Edgiva of Kent

Edgiva was the daughter of Siegehelm, the Eldorman Kent, who died at the Battle of Holm in 902 ^[1] . She married Edward around 919 and became the mother of two sons, Edmund and Edred , who later became kings of England and two daughters, Saint Edburg from Winchester and Edgiva. ^[2] She survived Edward for many years and died during the reign of her grandson Edgar .

According to a source in the early 960s, her father gave a mansion in the village of Cooling in Kent to a man named Year as a loan. She claimed that her father had returned the loan and left the land to her, however, God refused to receive the payment and refused to give the land. She got Cooling six years after her father’s death, when her friends convinced King Edward to threaten Goda to rob him of his property if he returned the estate. Edward later issued a charter that the land of God should be transferred to Edgiva as a forfeit, but she returned most of the estate to Goda, although she retained the charter. After some time, her marriage with Edward took place. After his death, King Ethelstan demanded that Edgiva return the charter to Godet, possibly because the king was in a bad relationship with his stepmother ^[3] .

She left the courtyard during the reign of her stepson King Ethelstan, but had a great influence during the reign of her two sons ^[2] . As the dowager queen, her position was apparently much higher than that of the king’s wife. In the Kentucky charter, dated between 942 and 944, her daughter-in-law Elfgifu Shaftesbury is listed as the concubine of the king; her name is next to the names of the Eldormen and Bishops. For comparison, the name of Edgiva is much higher in the list of people who witnessed the charter, immediately after her sons Edmund and Edred, but before the archbishops and bishops ^[4] .

After the death of her youngest son Edred in 955, she was deprived of her land by her eldest grandson, King Edwig , possibly because she supported his younger brother Edgar in claiming the throne. When Edgar became king after Edwig's death in 959, she regained some land and received generous gifts from her grandson, but she never again received a high position at court. The last time she witnessed the charter in 966 ^[2] .

She was known as the patroness of churchmen and the benefactor of churches ^[2] .

Married to Edward the Elder, Edgiva gave birth to two daughters and two sons:

• Edgiva
• Edburg
• Edmund I
• Edred

• List of Wessex Kings

• Miller, Sean (2004), "Edward (called Edward the Elder) (870s? –924), king of the Anglo-Saxons" , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 8514 , < http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8514/8514?back=,52307 > . Retrieved August 10, 2012.  

• Molyneaux, George. The Formation of the English Kingdom in the Tenth Century. - Oxford University Press, 2015. - ISBN 978-0-19-871791-1 .
• Stafford, Pauline (2004), "Eadgifu (b. In or before 904, d. In or after 966), queen of the Anglo-Saxons, consort of Edward the Elder" , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 52307 , < http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/52307?docPos=2 > . Retrieved June 10, 2012.  

• Eadgifu 4 // Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England