Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
922 – 944 · Generation III · House of Wessex
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury (922–944). Married Edmund I of England in 940. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Little is known of her family beyond her mother, Wynflæd, who seems to have been a nun or vowess linked to the royal nunnery at Shaftesbury in Dorset; whether she was the wealthy Wessex landowner of that name whose will survives is disputed. Nothing written in her lifetime shows Ælfgifu consecrated as queen — one charter of doubtful authenticity calls her the king’s concubine — though the chronicler Æthelweard later styled her queen. She bore Edmund two future kings, Eadwig and Edgar, and received from him the estate of Tisbury, which she meant to return to the nuns. She probably died in 944, perhaps giving birth to Edgar, and was buried at Shaftesbury, where reports of healing miracles at her tomb soon made her a saint, remembered on 18 May.
Place in the family
- The archive records 155 of her descendants, across 37 generations.
One of 22 people of House of Wessex (until 1093) in this archive. Alfred’s line: kings of Wessex who became the first kings of all England.
Partners
- Married King Edmund (921 – 946) in 940 — 2 children together
Children
- King Edwy (Eadwig) (940 – 959)
- King Edgar (943 – 975)
Life
- 922 — Born
- 940 — Married Edmund I of England
- 944 — Died