Dear Alan, Todd, et al.,
In an SGM thread in 1999, there was discussion of the identity of Wynflaed, shown in an AT as the father of St. Ælfgifu (wife of Edmund I, King of England 940-946). Todd questioned this identification, on the basis that the name 'Wynflaed' had a feminine ending, but there evidently was no resolution at that time on this issue [1].
Courtesy of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, Michael Wood's transcription of Searle's work on Anglo-Saxon pedigrees [hereafter refered to in this post as "ASP"] has the answer, or at least a direction for finding same. The annotation to p. 347 of the copy held in the London Library states concerning Ælfgifu: "Her mother's name was Wynflaed. BCS 1186, d. 966." [2]
The annotations in ASP were allegedly made by Searle himself, although Michael Wood has shown this to be impossible in certain specific cases [3]. Irregardless, I have found that the will of Wynflæd has been published by Dorothy Whitelock [4], and was a source for the Victoria County History account for Eynsham, co. Oxon. [5].
Following is an interesting analysis of the will of Wynflæd by Andrew Wareham:
" Will of Wynflæd, Shaftesbury nunnery archive, c. 950
Wynflæd has been tentatively identified as the mother-in-law of King Edmund and niece of Bishop Alfred of Sherborne [22]. In her testament matrilineal and patrilineal ideologies of kinship were kept in equilibrium. Wynflæd had inherited an estate from her mother Brihtwyn, and two of Wynflæd's other estates lay about ten to fifteen kilometres from one of Brihtwyn's properties [23]. In her testament Wynflæd disposed of the following: two Dorset properties; one estate in Wiltshire, possibly acquired from the crown; and a residence, perhaps in Dorset, which she had inherited from her mother [24]. One estate was granted to the Shaftesbury nunnery, but the other properties passed to her daughter, Æthelflæd, along with numerous household chattels [25]. In return Æthelflæd had 'to be mindful' of her mother's soul, and ws asked to oversee gifts of men and stock from these three estates to two royal nunneries and two royal minsters in t!
he south-west. Through these transactions vertical bonds of female kinship linking the grandmother, Brihtwyn, to her granddaughter, Æthelflæd, were emphasized. The spiritual relationship between Æthelflæd and the Shaftesbury nunnery gave value to horizontal female kinship ties, forging an alliance between Æthelflæd, her sister who was buried at Shaftesbury, and her royal mother-in-law. The strength of patrilineal ideologies was demonstrated by the bequest of four estates in Hampshire and Berkshire [26]. As one of these estates had been Wynflæd's marriage gift from her husband, it seems likely that the remaining three estates had also passed from her husband's resouces. Wynflæd bequeathed these estates to Eadmær, identified as her son, and when his son (Eadwold) reached his majority, he was to receive two of these properties [27]. Eadmær was required to make gifts in coin and stock to five minsters in Berkshire, which had no !
known connections with the monarchy or with Wynflæd's own family.
Estates which had descended from Wynflæd's family of birth and the royal fisc were used to emphasize ties between kinswomen in association with royal nunneries and minsters in the south-west, whereas estates acquired from her husband were used to focus attention upon the male line of descent linking grandfather to grandson in association with a group of non-royal minsters in Berkshire." [6]
The following chart is based on the text of Wynflæd's will as interpreted by Andrew Wareham, the chart provided by Wareham (p. 382) and pedigrees of the Anglo-Saxon kings (including Searle, pp. 346-7).
___________________________________ I I NN = Brihtwyn Alfred I Bishop of Sherborne, 933-ca. 941 I I NN = Wynflæd I ___I____________________________________________ I I I Edmund = Ælfgifu Æthelflæd Eadmær K of I I England I I 940-946 I ________I____ ______I____________ I I I I I I Edwy Edgar = 1) Æthelflæd Eadwold Eadgifu K of K of I = 2)!
Ælfthryth England England I I 955-959 959-975 I I___________________ ________I _________I________ I I I Edward 'the Martyr' Edmund Æthelræd 'Unræd' King 975-978 d. ca. 970 King 978-1013, 1014-16
What possibility there is for identifying the husbands of Wynflæd and Brihtwyn is uncertain; perhaps the manors held by Wynflaed (including her dower of Faccombe) as named by Wareham may advance that effort.
Hope this is helpful.
Cheers,
John *
NOTES
[1] Alan B. Wilson, <Re: Alice Tunstall (LONG! part 3 of 3)>, SGM, 20 July 1999, states in part [reply to post by Todd A. Farmerie]: In article <3794AF31.175E@po.cwru.edu>, "Todd A. Farmerie"<taf2@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
As far as i know, there is no contemporary source for the father of St.> Aelfgifu. As to the name you give, Wynflaed, the -flaed ending is more> typical of a female name. Still Hart is a good researcher, and might> have found something of value.> Actually Cyril Hart in Table 3.4, p. 128, shows Eadmund m., firstly,ca 940, Aelfgifu, dau. of Wynflaed, d. 943/4. This leaves open thepossibility that Wynflaed is either Aelfgifu's father or mother. While Iphotocopied the charts, I do not have the text available at home to seewhether this is clarified, and on what evidence Hart relied.
