Ecgwynn
Encyclopedia
Ecgwynn or Ecgwynna was the first consort of Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...

, later king of the English (r. 899–924), by whom she bore the future King Æthelstan (r. 924–939), and a daughter who married Sihtric Cáech, Norse king of Dublin and Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

. Extremely little is known about her background and life. Not even her name is given in any sources until after the Norman Conquest. The first to record it is William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...

, who presents it in Latinised guise as Egwinna and who is in fact the principal source for her existence.

Married life

Ecgwynn's marriage to Edward the Elder appears to have been consummated before his accession to the throne (899). If Æthelstan was aged thirty when he was elected king (924), as William of Malmesbury claims he was, the year of his birth would have been 893 or 894. By this time, Edward had reached majority and one of his priorities would have been to secure the continuation of Alfred's line. No sources report what became of Ecgwynn afterwards, though two events are directly relevant. First, William writes that on King Alfred's instigation, Æthelstan was sent to be raised at the Mercian court of his aunt Æthelflæd. Second, it is known that by 901, Edward had taken to wife Ælfflæd
Ælfflæd, wife of Edward the Elder
Ælfflæd was the second wife of Edward the Elder, king of the English.Ælfflæd was the daughter of an ealdorman Æthelhelm. There were several contemporaries of this name, but some historians, including Pauline Stafford and David H. Kelley, have identified him as Æthelhelm, a son of Edward's uncle,...

, a daughter of ealdorman Æthelhelm. The reason for this decision is unclear. It may simply have been that Ecgwynn was no longer alive in 899 and that it was therefore only natural that Edward looked for a fresh bride. It is also possible that Edward's first marriage was thought to lack the political import that was needed to buttress his position as king of the English
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

. Alfred may have been responsible for arranging the first marriage and so his death in 899 would have afforded Edward and his counsellors room to follow a different course.

An anonymous daughter

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that King Æthelstan married his sister to Sihtric Cáech (d. 927), king of Northumbria, and that the nuptials were celebrated at the Mercian royal centre at Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...

 on 30 January 926. William notes that she was Ecgwynn's daughter, but was unable to discover her name in any of the sources available to him. It is only later sources which offer suggestions, whose value remains uncertain. Roger of Wendover
Roger of Wendover
Roger of Wendover , probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century.At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell of Belvoir, but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of Henry III,...

 (d. 1236) and Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris was a Benedictine monk, English chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire...

 (d. 1259) thought that she was the St Edith (Eadgyth) who according to the Old English saints' list known as Secgan, was buried at the nunnery of Polesworth
Polesworth Abbey
Polesworth Abbey was a Benedictine nunnery in Polesworth, North Warwickshire, England. It was founded in the 9th century by St. Modwena and King Egbert. The first abbess was Edgytha Polesworth Abbey was a Benedictine nunnery in Polesworth, North Warwickshire, England. It was founded in the 9th...

 (Warwickshire), not far from Tamworth. Another late source drawing upon earlier material, the early 13th-century Chronicle by John of Wallingford
John of Wallingford
John of Wallingford , also known as John de Cella, was Abbot of St Albans Abbey in the English county of Hertfordshire from 1195 to his death in 1214...

, names Sihtric's wife Orgiue, possibly for Eadgifu or Eadgyth, and claims that their son was Olaf king of Northumbria, i.e. Amlaíb Cuarán. These data have garnered a mixed response from modern historians. Some scholars favour Roger's identification or at least the possibility that her name was Eadgyth, while Barbara Yorke argues that the name Eadgyth is unlikely to belong to two of Edward's daughters, the other being a daughter by Ælfflæd, and prefers to identify Edith of Polesworth with an earlier namesake.

Family background

Ecgwynn's own family background and social status cannot be identified with any certainty. What little evidence there is appears in the main to be coloured by a controversy which surrounded Æthelstan's succession, contested as it probably was by supporters of Edward's sons by Ælfflæd.

Succession

William of Malmesbury claims that Alfred had intended the throne to go to Æthelstan, and to give ceremonial expression to his grandson's status as successor, personally invested him with a cloak, belt and sword. Moreover, Alfred is said to have ensured his education at the Mercian court of his aunt Æthelflæd. A Latin acrostic poem, possibly contemporary (c. 893/4 x 899), in which a young Æthelstan appears to be addressed as future ruler, would seem to lend credence to the idea that Æthelstan's eligibility for kingship was already acknowledged in the 890s.

However, Edward may have entertained other plans when his second wife Ælfflaed had borne him sons. While his intentions are unknown, it appears to have been Ælfweard
Ælfweard of Wessex
Ælfweard was the second son of Edward the Elder, the eldest born to his second wife Ælfflæd.-Kingship and death:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply states that Ælfweard died soon after his father's death on 17 July 924 and that they were buried together at Winchester Cathedral...

, Edward's eldest son by Ælfflæd, who on 17 July 924 succeeded his late father in Wessex, while the Mercians chose Æthelstan for their king. By some mishap, Ælfweard died within a month and Wessex was ceded to Æthelstan, who thereby obtained his father's entire kingdom. His accession in Wessex, however, met with considerable resistance. One indication of this is that his coronation at Kingston-upon-Thames was delayed until 4 December the following year (925). William notes explicitly that “a certain Ælfred” at Winchester opposed the succession on grounds that Æthelstan was a concubine's son and hence an illegitimate son. Such allegations seem to have served the interests of a royal contender, especially Edwin
Edwin, son of Edward the Elder
Edwin was the younger son of King Edward the Elder and Ælfflæd, his second wife. He drowned at sea in circumstances which are unclear....

