Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England by Annie Whitehead;

Author:Annie Whitehead; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Women
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2020-05-29T20:00:00+00:00

She was later to be called a concubine, but the details of her life suggest that she was more to him than a mere sexual partner, even after Cnut remarried. Perhaps we can imagine how the two met. Swein based his operations in the north, camping at Gainsborough. It would have made perfect sense to strengthen the bonds with the northern families by marrying his son to the daughter of one of the most powerful among them. The union bears all the hallmarks of yet another political marriage, in which the wife’s value rested solely on her bloodline. Yet Ælfgifu’s later life and career show that she was anything but a timid maid given no responsibility other than to breed heirs. Had the couple met beforehand, when Swein was in the north and accompanied by his son? The wedding itself is not mentioned in the sources, but it is not impossible that her family had played host to Swein and his son at some point. However, by the time of the marriage – probably 1013 – her father was dead and her brothers had been effectively removed from political life. She must therefore have been living quietly on her estates.23 Perhaps she was nursing her brothers? Blinding was a fairly common punishment yet nothing is recorded of the fate of those so afflicted. Her brothers were noblemen and would not starve, but life would have been difficult for them after they had been rendered ineffectual. However, the remnants of Ælfgifu’s family were evidently still important enough for Swein to woo, and it is likely that the wedding took place while he was still alive, and before King Æthelred’s return saw Cnut temporarily ousted.

Ælfgifu, known as Ælfgifu of Northampton, had two sons by Cnut, who were probably born early on in the marriage. (Cnut remarried in 1017, of which more in a moment.) They were named Swein and Harold, later known as Harold Harefoot, and the fact that they were given royal Danish names – after Cnut’s father and grandfather respectively – suggests that they were considered legitimate children, regardless of the legal status of the union. The ASC was later to report that many considered that Harold was not Cnut’s son, and John of Worcester remarked that some said he was the son of a cobbler. Slurs cast in a written work commissioned by Cnut’s second wife suggested that the baby had been born to a servant and smuggled into the royal bedchamber.24 Cnut remarried while Ælfgifu was still alive but she does not seem to have been repudiated in the way that earlier first wives of English kings had been, and it might be that the relationship was misunderstood by the English commentators. As has been observed by historian Timothy Bolton this was a union between the son of a Danish king and a daughter from an influential Danelaw family and may have resembled a Scandinavian model where aristocratic concubines often held high social status.25

There are many sources which

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.