Queen of the English from 944 to 946
Æthelflæd of Damerham
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Tenure
| c.
944 ? 26 May 946
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Spouse
| Edmund I of England
Æthelstan
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Father
| Ælfgar, ealdorman of Essex
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Æthelflæd of Damerham
was
Queen of the English
as the second wife of
King Edmund I
from their marriage
c.
944 until Edmund died in 946.
Æthelflæd was a daughter of
ealdorman
Ælfgar, probably the ealdorman of
Essex
. Her mother's name is not recorded. She had at least one brother and at least one sister, Ælfflæd (died
c.
1002
). Ælfflæd was married to
Byrhtnoth
, who probably succeeded her father as ealdorman of
Essex
. Byrhtnoth was killed at the
Battle of Maldon
in 991. Æthelflæd and Ælfflæd were Ælfgar's heirs at his death, some time between 946 and 951 based on the dating of his will,
S1483
.
Æthelflæd married Edmund following the death in 944 of his first wife Ælfgifu, mother of the future kings
Eadwig
and
Edgar
. She and Edmund are not known to have had any children, and Edmund was killed in 946, leaving Æthelflæd as a wealthy widow. Records of
Ely Cathedral
, to which she, her sister, and her brother-in-law, were generous benefactors, say that she then married ealdorman Æthelstan, probably
Æthelstan Rota
.
However, the suggestion that she remarried has been disputed.
[1]
Æthelflæd's will survives,
S1494
, and her will, and thus her death, is dated to between 962, and more probably 975, and 991. In addition to gifts to Ely, the will endowed
Glastonbury
,
Canterbury
,
Bury
, and the
family monastery
of
Stoke-by-Nayland
.
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Stafford, Pauline,
Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.
London: Edward Arnold, 1989.
ISBN
0-7131-6532-4
External links
[
edit
]
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Royal consorts in England until 1603
| Royal consorts in Scotland until 1603
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Spouses of debatable or disputed rulers are in
italics
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