the Anglo-Saxon name Aelfgifu. She is generally known to historians as
Aelfgifu-Emma, and some historians have inevitably confused her with her
husband's first consort.
Whatever we call her, however, Aelfgifu-Emma was not the first queen of
England. The first woman anointed and crowned as the consort of an
Anglo-Saxon king of all England, and hence the first who can (and should)
properly be called queen, was Aethelred II's mother, Eadgar's second wife
Aelfthryth.
Pauline Stafford discusses Aelfgifu-Emma and Aelfthryth extensively, the
latter in *Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers: The King's Wife in the Early
Middle Ages* (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1983), and the former
in *Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women's Power in
Eleventh-Century England* (Oxford: Blackwell's, 1997).
John P.
From: "Todd A. Farmerie" <farmerie@lamar.colostate.edu
To: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Emma, Engalns 1st queen
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 20:53:37 -0600
ferdon wrote:
But AElgifu is said in this program to have been AEthelred's
mistress. I was under the impression that she was his first wife. ??
AElfgifu is named by several sources as mother of Eadmund Ironside, and
(according to Barlow's Edward the Confessor) the chronicler formerly known
as Florence of Worcester attributes AEthelsan, Eadwig and Eadgyth to
AElfgifu. Apparently (I don't have the Worcester chronicle handy), none of
these explicitly call AElfgifu wife of AEthelred or Queen of England.
Barlow says that they were undoubtably married (although perhaps not by a
church-sanctioned marriage), but I don't know that such certainty is
justified.
taf