Ælfthryth of Devon

945 – 1000 · Generation IV · House of Wessex

Ælfthryth of Devon (945–1000). Married Edgar the Peaceful in 964. One of their children is recorded in this archive. The daughter of Ordgar, ealdorman of Devon, and of a mother from the West Saxon royal house, she was first married to Æthelwald, son of Æthelstan Half-King; later tales of Edgar killing him to win her are of unknown reliability. At Bath in 973 she was crowned and anointed beside Edgar — the first English king’s wife known to receive that rite since the mid-ninth century — with a special charge to protect the realm’s nunneries. Widowed in 975, she backed her son Æthelred against his half-brother Edward, who was killed at Corfe in 978 while visiting her, a murder later writers laid at her door. She then appears to have led the regency with Bishop Æthelwold and Ealdorman Ælfhere until about 984, and afterwards helped raise Æthelred’s children. She died at Wherwell, a nunnery she is said to have founded.

Place in the family

The archive records 152 of her descendants, across 36 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 Edgar (943 – 975) in 964 — one child together

Children

King Aethelred II The Unready (966 – 1016)

Life

945 — Born
964 — Married Edgar the Peaceful
1000 — Died