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The Lady the Elgiva, St Aethelwold Linslade

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The Lady the Elgiva, St Aethelwold Linslade THE LADY ELGIVA, ST AETHELWOLD AND THE LINSLADE CHARTEROF 966 ARNOLD H.J. BAINES The evidence of land charters permits o reossessmentof the life of the Lody Elgivo @EASy.fu) of the royal house of 14essex,a greot landowner in Buckinghamshire, whose marriage to King Edwy wos dissolved in the course of the constitutional crisis of 957-8. Her will (c. 970) is translated ond is shown to reflect the influence of St AEthelwold. It illustrotes the use and the manumission of penal sloves in the Chiltern areo. A charter gronting Linslade to her in 966 is edited; a politically significont omission from it is restored; the bounds of Linslade are determined, and reasonsfor the gront suggested. The Lody Elgiva the English monarchy. The key to theseevents During the reign of Edgar the Peaceable, seemsto have been generally overlooked for Linslade became part of a great "honour" more than a century. It is that circumstances centred on Wing and including Princes Ris- had enabled her mother AEthelgyfu, who borough, Bledlow, Whaddon, Haversham, belonged to the dispossessedsenior branch of Marsworth, Chesham, Berkhamsted,Hatfield the royal house of Wessex, to arrange a and other more distant manors. Its lady was dynastic marriage which was fiercely opposed AElfgyfu, Latinized as Elgiva, whose memory by the adherentsof the reigning branch, the was preserved by the New Minster at Win- descendantsof Alfred, and in particular by St chester as an illustrious woman who had Dunstan. commendedherself to the prayersof the com- munity by the gift of almsl. Shewas concerned with the development of the hamlets of Ris- When King Edmund,Alfred's grandson,was borough by those condemnedto penal slavery, assassinatedon 26 May 9466at the age of 24, whom she manumitted by her will2, which after a highly successfulreign of six years, he exhibitsthe strong influenceof St AEthelwold. left two sons, Edwy, then aged about six, and A major restoration of the great 7th-century Edgar, who can hardly have been more than basilicaat Wing belongsto her time3 and may three. Their mother St Elgiva (AElfgyfu) had well have been undertaken by her at his in- died on l8 MayTin 944 or 945. Edmund lost no stance, though King Edgar, to whom she left time in remarrying; his second wife was Wing and Linslade,may havecompleted it. AEthelflred of Damerham, the daughter of EaldormanAElfgar8. Only two charters in Elgiva's favour have survived, Edgar's grants of Linsladea and As Edmund's two sons were so young, they Newnham Murrens in 966; this may suggest were passed over in favour of his brother 'the that much of her land was folkland, held under Eadred Chosen', "electione optimatum customary law, and that her legateeshad no subrogatus"e. There is evidencethat the child- documentsof title earlier than her will, made ren were not brought up by their stepmother with Edgar's consent. These two diplomas, and were in fact separated, a circumstance approved at the samewitenagemot, are suffici- likely to affect their future relationship. ent to identify her with the unfortunate wife of Edgar's foster-motherwas AElfwenl0, wife of 'Half-King', King Edwy (Eadwig). She had been at the Athelstan ealdorman of East centre of a crisis which temporarily disrupted Anglia. Their eldestson AEthelwold held the ll0 same office "one short only of royalty" from with Danish supportle but was killed at the 956 to c. 962; his death was falselyattributed to battle of the Holme. his foster-brother King Edgarll, who married his widow AElfthryth in 96412or 96513;she AEthelgyfu seemsnot to have given up all 'the becamethe mother of King Ethelred Un- dynastichopes for her family, the elder branch ready' and was strongly suspected of the of "the right kingly kin of England"2o. By the murder of her stepson St Edward, King and early 950s it must have been apparent that Martyr, in 978to securethe crown for her son. Eadred was quite likely to die childless;if so, her fosterling Edwy would probably succeed Edwy appearsto have been fostered by one him. She could not marry Edwy herself, but of the numerousAElfrics of the period, sincein she could induce him to marry her daughter one of his earliestchartersra he describesAElric Elgiva, who was of ripe age, and so reunite the (for AElfric) ashis adoptivus porens. Adoption two leading branchesof the house of Wessex. in the full Roman sense,involving reception The prospect was abhorrent to St Dunstan. into a new family, was unknown to Old English himself of that house, abbot of Glastonbury, law, and the English term would have been Eadred'sclosest adviser, who countedit among fostor-feder. E.W. Robertson suggestedin his chief cares "to dissolveby just separation 187215that Edwy's foster-rnotherduring the foolish or wrongful marriages"2l. Dunstan nine years of Eadred's reign was AEthelgyfu, may well havebeen responsible for an admonit- mother of our AElfgyfu (whose name would ion in Edmund's laws "Wel is eacto warnianne thus have taken its first element from her itret man wite dret hy (the bridegroom and father's name, its secondfrom her mother's). bride)purh megsibbe to gelrengene beon" (i.e. This suggestionwas endorsed by William Hunt are not within the prohibited (seven)degrees)22. 