This Ælfgifu is identified with the noblewoman of this name who in her will leaves bequests to a brother of this name, and another brother, Ælfweard, who also begins witnessing at this time.

This was seen as a move against Harold Harefoot, Cnut's son by Ælfgifu of Northampton, who put himself forward as Harold I with the support of many of the English nobility.

Harold may have had a wife, Ælfgifu and a son, Ælfwine, who became a monk on the continent when he was older.

He was the third of the six sons of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu, who was probably the daughter of Earl Thored of Northumbria.

He later married Ælfgifu, who seems to have been the sister of Æthelweard the Chronicler.

In early 958 Oda annulled the marriage of Eadwig and his wife Ælfgifu, who were too closely related.

Ranulf's mistress was an Englishwoman named Alveva or Ælfgifu, who was the mother of at least two of his sons.

The first recorded reference to Chesham is under the Old English name Cæstæleshamm meaning " the river-meadow at the pile of stones around 970 in the will of Lady Ælfgifu, who has been identified with the former wife of King Eadwig.

Ælfgifu has been also identified with the namesake who left a will sometime between 966 and 975, which might shed further light on her origins.

This picture is based on her identification with the Ælfgifu who was a wealthy landowner in Southeast England and a relative of King Edgar.

At Winchester, Ælfgifu was dearly remembered for her generosity and conceivably so was her mother: Ælfgyfu coniunx Eadwigi regis and Æþelgyfu, who may be her mother, appear on a page of the New Minster Liber Vitae of 1031 among the illustrious benefactresses of the community.

Some historians have suggested that he was the Æthelhelm who was Ealdorman of Wiltshire, the probable father of Edward the Elder's second wife Ælfflæd, but Barbara Yorke rejected the idea, arguing that it does not appear to have been the practice for Æthelings ( princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible to be king ) to become ealdormen, that in a grant from Alfred to Ealdorman Æthelhelm there is no reference to kinship between them, and that the hostile reception to King Eadwig's marriage to Ælfgifu, his third cousin once removed, shows that a marriage between Edward and his first cousin once removed would have been forbidden as incestuous.

Cnut already had a wife known as Ælfgifu of Northampton who bore him two sons, Svein and Harold Harefoot.

As well as the two sons he had with Ælfgifu of Northampton, he had a further son with Emma, who was named Harthacnut.

The tale is probably fictional in origin, though consistent with the villainous depiction of Ælfgifu in this work.

There is evidence that Ælfgifu of Northampton was attempting to secure her son's position through bribes to the nobles.

Harold himself is somewhat obscure ; the historian Frank Stenton considered it probable that his mother Ælfgifu was " the real ruler of England " for part or all of his reign.

The annulment of the marriage of Eadwig and Ælfgifu is unusual in that it took place against their will, clearly politically motivated by the supporters of Dunstan.

Æthelweard first witnesses charters as a minister after the accession of Eadwig in 955, and this is likely to be connected with the king's marriage to Ælfgifu.

Assuming that the identification of Æthelweard as the brother of Ælfgifu is correct, his mother was the Æthelgifu whose company Eadwig enjoyed along with her daughter whilst escaping his coronation.

This act was likely a political move connected to the division between Eadwig and Edgar, as it is unlikely that the close kinship between Eadwig and Ælfgifu had not been known before their marriage.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions how Harold's claim that he was the son of Cnut and Ælfgifu is either distrusted or simply denied.

Dunintune or Dunitone is mentioned twice in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having land belonging to Countess Ælfgifu and land assigned to Earl Hugh.

This reconstruction is based on the probability that Risborough ( Buckinghamshire ), one of Ælfgifu ’ s holdings mentioned in the will, was previously held by Æthelgyth.

The possible implication is that Ælfgifu inherited the estate and many others in Buckinghamshire.

A weakness shared by these suggestions is that they hinge on the assumption that the testatrix Ælfgifu is the same as the erstwhile royal consort.

