Eadgifu (France)

Eadgifu and her son Ludwig IV (illustration from the 15th century)

Eadgifu (also: Eadgyfu, Edgifa, Edgiva, Eadgivu, Hedwig, Odgiva, Ottogeba etc .; * around 903, † after 951) was an Anglo-Saxon king's daughter and the second wife of King Charles III of West Franconia .

Life

Origin and youth

Eadgifu was born as the daughter of the English King Edward I (899-924) from the House of Wessex and his second wife Ælfflæd in Wessex. It is hardly mentioned in Anglo-Saxon sources. In Franconian texts, however, her life is quite well documented.

First marriage

Between 917 and 919 she was with the widowed West Franconian King Karl III. (893 / 898–922) married. As a Wittum , she received the royal estate of Tusey on the Meuse in Lotharingia from Karl . Karl had six daughters from his first marriage. Between April and September 921 Eadgifu gave birth to Ludwig , who later became King Ludwig IV. Transmarinus (d'Outremer, "the overseas"; 936–954), the longed-for male heir. From 920 on, Charles had to struggle with strong resistance from the nobility. This culminated in the fact that Robert I (922-936) was proclaimed king and Charles in 923 was taken prisoner by Count Heribert II of Vermandois , in whose dungeon he died on October 7, 929.

Widowhood

In order to protect her son from persecution by Hugo the Great and Heribert II of Vermandois, Eadgifu sent Ludwig to the court of her half-brother Æthelstan in England in 923 or only after Charles' death in 929 to protect him . Historians are divided as to whether Eadgifu also fled to England or stayed in western France to protect her property.

Although she herself suffered from persecution, she probably played a role in the marriage of her sister Eadhild to the dux francorum Hugo the Great in 926 , who ended his alliance with Heribert II. Eadgyth , another sister, married the East Franconian King Otto the Great in 929/930 . On the one hand, the young dynasty of Saxon emperors received additional legitimation through the connection with the respected English royal family, on the other hand, a further ally was won for Ludwig as pretender to the throne . Eadgifu also seems to have gone into English exile in 929 at the latest.

King Rudolf died in January 936 and Eadgifus' son Ludwig was called back from exile by her brother-in-law "Hugo and the other greats" and proclaimed king. As early as 937 Ludwig tried to break away from Hugo's "guardianship". He installed his mother as abbess of the wealthy monastery of Notre-Dame in Laon , which not only recognized her political influence, but increased it. Around this time Eadgifu also received the royal palace of Attigny from her son .

As a result of Ludwig's marriage to Gerberga , a sister of Otto I, in 939, Eadgifu's position at court apparently did not change. When Ludwig was captured by the Normans in 946 , it was Gerberga and not Eadgifu who turned to the English King Edmund I (939–946) for help. Eadgifu came more and more into the shadow of her son and daughter-in-law.

Second marriage

To avoid political sideline, Eadgifu decided to marry Heribert III. the old man of Méaux and Troyes (927–980 / 984). For Heribert, who could boast that he was directly descended from Charlemagne , the marriage with the king's widow meant an enormous gain in prestige. In order to be able to marry Heribert, she left Laon without informing her son, escorted by the husbands of her future husband and his brother Adalbert in 951. As a morning gift , Heribert gave her extensive land which he could dispose of as Abbot of Saint-Médard . Ludwig was outraged and expropriated her of her possessions. He gave the Notre-Dame monastery to Gerberga and took possession of the Attigny royal palace himself.

The sources are silent about Eadgifu's further life. She died on December 26th of an unknown year in Soissons and was buried in Saint-Médard. Heribert died childless between 980 and 984. Eadgifu's heavily weathered tombstone was deciphered by Jean Mabillon in the middle of the 17th century .

swell

• Æthelweard : Chronica
• Flodoard of Reims : Annales
• Richer of Reims : Historiarum libri IV
• Folcuin von Lobbes : Gesta Abbatum Sithiensium

literature

• Auguste Eckel: Charles le Simple. Paris 1899 (reprinted in Paris 1977).
• Philippe Lauer : Le règne de Louis IV d'Outre-Mer. Paris 1900 (reprint: Geneva 1977).
• Pauline Stafford: Queens, concubines, and dowagers. The king's wife in the early Middle Ages. Leicester University Press, London 1998, ISBN 978-0-7185-0174-7 .

Web links

Commons : Eadgifu of England  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Janet L. Nelson : Eadgifu (paid registration required). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2012
• Eadgifu 3 in Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)
• Eadgifu in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy

Individual evidence

1. ↑ As Ottogeba it appears in the annual reports of the Flodoard of Reims ( Flodoardi annales ) in 951: "Ottogeba regina, mater Ludowici regis"
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Janet L. Nelson: Eadgifu  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   (paid registration required). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2012
3. ↑ Ibid.
4. ↑ z. B. Michael Lapidge, Helmut Gneuss (Eds.): Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday . Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-12871-1 , p. 191.
5. ^ Sarah Foot: Æthelstan: the first king of England (The English Monarchs Series). Yale University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1 , p. 46.
6. ^ Sarah Foot: Æthelstan: the first king of England (The English Monarchs Series). Yale University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1 , p. 58.

predecessor	Office	Successor
Frederuna	Queen of West Franconia around 918–922	Beatrix of Vermandois