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Birth:          ABT  947 of Devonshire, England
Death:          1000 

Notes
died as a nun
Widow of Eathelwold, Earldorman of East Anglia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfthryth,_wife_of_Edgar
Ælfthryth (c.?945 – 1000 or 1001, also Alfrida, Elfrida or Elfthryth) was an English 
queen, the second or third wife of King Edgar of England. Ælfthryth was the first king's 
wife known to have been crowned and anointed as Queen of the Kingdom of England. 
Mother of King Æthelred the Unready, she was a powerful political figure. She was 
possibly linked to the murder of her stepson King Edward the Martyr and appeared as 
a stereotypical bad queen and evil stepmother in many medieval histories.
Early life[edit]

Ælfthryth was the daughter of Ealdorman Ordgar. Her mother was a member of the 
royal family of Wessex. The family's power lay in the west of Wessex. Ordgar was 
buried in Exeter and his son Ordwulf founded, or refounded, Tavistock Abbey.[1]

Ælfthryth was first married to Æthelwald, son of Æthelstan Half-King as recorded by 
Byrhtferth of Ramsey in his Life of Saint Oswald of Worcester.[2] Later accounts, such 
as that preserved by William of Malmesbury, add vivid detail of unknown reliability.

According to William, the beauty of Ordgar's daughter Ælfthryth was reported to King 
Edgar. Edgar, looking for a Queen, sent Æthewald to see Ælfthryth, ordering him "to 
offer her marriage [to Edgar] if her beauty were really equal to report." When she 
turned out to be just as beautiful as was said, Æthelwald married her himself and 
reported back to Edgar that she was quite unsuitable. Edgar was eventually told of 
this, and decided to repay Æthelwald's betrayal in like manner. He said that he would 
visit the poor woman, which alarmed Æthelwald. He asked Ælfthryth to make herself 
as unattractive as possible for the king's visit, but she did the opposite. Edgar, quite 
besotted with her, killed Æthelwald during a hunt.[3]

The historical record does not record the year of Æthelwald's death, let alone its 
manner. No children of Æthelwald and Ælfthryth are known.

Edgar's queen[edit]

Edgar had two children before he married Ælfthryth, both of uncertain legitimacy. 
Edward was probably the son of Æthelflæd, and Eadgifu, later known as Saint Edith of 
Wilton, was the daughter of Wulfthryth.[4] Sound political reasons encouraged the 
match between Edgar, whose power base was centred in Mercia, and Ælfthryth, 
whose family were powerful in Wessex. In addition to this, and her link with the family 
of Æthelstan Half-King, Ælfthryth also appears to have been connected to the family 
of Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia.[5]

Edgar married Ælfthryth in either 964 or 965. In 966 Ælfthryth gave birth to a son who 
was named Edmund. In King Edgar's charter (S 745) regranting privileges to New 
Minster, Winchester that same year, the infant Edmund is called "clito legitimus" 
(legitimate ætheling), and appears before Edward in the list of witnesses. Edmund died 
young, circa 970, but in 968 Ælfthryth had given birth to a second son who was called 
Æthelred.[6]

King Edgar organised a second coronation on 11 May 973 at Bath, perhaps to bolster 
his claim to be ruler of all of Britain. Here Ælfthryth was also crowned and anointed, 
granting her a status higher than any recent queen.[7] The only model of a queen's 
coronation was that of Judith of Flanders, but this had taken place outside England. 
In the new rite, the emphasis lay on her role as protector of religion and the nunneries 
in the realm. She took a close interest in the well-being of several abbeys, and as 
overseer of Barking Abbey she deposed and later reinstated the abbess.[8]

Ælfthryth played a large role as forespeca, or advocate, in at least seven legal cases. 
As such, she formed a key part of the Anglo-Saxon legal system as a mediator 
between the individual and the crown, which was increasingly viewing its role in the 
courts as a symbol of its authority as protector of its subjects. Ælfthryth's actions as 
forespeca were largely for the benefit of female litigants, and her role as a mediator 
shows the possibilities for women to have legal and political power in late Anglo-Saxon 
England.[9]

Queen dowager[edit]
Edgar died in 975 leaving two young sons, Edward and Æthelred. Edward was almost 
an adult, and his successful claim for the throne was supported by many key figures 
including Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald and the brother of Ælfthryth's first 
husband, Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia. Supporting the unsuccessful claim of 
Æthelred were his mother, the Queen dowager, Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and 
Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia.[10]

On 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth at Corfe Castle, King Edward was killed by 
servants of the Queen, leaving the way clear for Æthelred to be installed as king. 
Edward was soon considered a martyr, and later medieval accounts blamed Ælfthryth 
for his murder. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Edward was murdered at 
Corfe Castle in 978. As the king developed into a cult figure, a body of literature grew 
up around his murder, at first implying and then accusing his step-mother, Queen 
Aelfthryth, of being responsible. The 12th century monastic chronicle the Liber 
Eliensis went so far as to accuse her of being a witch, claiming that she had murdered 
not only the king, but also Abbot Brihtnoth of Ely.[11]

Due to Æthelred's youth, Ælfthryth served as regent for her son until his coming of age 
in 984. By then her earlier allies Æthelwold and Ælfhere had died, and Æthelred 
rebelled against his old advisers, preferring a group of younger nobility. She 
disappears from the list of charter witnesses from around 983 to 993, when she 
reappears in a lower position. She remained an important figure, being responsible for 
the care of Æthelred's children by his first wife, Ælfgifu. Æthelred's eldest son, 
Æthelstan Ætheling, prayed for the soul of the grandmother "who brought me up" in 
his will in 1014.[12]

Although her reputation was damaged by the murder of her stepson, Ælfthryth was a 
religious woman, taking an especial interest in monastic reform when Queen. In about 
986 she founded Wherwell Abbey as a Benedictine nunnery, and late in life she retired 
there.[13] Antonia Gransden comments: "In their patronage of the monks both Cnut 
and Edward the Confessor were supported by their queens, Emma and Edith, who 
were worthy successors of Edgar's queen, Ælfthryth, as patronesses of the 
religious."[14] She died at Wherwell on 17 November 999, 1000 or 1001.[13]

Parents
____ Ordgar (ABT  922 - )
____ Wulfrith (ABT  920 - )

Siblings
____ Elfrida (Elfthryth) (ABT  947 - 1000)

Marriage To ____ Edgar "the Peaceable" (ABT  943 - 8 Jul  975)
    m.  965 

Notes

Parents
____ Edmund I "the Magnificent" "the Deed Doer" (ABT  922 - 26 May  946)
____ Elgiva "Saint" (ABT  922 -  944)

Children by ____ Edgar "the Peaceable" ABT  943 - 8 Jul  975
____ Aethelred (Ethelred) II "The Unready" (ABT  966 - 23 Apr 1016)

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