Ælfgifu of Northampton
Ælfgifu | |
---|---|
Ælfhelm, Ealdorman of York | |
Mother | Wulfrun? |
Ælfgifu of Northampton (c. 990 – after 1036) was the first wife of
Biography
Family background
Ælfgifu was born into an important noble family based in the
Marriage to Cnut
When Swein invaded, northern peoples, some of them of Scandinavian descent, immediately submitted to him. He then married his young son Cnut to an English noblewoman, Ælfgifu, to seal their loyalty. Swein went on to conquer the whole of England and was accepted as King, but he died in February 1014 after a reign of only five weeks. Æthelred then sent an army which forced Cnut to flee back to Denmark, and in the opinion of historian Ian Howard, he left his wife and their baby son, Svein, the future King of Norway, behind with her family. They were anxious to make their peace with Æthelred, but unwilling to hand Ælfgifu and her son over to Æthelred to be killed, so they sent the mother and child with King Swein's body to Denmark. There she became pregnant again, and in 1015 or 1016 she gave birth to Harold Harefoot.[3] In the period immediately following, she may have been given authority over some region of Denmark, perhaps that of a Danish-controlled area of the Baltic coastline.[4]
Her two sons were to figure prominently in the empire which their father built in northern Europe, though not without opposition. After his conquest of England in 1016, Cnut married
Regent in Norway (1030–35)
After the defeat and death of Olaf II of Norway by forces loyal to Cnut, Cnut sent Ælfgifu with their eldest son Svein to rule Norway, in 1030. Their rule was, however, so harsh that the Norwegians rebelled against them. They were driven out, in 1034 or 1035, while Svein died of wounds in Denmark shortly after, probably in 1036. In Norway, where she was known as Álfífa in Old Norse, this period entered history as 'Álfífa's time' (Álfífuǫld), remembered for her severe rule and heavy taxation. In the Norwegian Ágrip, for instance, the following verse is attributed to her contemporary, the skald Sigvatr:
- Ælfgyfu's time
- long will the young man remember,
- when they at home ate ox's food,
- and like the goats, ate rind;[8]
Succession crisis after the death of Cnut (1035)
Cnut died at Shaftesbury in 1035.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (versions C, D and E) describes how Harold and his men forcefully laid claim on the treasury housed in Winchester, where Cnut was buried and Emma (whom the Anglo-Saxons also referred to as "Ælfgifu" the queen) had taken up residence:
1035: Here King Cnut died, and his son Harold succeeded to the kingdom. He departed at Shaftesbury on 12 November, and he was conveyed to Winchester, and there buried. And Ælfgifu, the Lady, settled inside there [Winchester]. And Harold said that he was the son of Cnut and the Northampton Ælfgifu – although it was not true. He sent and had taken from her all the best treasures which King Cnut possessed.[10]
Manuscript E, which is known for its
1036 [for 1035]: Here Cnut died at Shaftesbury. and he is buried in Winchester in the Old Minster. [...] And soon after his passing, there was a meeting of all the councillors at Oxford, and Earl Leofric and almost all the thegns north of the Thames, and the men of the fleet in London, chose Harold as regent of all England, for himself and his half-brother Harthacnut who was in Denmark, And Earl Godwine and all the foremost men in Wessex opposed it just as long as they could, but they could not contrive anything against it. And then it was decided that Ælfgifu, Harold's mother, should settle in Winchester with the king her son's
housecarls, and hold all Wessex in hand for him; and Earl Godwine was their most loyal man. Some men said of Harold that he was son of King Cnut and Ælfgifu, daughter of Ealdorman Ælfhelm, but to many men it seemed quite unbelievable; nevertheless he was full king over all England[11]
During 1036, opinion in England moved towards Harold. By August a report had reached Emma's daughter, Gunnhild, at the German court that her "unhappy and unjust step-mother" (i.e. Ælfgifu) was working to deprive Gunnhild's brother, Harthacnut, of the kingdom by holding great feasts, and trying by argument and gifts to persuade the leading nobles to give their fealty to Harold.[12] Emma's encomiast attributes to her even more seriously dishonest methods. She makes Ælfgifu an accomplice in the murder of Emma's youngest son, Alfred Aetheling, by suggesting that she was responsible for sending a forged letter to Normandy inviting Alfred to England. The Encomium Emmae Reginae also claimed that Ælfgifu's son Harold was a servant's son.
