.Szabolcs de Vajay. "Agatha, Mother St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland", in Duquesne Review, vol. 7, no. 2 (Spring 1962), pp. 71-80. This theory saw broad acceptance for several decadese.g. Ronay, The Lost King of England; Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists who came to New England between 1623 and 1650, sixth edition, Walter Lee Sheppard, ed., p. 3. until René Jetté resurrected a Kievan solution to the problem,René Jetté, "Is the Mystery of the Origins of Agatha, Wife of Edward the Exile, Finally Solved?", in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 150 (October 1996): 417-432. since which time opinion has been divided among several competing possibilities.David Faris and Douglas Richardson supported the Liudolf connection, "The Origin of Agatha-The Debate Continues: The Parents of Agatha, Wife of Edward The Exile" in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 152, (April 1998). Norman Ingham supported Jetté in two articles: "A Slavist's View of Agatha, Wife of Edward the Exile, as a Possible Daughter of Yaroslav the Wise" in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 152 (1998), pp. 216-23; "Has a Missing Daughter of Iaroslav Mudryi Been Found?" in Russian History, vol. 25 (1998 [pub. 1999]), pp. 231-70. Gregory Lauder-Frost, summarized numerous early sources and the various theories: "Agatha-The Ancestry Dispute", in The Scottish Genealogist, Vol. 49, No.3 (September 2002), pp. 71-72. He follows Moriarty in discounting the Henry III connection of Herzog (and later de Vajay), instead leaning towards Saint Stephen as her father and Henry II her uncle.

Kievan theory Jetté pointed out that William of Malmesbury in De Gestis Regis Anglorum and several later chronicles unambiguously state that Agatha's sister was a Queen of Hungary. From what is known about the biography of Edward the Exile, he apparently was in the political faction of Andrew I of Hungary, following him from Kiev to Hungary in 1046 and staying at his court for many years. Andrew's wife and queen was Anastasia, a daughter of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev by Ingigerd of Sweden. Following Jetté's logic, Edward's wife was another daughter of Yaroslav. In so doing, he mirrored a solution to Agatha's paternity put forward in 1894 by William Ferrand Felch.W. Ferrand Felch, "The Ancestry of Agatha: The Byzantine Ancestry of Agatha", Notes & Queries, 8th ser., v: 421-3, 461-2