16 in the Dictionary of National Biography in Elgiva was third cousin to Edwy, but on this 1885,but hassince been ignored. It explainsa basis most marriages in an English village greatdeal. would have been dubious. The real if not the ostensibleobjections were surely political and social.The marriagecould be expectedto trans- AEthelgyfu was descended from Alfred's fer influence from Edwy's grandmother elder brother King Ethelred; her son AEthel- Eadgyfu, widow of Edward the Elder, patron weard recalledthe relationshipin the dedicatory of Dunstan and of the monasticrevival, to the epistleof his Chronicle "as our memory pro- new king's prospectivemother-in-law, who, on vides proof, and as our parents have taught the view taken here,was also his foster-'mother. us". In the prologue to the last book he so that the parties had been brought up as promised "origo prosapiae generis nostri in- brother and sister. It was not unreasonableto dicatur aperius", and the secondchapter deals regard this as a relationship that should with the subject after recording the death of precludetheir marriage. King Ethelred I "from whose root I spring". He emphasizedthat Alfred got the kingdom Edwy and Edgar both came to their uncle's ,,I after the death of all his brothers. have court during Eadred'slast year, 955, when they 'clito' 'tedeling'2r. given attention to the history of our race as far sign as and On 23 Novem- as these two kings from whom we derive our ber Eadred died after a long illness, during descent". Ironically,the eventsof 946had re- which he was frequently unable to attend the peatedthose of 871, when the son of Ethelred Witan and was preoccupiedwith the recovery had been too young to reign. ln 899 Alfred's of Northumbria2a. son Edward the Elder, already associatedwith him in the governmentl?,was chosenking by Edwy, who was now about 15, was elected the Witan ("a primatibus electis", as AEthel- king by the West Saxonsand by the Mercians weard alone recordsl8). Ethelred'sson AEthel- and Northumbrians. His immediate reception wold assertedhis claim as heir of Egbert and of was favourable. AEthelweard commented AEthelwulf, and raised the standard of revolt "For his great beauty he received from the llr 'All-fair' common people the by-name . He marriage"33. Edwy was anointed and crowned deservedto be loved"25. Larer writers confirm at Kingston by St Oda. All went well until the this. Henry of Huntingdon, or rather his King, still wearing his crown, jumped up and source,wrote "non illaudibiliter regni infulam left the coronation banquet to enjoy the tenuit"26. The kingdom was at peace,a peace company of his intended bride Elgiva and her which, as far as external enemieswere con- mother. The whole company felt insulted,and cerned, was to last for 25 years. Edwy's Oda suggestedthat a delegationbe sentto bring appointments to the provincial governorships him back. At first no one wished to incur the were irreproachable and proved lasting. He King's annoyanceand the noble ladies'enmity, named his kinsman AElfhere (ex porentela but finally they chose the two "most firm of regi9i) as ealdorman of Mercia, where spirit", Dunstan and Cynesige. After some autonomist feelings were still strong. AElf- altercation Edwy returned, but Dunstan soon here's position was semi-royal; the Evesham left England and took refuge in the recently chronicler called him "potentissimus huius reformed monasteryat Chent3a. Bishop Cyne- patriae dominator"28, the patria being Mercia. sigeleft the court and did not return until May AEthelwold, Edgar's foster-brother, soon 95735when the disruption of the kingdom was replaced Brihtferth as ealdorman of East imminent. Anglia, and Byrhtnoth took chargeof Essex,in defenceof which he was to die in 991. AElf- The story lost nothing in the telling. Edwy here's brother AElfheah becameealdorman of was said to have left the feastto amusehimself Hampshire a few months later. It is not certain with both ladies. Dunstan, it was rumoured. which ealdorman took chargeof Buckingham- had found him "repeatedlywallowing between shire which, though historically and linguistic- the two of them in evil fashion, as if in a vile ally Mercian, had been annexedto Wessexby sty" with the crown thrown down on the floor. Edward the Elder2e:but AElfheah'sinfluence in It was believedthat Dunstan had usedviolence. the proto-county must have been very great. and that AEthelgyfuinduced the King to banish His will30,which took effect in 971.
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