Ælfgifu is not recorded after 1036, apart from a possible reference to her as the "lady", and it is not known when she died.[1]
Family tree
In popular culture
- Ælfgifu of Denmark is a recurring character played by Pollyanna McIntosh in the 2022 Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla.
Notes
- ^ a b Stafford, Ælfgifu
- required.)
- ^ Ian Howard, Harthacnut: The Last Danish King of England, The History Press, 2008, pp. 13–4. Pauline Stafford, in her Online DNB article on Ælfgifu states only that the marriage took place between 1013 and 1016, but she also states that the marriage was part of Swein's effort to establish himself first in the north Midlands, and as he died in February 1014 it seems likely that the 1013 date is correct.
- ^ Timothy Bolton, 'Ælfgifu of Northampton: Cnut the Great's other woman', Nottingham Medieval Studies LI (2007), pp. 260–261
- ISBN 0-19-280139-2.
- ^ Howard, op. cit., p. 15
- ^ Timothy Bolton, "Ælfgifu of Northampton: Cnut the Great's other woman", Nottingham Medieval Studies LI (2007), pp. 253–258
- ^ M.J. Driscoll (ed. and tr.), Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum, pp. 44–45 (§ 32)
- ^ Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1971, p. 421.
- ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Manuscript D
- ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Manuscript E
- ^ Stevenson (1913), cited in Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma & Queen Edith, Blackwell, 1001, p. 238
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Kings of Wessex and England 802–1066" (PDF). The official website of The British Monarchy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
Sources
Primary sources
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MSS C, D and E, ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A Collaborative Edition. Cambridge, 1983; tr. M.J. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000.
- Encomium Emmae Reginae, ed. and tr. Alistair Campbell, Encomium Emmae Reginae. Cambridge, 1998.
- Letter of Immo, chaplain at the court of Codex Palatinus Latinus 930 (Vatican Library), ed. W. Bulst, Die ältere Wormser Briefsammlung. MGH Epistolae. Die Briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeit 3. Weimar, 1949. 20–22 (no. 5). Available from the Digital MGH.
- William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R.A.B. Mynors, R.M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum. The History of the English Kings. OMT. 2 vols: vol 1. Oxford, 1998.
- Symeon of Durham, Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. T. Arnold, 2 vols. London, 1885.
- John of Worcester, Chronicle (of Chronicles), ed. Benjamin Thorpe, Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis. 2 vols. London, 1848–9.
- Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum §§ 27, 32, 35, ed. and tr. M.J. Driscoll, Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 10. 2nd ed. 2008 (1995). Available online from the Viking Society for Northern Research
- Theodoricus monachus, Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium, chapter 21, tr. David and Ian McDougall. The Ancient History of the Norwegian Kings. Viking Society for Northern Research, 1998.
- Legendary Óláfs saga helga, ch. 71
- Morkinskinna, ed. Finnur Jónsson. Morkinskinna. Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur, 1932.
- Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum.
- The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus
Secondary sources
- Ælfgifu 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Ælfhelm 17 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Wulfrun 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Wulfric 52 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Campbell, M.W. "Queen Emma and Ælfgifu of Northampton. Canute the Great's women". Medieval Scandinavia, 4 (1971): 60–79.
- Rognoni, L. (2004). "Presenza e azione di Ælfgifu di Northampton, regina madre e reggente nell'Impero del Nord di Canuto il Grande (1013–1040)" (in Italian) [1]
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/180. Retrieved 16 September 2015. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- Stenton, Frank. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, 1971. 397–8.
- Stevenson, W.H. "An alleged son of King Harold Harefoot". English Historical Review, 28 (1913): 112–7.