If Hart's suggestion that Ælfgifu was of royal Mercian descent and related to the latter family is correct, it might have been hoped that the marriage would give Eadwig some political advantage in exercising West-Saxon control over Mercia.

It is known that in 958 Archbishop Oda of Canterbury, a supporter of Dunstan, annulled the marriage of Eadwig and Ælfgifu on the basis of their consanguinity.

One of the few charters to have been witnessed by Ælfgifu is the aforementioned memorandum from Abingdon, which confirms an exchange of land between Æthelwold and Brihthelm.

No less important than the circumstances of her married life is the way Ælfgifu may have pushed on since the break-up of her marriage and more especially since the autumn of 959, when Eadwig died ( 1 October 959 ) and was succeeded by his brother Edgar as king of all England.

Whether Ælfgifu kept a low profile or truly lived in exile, as Byrhtferth appears to claim, there is evidence to suggest that by the mid-960s, she had come to enjoy some peace, prosperity and a good understanding with King Edgar and the royal house.

Æthelweard describes himself as the " grandson's grandson " of King Æthelred I. Eadwig was the son of King Edmund the Magnificent, grandson of King Edward the Elder, great-grandson of King Alfred the Great, and therefore great-great-nephew of King Æthelred I. Eadwig and Ælfgifu were therefore third cousins once removed.

In 957 King Eadwig, the great-grandson of King Æthelred I's brother, Alfred the Great, was obliged to divorce Æthelweard's sister Ælfgifu on grounds of consanguinity, and in the introduction to his Latin Chronicle Æthelweard claims to be the " grandson's grandson " of King Æthelred.

It has been postulated that Æthelweard and his siblings Ælfweard, Ælfgifu and Ælfwaru were the children of Eadric, ealdorman of Hampshire.

In this light, Ælfgifu would have been Eadwig ’ s third cousin once removed.

Ælfgifu ’ s will, if it can be ascribed to her, provides even clearer evidence for her close association with Æthelwold.

In view of the will ´ s special mention of Ælfgifu ´ s " mother's soul ", this could mean that Æthelgifu was a descendant of Æthelgyth, while the anonymous father traced his descent to Æthelred.

Cnut had put aside his first wife Ælfgifu of Northampton in order to marry Emma, and according to the Encomium Emmae Reginae, a book she inspired many years later, Cnut agreed that any sons of their marriage should take precedence over the sons of his first marriage.

Cnut had left Norway under the rule of Håkon Eiriksson but he was drowned in 1029, and Cnut appointed his son Svein to rule Norway with the assistance of Ælfgifu, Cnut's first wife and Svein's mother.

He was the younger son of Cnut the Great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway by his first wife, Ælfgifu of Northampton.

She suspects that the tale started out as a popular myth, or intentional defamation presumably tailored by Emma of Normandy, the other wife of Cnut and rival to Ælfgifu.

Ælfgifu of Northampton ( c. 990 – after 1040 ) was the first wife of King Cnut of England and Denmark, and mother of King Harold I of England ( 1035 – 40 ).

She remained an important figure, being responsible for the care of Æthelred's children by his first wife, Ælfgifu.

* Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, wife of King Edmund I of England

* Ælfgifu, wife of Eadwig, king of England

* Ælfgifu of York, first wife of Æthelred the Unready

* Emma of Normandy, second wife of Æthelred the Unready and second wife of Cnut the Great, called Ælfgifu in Old English sources

* Ælfgifu of Northampton, first wife of King Cnut the Great.

* Ælfgifu, wife of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia

* Ælfgifu, daughter of Æthelred the Unready and wife of Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria

He may have had some connection by marriage with Ælfgifu of Northampton, the first wife of Cnut.

Uhtred's wife was Ælfgifu, the youngest daughter of King Æthelred the Unready.

However it seems that the church regarded Ælfgifu as Cnut's concubine rather than his wife.