, Ælfflæd's eldest surviving son. In a royal charter for a thegn (minister) called Ælfred, Edwin subscribes as cliton “ætheling”, witnessing after Æthelstan, which implies that he was recognised as his heir to the throne. The circumstances of his death in 933 suggest that any peaceful understanding which may have existed between the half-brothers had come to an end. The Annals of St. Bertin compiled by Folcuin the Deacon note laconically that Edwin, “driven by some disturbance in his kingdom”, attempted to sail to the Continent, but was caught in a storm and drowned.

Noble consort or lowly concubine

The written and oral sources consulted by William of Malmesbury for his accounts of Æthelstan's parentage seem to reflect the political stances which polarised during these succession struggle(s). To begin with, there is the account favoured by William himself. Possibly paraphrasing from a non-contemporary Latin poem in praise of Æthelstan, he describes Ecgwynn as “a distinguished woman” (illustris femina) and John of Worcester
John of Worcester
John of Worcester was an English monk and chronicler. He is usually held to be the author of the Chronicon ex chronicis.-Chronicon ex chronicis:...

 follows suit, giving the similar description “a very noble woman” (mulier nobilissima).

William was also aware of rumours (though he rejected them) that Æthelstan's mother was a concubine, as propagated by “a certain Ælfred” who headed a group opposed to the succession. By the early 12th century, such rumours had given rise to fully-fledged popular traditions which reduced her to a low-born mistress, if still one of noble appearance. William cites an anecdote about Æthelstan's conception which he overheard from popular song (cantilena) and to which he gave only little credence himself. One day, when out of old affection, Edward the Elder visited his former nurse (nutrix), a reeve's wife, he met a beautiful shepherd's daughter who had been raised like a noblewoman. Edward slept with the unnamed girl, who bore him the future king called Æthelstan.

These slurs may represent a later development of stories in favour of Ælfflæd's sons, but there is evidence to suggest that the status difference between Edward's first two wives had been an issue at an earlier stage. A distant but near-contemporary poet writing in the 960s, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, tells that Æthelstan's mother was lower in status (generis satis inferioris) than Ælfflæd, whose daughter Eadgyth married Otto I. Since she wrote her Life in praise of Otto I, Eadgyth and their descendants, presumably based on sources sympathetic to the latter, not a small degree of bias may be assumed. On the other hand, if Ecgwynn had been set aside in favour of Ælfflæd, then the political importance of the latter's family may have played a large part.

Further near-contemporary evidence comes only indirectly by inference from later kinsmen whose precise connectedness is impossible to specify. According to his first biographer, Dunstan was related to a certain Æthelflæd, a lady of royal rank who was herself a niece of King Æthelstan, to Bishop Ælfheah of Winchester, to Bishop Cynesige of Lichfield, and to various men at court (including his brother Wulfric). Dunstan's father Heorstan, who lived near the “royal island” of Glastonbury, cannot be shown to have been a prominent figure in the kingdom, although sources for Edward's reign are notoriously scanty. Since Æthelstan, Dunstan and Heorstan all share the rare onomastic element -stan, it has been tentatively suggested that they derived their kinship through Ecgwynn.

Primary sources

  • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
    Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

    , ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A Collaborative Edition. 8 vols. Cambridge, 1983
    • Tr. Michael J. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000
  • Author 'B.', Vita S. Dunstani, ed. W. Stubbs, Memorials of St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. (Rolls Series.) London, 1874; pp. 3-52.
  • Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, Gesta Ottonis, ed. P. von Winterfeld, Hrotsvithae opera. (Monumenta Germanica Historica; Scriptores rerum Germanicarum; 34.) Berlin, 1902. Available from the Digital MGH.
  • William of Malmesbury
    William of Malmesbury
    William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...

    , 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. (Oxford Medieval Texts.) 2 vols.; vol 1. Oxford, 1998.

Secondary sources

  • Brooks, Nicholas. “The Career of St Dunstan” in: St Dunstan; His Life, Times and Cult, ed. N. Ramsay et al. Woodbridge, 1992.
  • Hudson, Benjamin T. "Óláf Sihtricson (c. 926–981)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-12-14.
  • Hudson, Benjamin T. Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: dynasty, religion, and empire in the North Atlantic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-19-516237-4.
  • Miller, Sean. "Edward [Edward the Elder] (870s?–924)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed: 2008-7-22. See also Sean Miller's article at anglo-saxons.net.
  • Nelson, J. L. “Reconstructing a Royal Family: reflections on Alfred” in: People and Places in Northern Europe, 500-1600: essays in honour of Peter Hayes Sawyer, ed. I. Wood and N. Lund. Woodbridge, 1991; pp. 47-66.
  • Thacker, Alan. “Dynastic Monasteries and Family Cults: Edward the Elder's sainted kindred” in: Edward the Elder, 899-924, ed. N. J. Higham and David Hill. London: Routledge, 2001. 248-63.
  • Yorke, Barbara. Bishop Æthelwold; his Career and Influence. Woodbridge, 1988.
  • Yorke, Barbara. "Edward as Ætheling" in: Edward the Elder, 899-924, ed. N. J. Higham and David Hill. London: Routledge, 2001; pp. 25-39.

Further reading

  • Ann Williams, "Some notes and considerations on problems connected with the English royal succession, 860-1066." Anglo-Norman Studies. Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1 (1978): 144-67.
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