[2] William George Searle, Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles: The Succession of the Bishops and the Pedigrees of the Kings and Nobles [Cambridge: the University Press, 1899], p. 347. Text and annotations (entitled Anglo-Saxon Pedigrees Annotated-Part 1, transcribed by Michael Wood) courtesy Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, http://fmg.ac/
[3] Ibid., p. 269.
[4] Dorothy Whitelock, ed., Anglo-Saxon Wills [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930]. Source not seen.
[5] A History of the County of Oxford, XII:98-110 (courtesy British History Online, http://www.britishhistory.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=5203 " A further possibility that in the 10th century Eynsham belonged to a succession of closely related members of the West Saxon royal household depends upon its identification as the Inggeneshamme, Incgenaesham, or Igenesham of several surviving wills. The forms have been attributed usually to Inglesham (Wilts.), although the 10th-century Latin chronicler Aethelweard used the very similar form Ignesham for the undisputed Egenesham of 571 in his translation of the Chronicle. (Footnote 20) Aethelweard, whose son Aethelmaer founded Eynsham abbey, may have known Eynsham, since it possibly already belonged to a kinsman. In the mid 10th century Wynflaed, probably grandmother of King Edgar, by will gave Inggeneshamme to her son Eadmaer. (Footnote 21) Later Aelfheah (d. c. 971), ealdorman of Hampshire, by will gave Incgenaesham to King E!
dgar, to whom he was related. (Footnote 22) The chronicler Aethelweard, as a descendant of Ethelred, king of Wessex, was related to both Wynflaed and Aelfheah. (Footnote 23) Aelfheah's successor as ealdorman of Hampshire, Aethelmaer (d. 982), by will gave Igenesham to an unnamed elder son, (Footnote 24) and before 1005 Aethelmaer, son of Aethelweard the chronicler, acquired Egnesham by exchange from another Aethelweard, his son-in-law. (Footnote 25) The son-in-law's antecedents are not known, but it is possible that he was a descendant of Aethelmaer, ealdorman of Hampshire, and that the Igenesham bequeathed in 982 was the Egnesham of 1005. Interpretation of the place-name Eynsham, which compounds with hamm (river meadow) a personal name which is either AngloSaxon or Celtic, depends upon which early forms are accepted. (Footnote 26) "
[ Footnotes to the VCH account above: ]
20 Chron. of Aethelweard, ed. A. Campbell, 13. The editor dismisses the translation as a 'slip': ibid. p. Iviii. 21 D. Whitelock, A.-S. Wills, pp. 10–15, 108–10, Finberg, Wessex Chart. pp.44, 90. 22 Whitelock, Wills, pp. 22–5, 121–2. 23 Chron. of Aethelweard,pp. xiii sqq.; S. Keynes, Diplomas of King Aethelred, p. 188; cf. Whitelock, Wills, pp.118-19. 24 Ibid. pp. 24–7, 125–6; Finberg, Wessex Chart. pp.55–6, 99; Gelling, Thames Valley Chart. pp. 133-4. 25 Eynsham Cart. i, pp. 19 sqq. For Aethelmaer see Chron. of Aethelweard, pp. xiii sqq.; Keynes, Diplomas, 192, 209-10. 26 P.N. Oxon. (E.P.N.S.), ii. 258-9; Ekwall, Dict. Eng. Place Names, 171-2.
[6] Andrew Wareham, The Transformation of Kinship and the Family in Late Anglo-Saxon England [Early Medieval Europe 10 (3)], pp. 381-383. Footnotes to the text ["W" :
" 22. W., p. 109; Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey, ed. S. E. Kelly, Anglo-Saxon Charters 5 (London, 1996), pp. xiii-xiv. 23. W. , no. 4 (S 1539), p. 14, ls. 29-30; Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey, ed. Kelly, nos. 13, 16. 24. W., no. 4, p. 10, ls. 7-15. She had the title deed to Ebbesborne (Wilts.), possibly a royal grant. For other Ebbesborne grants by the crown, S 522; S 635; S 640; S 696; S 861. 25. W., no. 4, p. 10, ls. 7-15. 26. Ibid., p. 10, ls. 15-27; p. 12, ls. 23-4. 27. On kinship, ibid., p. 110. On property, the exception to this pattern was Wynflæd's marriage gift, Faccombe, which after the death of Eadmær was to pass to her daughter (Æthelflæd) and then to her grandson Eadwold. Wynflæd may have included her daughter Æthelflæd because she had greater control over her marriage gift than over the other estates (Adderbury, Coleshill, Inglesham) received from her husban!
d. "
* John P. Ravilious