Ælfgifu from Northampton

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Knut and Ælfgifu; Depiction in The New Minster Liber Vitae , Winchester (New Minster), 1031, British Library MS. Stowe 944.

Ælfgifu of Northampton ( Norwegian : Alfiva ; * around 990; † 1040) was the first wife of the Anglo-Scandinavian King Canute the Great (around 995-1035) and was the mother of Sven Alfivason (around 1016-1036), Jarl of Norway , as well as Harald I. Harefod (around 1016-1040), King of England . She was co-regent of Norway from 1029 to 1035.

origin

Ælfgifu was born in Mercia , the daughter of Ælfhelm, Ealdorman of York, and his wife Wulfrune , and belonged to an influential noble family in England. In 1006 her father was killed, probably on the orders of King Æthelred , and her brothers Ufegeat and Wulfheah were blinded .

During Sven Gabelbart's invasion of England in 1013 he married his son Knut to Ælfgifu in order to affirm his loyalty to the Scandinavian population and to secure his power.

Marriage and children

When Sven Gabelbart died in 1014, Knut and his wife had to flee to his home country Denmark , where the two children Sven and Harald were born.

After the return and the conquest of England, Knut married Emma of Normandy , widow of the late King Æthelred, in 1017 to legitimize his claim to the throne of England. With her he had two children, Hardiknut and Gunhild . So Knut had two wives at the same time. Ælfgifu retained her position and her sons remained in line to the throne as did Emma and Knut's son. Her relationship with Emma was characterized by deep rivalry, also due to Emma's sons Alfred Ætheling and Eduard the Confessor from her first marriage to King Æthelred.

Co-regent in Norway (1029-1035)

In 1029 Knut sent his son Sven with his mother and a number of Danish nobles as Jarl to Norway. This met with determined opposition from Norwegian aristocrats. In particular, the aristocrats Einar Tambarskjelve and Kalv Arnesson had expected that Knut would confer this dignity on one of them. Sven Alfivason was considered a weak personality, and even then it was believed that it was actually Ælfgifu who ruled the country. However, it should be taken into account that the saga authors exaggerated the role of Ælfgifu, because it is part of the topos of saga literature to characterize the rule of women as haphazard and evil. The two ruled with a hard hand, and especially the new tax laws and penalties adopted from England, which were supposed to help reorganize the state finances, aroused the indignation of the population.

In 1033 there was a battle in Soknasund in Ryfylke , as an alleged son of Olav Tryggvasons , Tryggve Olavsson, claimed the royal throne. Sven won with the help of Danish elite troops, Tryggve was killed. The aristocrats Kalv Arneson and Einar Tambarskjelve then decided to go to Novgorod and fetch Magnus from there . When he arrived in Norway, the entire population joined him against the Danes. Sven and Ælfgifu had to flee to Denmark, where Sven died soon after.

After Knut's death

After Canute died in Shaftesbury in 1035 , Ælfgifu returned to England during the absence of Emma's sons to help her son Harald on the English throne. Hardiknut fought in Denmark against Magnus I and the Swedish King Anund Jakob . Alfred and Eduard were in Normandy . With the support of Ælfgifu and Leofric von Mercia , Harald was elected King Harald I by the Witan in Oxford at the end of 1035 . This led to the partition of England, which is also documented numismatically: Hardiknut got the southern part, Harald the northern part. In 1037 Harald had found enough followers and was crowned king over all of England.

After Harald I's death in Oxford in March 1040 and Hardiknut's accession to the throne, Ælfgifu is no longer mentioned in the sources.

swell

literature

  • MW Campbell: Queen Emma and Ælfgifu of Northampton. Canute the Great's women. in: Medieval Scandinavia 4 (1971): pp. 60-79.
  • Frank Stenton : Anglo-Saxon England . Oxford University Press, 1971, 765 pp.
  • WH Stevenson: To alleged son of King Harold Harefoot. In: English Historical Review 28 (1913): pp. 112-117.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pauline Stafford: Ælfgifu (Ælfgifu of Northampton) (fl. 1006-1036) first consort of King Cnut . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, 2004, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 180 (login required).
  2. ↑ Alistair Campbell (ed.), Simon Keynes: Encomium Emmae Reginae . Cambridge 1998, ISBN 0-521-62655-2 .
  3. ↑ Jan Rüdiger : Europe in the Middle Ages Volume 21: The King and His Women - Polygyny and Political Culture in Europe (9th – 13th Century). de Gruyter, Berlin 2015, 416 pages, ISBN 978-3-05-006319-5 .
  4. ↑ MJ Driscoll (Ed.): Ágrip af Nóregs konunga sögum. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 10. 2nd ed. 2008 (1995). Ágrip af Nóregs konunga sögum (PDF; 6.62 MB), accessed on February 4, 2016.
  5. ^ Symeon of Durham : Historia regum Anglorum et Dacorum .
  6. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , online in Project Gutenberg (English).
  7. ^ Adam of Bremen : Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum , book 2, chap. 72.
personal data
SURNAME Ælfgifu from Northampton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ælfgifu Ælfhelmsdatter; Alfiva; Aelfigja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daughter of Ælfhelm of York
DATE OF BIRTH around 990
PLACE OF BIRTH England
DATE OF DEATH 1040
Place of death Denmark