 Abt 0920 - 0944 (24 years)
-
| Name |
SHAFTESBURY Ælfgifu |
| Birth |
Abt 0920 |
Wessex, England  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Death |
0944 |
England |
| Notes |
- Birth and Parents
Ælfgifu's birth date is uncertain. Her mother was called Wynflaed according to a charter of 966 in which Ælfgifu's son King Edgar confirmed a gift to Shaftesbury Abbey and named Wynflaed as his grandmother - "Wynflæd aua mea".[1] There is no firm source for who her father was.
Marriage and Children
Ælfgifu was the first wife of King Edmund I. They may have married soon after Edmund succeeded his half-brother Æthelstan as king in 939.[2] They had two sons:
Eadwig[3]
Edgar[3]
Death
Ælfgifu died in 944.[2][4] She was buried at Shaftesbury Abbey.[2]
Sainthood
Soon after her death, Ælfgifu came to be venerated as a saint.[2][5] Her feast day was 18 May.[6] She is described as a saint in the Winchester Manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[3]
According to the medieval historian William of Malmesbury, who was writing in the 12th century, in her piety she secretly discharged the penalties of condemned criminals, and would give a fine garment to the first poor person she saw.[7]
Research Notes
Marriage and Death Date
In his Medlands database, Cawley speculates that Edmund's first wife Ælfgifu may not have been a legal wife and may not have died in 944. Cawley bases this speculation on two charters, one of which, dated 943, names Ælfgifu as "concubina" of Edmund, and the other, which Cawley regards hesitantly as dated to the same year, naming Edmund's second wife Æthelflæd as "regina” (queen).[1] Cawley is probably attaching too much significance to the vagaries of the choice of Latin words of the clerk(s) or adviser(s) who drew up these charters. The more widely accepted view is that Ælfgifu died in 944. There is nothing in the records to suggest that the legitimacy of Ælfgifu's sons was ever questioned.
Ælfgifu is referred to as Edmund's wife ("coniugi") in a charter in which Æthelred the Unready confirmed gifts of land to Shaftesbury Abbey.[8]
Possible Daughter
Alison Weir in Britain's Royal Families states that Ælfgifu and Edmund I had a daughter who married Baldwin, Count of Hesdin.[9] No source is given, and there is no mention of a daughter in any of the other sources Michaeo Cayley looked at in March 2021. - Cayley-55 14:48, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
Sources
↑ 1.0 1.1 Charles Cawley. Edmund 921-946, entry in "Medieval Lands" database (accessed 9 March 2021)
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Edmund I', print and online 2004, viewable on subscription and via some libraries
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Michael Swanton (translator and editor). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, revised edition, Phoenix press, 2000, p. 113 (Worcester Manuscript entry for 955)
↑ Dorothy Whitelock (editor and translator). Anglo-Saxon Wills, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 138, citing Æthelweard's Chronicon, Book IV, Chapter 6
↑ Aethelweard. Chronicon, Book IV, chapter VI, translation in John Allen Giles, Six Old English Chronicles, H G Bohn, 1848, p. 40, viewable on Google Books
↑ Catholic Online website, entry for 'St Elgiva of Shaftesbury'
↑ Joseph Stevenson (editor and translator). The History of the Kings of England and of his own Times by William of Malmesbury, Seeleys, 1854, pp.137-138, Internet Archive
↑ British Library Harley 61, 2v-3v: copy, s. xv, transcript on Anglo-Saxons.net, accessed 9 March 2021: "Nam et uicinis ante me temporibus auus meus Admund scilicet rex idem pro commutacione Butticanlea adquisitum coniugi sue Algife... "
↑ Alison Weir. Britain's Royal Families, new edition, Pimlico, 2002, p. 17
Wikipedia: Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
St. Elgiva of Shaftesbury
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| Person ID |
I59216 |
Freeman-Smith |
| Last Modified |
27 Jan 2026 |
| Family |
WESSEX Edmund, b. Abt 0920, Wessex, England d. 26 May 0946, Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, England (Age 26 years) |
| Marriage |
0940 |
| Children |
| | 1. WESSEX Edgar, b. 07 Aug 0943, Wessex, England d. 08 Jul 0975, Winchester, England (Age 31 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
|
| Family ID |
F26330 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
27 Jan 2026 |
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