Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex | |
---|---|
Queen consort of England | |
Tenure | 23 January 1045 – 5 January 1066 |
Coronation | 23 January 1045, Old Minster, Winchester |
Born | Gytha c. 1025 |
Died | 18 December 1075 (aged 49–50) |
Burial | Westminster Abbey, England |
Spouse | Edward the Confessor |
House | Godwin |
Father | Godwin, Earl of Wessex |
Mother | Gytha Thorkelsdóttir |
Edith of Wessex (
Early life
Edith was the daughter of
Edith was brought up at Wilton Abbey. She was an educated woman who spoke several languages including English, Danish, French, Irish, and Latin, skills she probably acquired at Wilton.[7] She remained attached to it, and in later years rebuilt its church.[8] Her niece Gunhild of Wessex would also be educated at Wilton.
The Vita Edwardi emphasised her piety. She helped
Edith lost four of her brothers in a very short span. Tostig died on 25 September 1066 during the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Three others – Harold, Gyrth, and Leofwine – all died less than three weeks later on 14 October 1066, during the Battle of Hastings.[9]
Marriage and life as queen
Edith married Edward on 23 January 1045.[3] Unlike most wives of the Saxon kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Edith was crowned queen. The marriage produced no children. Later ecclesiastical writers claimed that this was either because Edward took a vow of celibacy, or because he refused to consummate the marriage because of his antipathy to Edith's family, the Godwins. However, this is dismissed by modern historians. In the view of Edward's biographer, Frank Barlow, "the theory that Edward's childlessness was due to deliberate abstention from sexual relations lacks authority, plausibility and diagnostic value."[10]
In 1051, Godwin and his sons fell out with Edward and fled the country. Edith was sent to a nunnery, possibly because she was childless and Edward hoped to divorce her.[3][11] When the Godwins effected their return through force in 1052, Edith was reinstated as queen. In later years, she became one of Edward's inner group of advisers.[12] In the Vita Edwardi, according to Barlow, "although she is always placed modestly behind the throne, the author does not minimize her power or completely conceal her will. Whenever we catch sight of her elsewhere, we see a determined woman, interfering, hard, probably bad-tempered."[13]
As the king's wife, she was responsible for his regal presentation. She commissioned works for his personal ornament, and had at least one goldsmith among her tenants. When he died, she was the richest woman in England, and the fourth wealthiest individual after the king, Stigand (the Archbishop of Canterbury), and her brother Harold. She held land valued at between £1,570 and £2,000 per annum.[14]
She was close to her brother Tostig, and in 1055 she and Harold secured his appointment as Earl of Northumbria. His rule was unpopular, and in 1064 Edith was accused at court of engineering the murder of the Northumbrian noble Gospatrick in Tostig's interest. In 1065, Tostig was probably hunting with King Edward when the northerners rebelled and elected Morcar, Harold's brother-in-law, as earl. Tostig charged Harold with conspiring with the rebels, a charge which Harold purged himself of with a public oath. Edward demanded that the rebels be suppressed, but to his and Edith's fury, Harold and the English thegns refused to enforce the order. Morcar was confirmed as earl and Tostig forced into exile.[3][15][16]
Later life and death
Upon Edward's death (5 January 1066), he was succeeded by Edith's brother,
After Edward's death, Edith read the lives of English saints and gave information about
Edith the Lady died seven nights before Christmas in Winchester, she was King Edward's wife, and the king had her brought to Westminster with great honour and laid her near King Edward, her lord.[18]
In 2006, Carola Hicks, an art historian, put her forward as a candidate for the author of the Bayeux Tapestry.[19][20]
See also
- House of Wessex family tree
- Cnut the Great's family tree
Citations
- ^ Pauline Stafford, 'Edith, Edward's Wife and Queen', in Richard Mortimer ed., Edward the Confessor: The Man and the Legend, The Boydell Press, 2009, pp. 119, 129–130. Stafford states (p. 124) that Edith was between 12 and 25 when she married, and probably nearer 25.
- ^ Historians disagree whether this was partly written in 1065–66, before Edward's death, or was a unitary work of the late 1060s. Stafford, 2009, pp. 119–120 and note, Ann Williams, ODNB, Edith
- ^ a b c d e f Williams, ODNB, Edith
- ^ a b Harold Godwinson
- ^ Mason House of Godwine p. 10
- ^ Rex Harold p. 31
- ^ Tyler, 2017, pp. 209
- ^ Stafford, 2009, pp. 121–126
- ^ Gytha Thorkelsdóttir
- ^ Frank Barlow, Edward the Confessor, Yale University Press: London, 1997, p. 82.
- ^ Stafford, 2009, pp. 133–138
- ^ Barlow, p. 167.
- ^ Barlow, pp. 189–190.
- ^ Stafford, 2009, pp. 126–128
- ^ William M. Aird, Tostig, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
- ^ Stafford, 2009, p. 135
- ^ Stafford, 2009, p. 125
- ^ a b c Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith, pp. 278–9.
- ^ BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, 22 May 2006
- ISBN 0-7011-7463-3)
Bibliography
- Barlow, Frank (1997) Edward the Confessor, Yale University Press: London
- ISBN 0-631-16679-3
- Stafford, Pauline (2009). 'Edith, Edward's Wife and Queen', pp. 129–138 in Richard Mortimer ed., Edward the Confessor: The Man and the Legend, The Boydell Press ISBN 978-1-84383-436-6
- Tyler, Elizabeth M. (2017). England in Europe: English Royal Women and Literary Patronage, c.1000–c.1150. University of Toronto Press
- required.)