Ealhswith of Mercia
852 – 902 · Generation I · House of Wessex
Ealhswith of Mercia (852–902). Married Alfred the Great in 868. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Her father was Æthelred Mucel, ealdorman of the Gaini, and her mother Eadburh came of the Mercian royal line — a descent, probably from the family of King Coenwulf, that made her a prized match for a West Saxon prince. She married Alfred in 868, the year the Danes seized Nottingham, while his brother Æthelred still reigned. By West Saxon custom she was never styled queen, a restriction Alfred traced to an earlier queen, Eadburh, who had poisoned King Beorhtric by mistake. Five of her children reached adulthood, among them Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Edward the Elder, and Alfred’s will left her the symbolic estates of Edington, Lambourn and Wantage. She founded the nunnery of St Mary, known as Nunnaminster, possibly after Alfred’s death, witnessed a charter as “mother of the king,” and was buried in her son’s New Minster.
Place in the family
- The archive records 160 of her descendants, across 39 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 Alfred the Great (849 – 899) in 868 — 2 children together
Children
- Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians (870 – 918)
- King Edward The Elder (874 – 924)
Life
- 852 — Born
- 868 — Married Alfred the Great
- 902 — Died