Ælfgifu of York

970 – 1002 · Generation V · House of Wessex

Ælfgifu of York (970–1002). Married Æthelred II the Unready in 985. One of their children is recorded in this archive. She was probably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, though one twelfth-century writer names her father as Æthelberht, and her name surfaces only in post-Conquest sources. The match, probably made in the mid-980s, gave the West Saxon house a foothold in the north, which may explain the ties her elder sons kept with families of the northern Danelaw. She bore six sons, each named for one of Æthelred’s predecessors — Æthelstan, Ecgberht, Edmund Ironside, Eadred, Eadwig and Edgar — and a number of daughters, three of whom were married to ealdormen, among them Eadric Streona and Uhtred of Northumbria. No charter bears her name as a witness — a mark of her modest standing — and some of her sons seem to have been fostered, possibly by Æthelred’s mother Ælfthryth. Among her great-grandchildren was Margaret, mother of King David I of Scotland.

Place in the family

• The archive records 150 of her descendants, across 35 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.

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Partners

• Married King Aethelred II The Unready (966 – 1016) in 985 — one child together

Children

• King Edmund II lronside (990 – 1016)

Life

• 970 — Born
• 985 — Married Æthelred II the Unready
• 1002 — Died