Ælfgifu was Queen of the English as wife of King Eadwig of England (r. 955–959) for a brief period of time until 957 or 958.

What little is known of Ælfgifu comes primarily by way of Anglo-Saxon charters, possibly including a will, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and hostile anecdotes in works of hagiography. Her union with the king, annulled within a few years of Eadwig's reign, seems to have been a target for factional rivalries which surrounded the throne in the late 950s. By c. 1000, when the careers of the Benedictine reformers Dunstan and Oswald became the subject of hagiography, its memory had suffered heavy degradation. In the mid-960s, however, she appears to have become a well-to-do landowner on good terms with King Edgar and, through her will, a generous benefactress of ecclesiastical houses associated with the royal family, notably the Old Minster and New Minster at Winchester.

Family background

Two facts about Ælfgifu's family background are unambiguously stated by the sources. First, her mother bore the name of Æthelgifu,S 1292 (AD 956 x 957), witnessed by Ælfgifu þæs cininges wif 7 Æþelgifu þæs cyninges wifes modur. a woman of very high birth (natione præcelsa).B, Vita S. Dunstani § 21. Second, she was related to her husband Eadwig, since in 958 their marriage was dissolved by Archbishop Oda on grounds that they were too closely related by blood, that is, within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS D), AD 958. Ælfgifu has been also identified with the namesake who left a will sometime between 966 and 975, which might shed further light on her origins.S 1484. Keynes, "Eadwig". PASE s.v. /

These dangling clues, unsatisfying as they are in themselves, have been used to construct two possible—and possibly compatible—genealogies for Ælfgifu, both of which ascribe to her a degree of royal rank. One theory espoused by Cyril Hart and considered by Pauline Stafford makes her a noblewoman of Mercian stock, who descended from Ealdorman Æthelfrith of MerciaS 367, 367a, 371. and his wife Æthelgyth,PASE s.v. who may have been a daughter of ealdorman Æthelwulf and a niece of King Alfred's Mercian consort Ealhswith.S 1442. PASE s.v. / This reconstruction is based on the probability that Risborough (Buckinghamshire), one of Ælfgifu's holdings mentioned in the will, was previously held by Æthelgyth.S 367 and S 1484. The possible implication is that Ælfgifu inherited the estate and many others in Buckinghamshire. Given that she asked Bishop Æthelwold, one of her beneficiaries, to intercede for her "mother's soul", she may have done so through the maternal line. If the suggestion is correct, she would have been closely related to the politically prominent family of ealdorman Æthelstan Half-King and his offspring.Hart, Cyril, The Danelaw, p. 462, etc. and 569–604; Stafford, "Ælfgifu"; Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills; p. 119

Her supposed will also provides the starting point for another, more widely regarded hypothesis.York, Barbara, Bishop Æthelwold. In this document, she makes bequests to Ælfweard and Æthelweard, seemingly her brothers (one of whom was married to Æthelflæd), and to her sister Ælfwaru. Æthelweard and Ælfweard re-appear as brothers and thegns (ministri) in the witness list of a spurious royal charter dated 974.S 796 (AD 974). This appears to be the same Æthelweard who regularly attests royal charters between 958 and 977 as the king's thegnPASE s.v. and may have moved on to become the illustrious ealdorman of the Western Provinces and author of a Latin chronicle,PASE s.v. in which he claimed descent from King Æthelred of Wessex (d. 871), fourth son of King Æthelwulf.Æthelweard (1961), Chronicon, preface and IV ch. 2. The conclusion which can be derived from these prosopographical byways is that if the ealdorman and chronicler Æthelweard was her brother, she must have shared with him a common ancestor in King Æthelred. In this light, Ælfgifu would have been Eadwig's third cousin once removed.

The two genealogies are not mutually exclusive. Andrew Wareham suggests that these two different branches of the royal family may have come together in the marriage which produced Ælfgifu. In view of the will's special mention of Ælfgifu's "mother's soul", this could mean that Æthelgifu was a descendant of Æthelgyth, while the anonymous father traced his descent to Æthelred.Wareham, Andrew, Transformation of Kinship; p. 385.

Neither hypothesis is conclusive. A weakness shared by these suggestions is that they hinge on the assumption that the testatrix Ælfgifu is the same as the erstwhile royal consort.Wormald, Patrick, "Æthelweard (d. 998?)." ODNB. Accessed 1 July 2008. However, for reasons explored below, the identification is favoured by most historians, though usually with reservations.Whitelock, Dorothy Anglo-Saxon wills. p. 119; Yorke, Barbara, Bishop Æthelwold, and see note.

Marriage

At an unknown date around the time of his accession, the young King Eadwig married Ælfgifu. The union was or was to become one of the most controversial royal marriages in 10th-century England. Eadwig's brother Edgar was the heir presumptive, but a legitimate son born out of this marriage would have seriously diminished Edgar's chances of succeeding to the kingship, especially if both parents were of royal rank.Yorke, Barbara, Bishop Æthelwold. p. 77. Fostered by Ælfwynn, wife of Æthelstan Half-King together with her son Æthelwine, Edgar enjoyed the support of Æthelstan Half-King (d. after 957) and his sons, whose power base was concentrated in Mercia and East Anglia and who would not have liked to lose power and influence to Ælfgifu's kinsmen and associates. If Hart's suggestion that Ælfgifu was of royal Mercian descent and related to the latter family is correct, it might have been hoped that the marriage would give Eadwig some political advantage in exercising West-Saxon control over Mercia.Stafford, "Ælfgifu."

