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Ælfgifu was the consort of King Eadwig of England ( r. 955 – 59 ) for a brief period of time until 957 or 958.
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Ælfgifu and was
She was given an English name, Ælfgifu, which was used instead of her Norman name on formal occasions or on charters.
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.
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.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Harold said that he was a son of Cnut the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton, " although it was not true ".
Claiming that Ælfgifu wanted to have a son by the king but was unable to, she secretly adopted the newborn children of strangers and pretended to have given birth to them.
There is evidence that Ælfgifu of Northampton was attempting to secure her son's position through bribes to the nobles.
It included information on the situation in England, with messengers from there reporting that Ælfgifu was gaining the support of the leading aristocrats through pleas and bribery, binding them to herself and Harold by oaths of loyalty.
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.
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.
The eldest son of King Edmund and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, Eadwig was chosen by the nobility to succeed his uncle Eadred as King.
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.
The body was taken to the Shaftesbury Abbey, a nunnery with royal connections which had been endowed by King Alfred the Great and where Edward and Æthelred's grandmother Ælfgifu had spent her latter years.
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.
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.
Ranulf's mistress was an Englishwoman named Alveva or Ælfgifu, who was the mother of at least two of his sons.
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 ).
Ælfgifu was born into an important noble family based in the Midlands ( Mercia ).
In any event, on Cnut's death, Ælfgifu was determined that her second son Harold should be the next English king.
Ælfgifu and consort
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.
Ælfgifu and King
They were anxious to make their peace with Æthelred, but unwilling to hand Ælfgifu and her son over to Æthelred to be murdered, so they sent the mother and child with King Swein's body to Denmark.
Ælfgifu fell into obscurity after Harold's death in 1040, and the crowning of Harthacnut, the legitimate heir to Cnut and also the King of Denmark.
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 of Shaftesbury, wife of King Edmund I of England
* Ælfgifu of Northampton, first wife of King Cnut the Great.
* Ælfgifu, daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and sister of King Harold II of England
At an unknown date around the time of his accession, the young King Eadwig married Ælfgifu.
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.
This picture is based on her identification with the Ælfgifu who was a wealthy landowner in Southeast England and a relative of King Edgar.
Uhtred's wife was Ælfgifu, the youngest daughter of King Æthelred the Unready.
Ælfgifu and Eadwig
The " cavorting " in question consisted of Eadwig ( then only 16 ) being away from the feast with Ælfgifu and her mother Æthelgifu.
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.
In early 958 Oda annulled the marriage of Eadwig and his wife Ælfgifu, who were too closely related.
* Ælfgifu, wife of Eadwig, king of England
In this light, Ælfgifu would have been Eadwig ’ s third cousin once removed.
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.
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.
While Eadwig, like Alfred and Edward, was buried in the New Minster, Ælfgifu intended her body to be buried in the nearby Old Minster.
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