Ælfgifu, wife of Eadwig
| Ælfgifu | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of England | |
| Tenure | 23 November 955 – 1 October 959 |
| Predecessor | Æthelflæd of Damerham |
| Successor | Ælfthryth, wife of Edgar |
| Burial | Winchester Cathedral |
| Spouse | Eadwig, King of England (annulled) |
| Father | Uncertain |
| Mother | Æthelgifu |
Ælfgifu was the consort of King Eadwig of England (r. 955–59) for a brief period of time until 957 or 958. What little is known of her 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.
Two facts about Ælfgifu's family background are unambiguously stated by the sources. First, her mother bore the name of Æthelgifu, a woman of very high birth (natione præcelsa). 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. 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.
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 Mercia and his wife Æthelgyth, who may have been a daughter of ealdorman Æthelwulf and a niece of King Alfred's Mercian consort Ealhswith. This reconstruction is based on the probability that Risborough (Buckinghamshire), one of Ælfgifu’s holdings mentioned in the will, was previously held by Æthelgyth. 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.
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