Ælfgifu's mother, Æthelgifu, seems to have played a decisive role in her rise to prominence by the king's side, as indicated by their joint appearances in the sources. Together they witness a charter which records an exchange of land between Bishop Brihthelm and Æthelwold, then abbot of Abingdon.S 1292 (AD 956 x 957). and both their names occur among “illustrious” benefactors on a leaf of the early 11th-century Liber Vitae of the New Minster, Winchester.New Minster Liber Vitae, fol. 26r 20 iii (Ælfgyfu coniunx Eadwigi regis) and fol. 26v 20 xxxix. Source: “Ælfgifu 2” and “Æthelgifu 3”, PASE. In her presumed will (see above), Ælfgifu asks Bishop Æthelwold, one of her beneficiaries, to intercede for her and her mother.S 1484.

It is probable that they are the two women who are portrayed as Eadwig's sexual partners in the Life of St Dunstan by author 'B' and that of St. Oswald by Byrhtferth of Ramsey, both dating from around 1000. Dunstan's Life alleges that on the banquet following the solemnity of his coronation at Kingston (Surrey), Eadwig left the table and retreated to his chamber to debauch himself with two women, an indecent noblewoman (quaedam, licet natione præcelsa, inepta tamen mulier), later identified as Æthelgifu, and her daughter of ripe age (adulta filia). They are said to have attached themselves to him "obviously in order to join and ally herself or else her daughter to him in lawful marriage.".B, Vita S. Dunstani § 21, tr. Dorothy Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 901. Shocked by Eadwig's unseemly withdrawal, the nobles sent Dunstan and Bishop Cynesige, who forcefully dragged the king back to the feast. For this act, Dunstan had incurred the enmity of the king, who sent him into exile at Æthelgifu's instigation. Called a modern Jezebel, she would have exploited Eadwig's anger by ordering Dunstan's persecution and the spoliation of his property.B, Vita S. Dunstani § 21-2: pp. 32–3. That the memory of Eadwig's sexual affairs had become tainted and confused around the turn of the century is suggested by Byrhferth's Life of St. Oswald, which has a more fantastic tale to tell about Eadwig's two women. It recounts that the king was married, but ran off with a lady who was below his wife's rank. Archbishop Oda personally seized the king's new mistress at her home, forced her out of the country and managed to correct the king's behaviour.Byrthferth, Life of St Oswald.

These stories, written down some 40-odd years later, seem to be rooted in later smear campaigns which were meant to bring disrepute on Eadwig and his marital relations. Although both Lives focus on the personal dimension of the affairs from the perspective of their protagonists, the effects of factional rivalries loom in the background. It is known that in 958 Archbishop Oda of Canterbury, a supporter of Dunstan, annulled the marriage of Eadwig and Ælfgifu on the basis of their consanguinity. The underlying motive for this otherwise surprisingly belated decision may well have been political rather than religious or legal, as it bolstered Edgar's status as heir to the throne. There is a good possibility that Oda's act had been spurred on by Edgar's sympathisers, the sons of Æthelstan Half-King, and in particular by their ally Dunstan, whose monastic reform they generously supported.

The event needs to be placed in the broader context of Eadwig's struggle to retain political control and of the factions which supported Edgar as the heir presumptive.Barbara Yorke, Bishop Æthelwold. pp. 78–9. In the summer of 957, Edgar was elected king of Mercia.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (B and C) AD 957. Author 'B' presents this as the outcome of a northern revolt against Eadwig, whereby he lost control north of the Thames (Mercia and Northumbria) and Edgar was set up as king over that part of England. This is a gross exaggeration, since Eadwig retained the title "king of the English" in his charters and Æthelweard envisaged a "continuous" reign.Æthelweard, Chronicon Bk 4, ch. 8. Edgar's description as regulus in an alliterative charter of 956 may even signify that there was a prior agreement that Edgar would become his brother's subking in Mercia as soon as he reached majority.S 633 (AD 956); Barbara Yorke, Bishop Æthelwold. pp. 77–8. The weakness of Eadwig's political position is nevertheless confirmed by Bishop Æthelwold's retrospective note of complaint that Eadwig "had through the ignorance of childhood dispersed his kingdom and divided its unity".Preface to the "Old English translation of the Rule of Benedict (AD 975-984)", ed. Whitelock, Brett and Brooke. Councils and Synods 871-1204. Vol 1. 142-54: 146; tr. D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents no. 238, p. 920.

While it appears then that Dunstan and Archbishop Oda opposed the marriage, it was not all hostility that Ælfgifu had to endure from ecclesiastical magnates. Another Benedictine reformer, Æthelwold, abbot of Abingdon and later bishop of Winchester, seems to have preferred to support her, even if he was not uncritical of her husband's reign. One of the few charters to have been witnessed by Ælfgifu is the aforementioned memorandum from Abingdon, which confirms an exchange of land between Æthelwold and Brihthelm. In the subscription, she is recognised as the king's wife (þæs cininges wif). Ælfgifu's will, if it can be ascribed to her, provides even clearer evidence for her close association with Æthelwold.Yorke, Barbara, Bishop Æthelwold; p. 80.

Dowagerhood