Emma of Normandy was married to two different kings of England, but her path to power was anything but smooth. Born around 985, she was the daughter of Richard I of Normandy and a Danish mother named Gunnor, placing Viking blood on both sides of her family. Her great-grandfather was Rollo, the legendary Viking warrior who founded Normandy. She would eventually rule as queen of England, Denmark, and Norway, but her life was shaped by invasions, massacres, exile, and fierce political rivalry.
Emma was sent to England in 1002 to marry King Æthelred the Unready, whose first wife had died. She was young, and he was at least 20 years older with ten children already, but the marriage formed a powerful alliance for Normandy. Emma was meant to be a peacemaker between the two realms. Not long after the wedding, Æthelred ordered a massacre of Danes living in England on St.
Brice’s Day, November 13, 1002. He declared it God’s will. The Viking response was brutal. Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark and Norway, spent a decade raiding England in revenge and even sold the spoils of war to Emma’s own brother, Duke Richard II of Normandy.
Viking forces caused widespread havoc in England, and in 1013, Sweyn launched a full-scale invasion. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, northern lords submitted to him, and resistance collapsed across the country. As the situation deteriorated, Emma sensed the end was near and fled to Normandy with her children, seeking her brother’s protection. It was a humiliating moment for the wife of a failing king.
Sweyn was crowned king of England in December 1013, becoming the first Viking ruler of all England, but his reign lasted only around two months before he died in February 1014. English nobles then negotiated Æthelred’s return to the throne, and his son Edmund Ironside ambushed Sweyn’s son Cnut, forcing him to withdraw from England in April 1014. Æthelred died in 1016, leaving Emma alone in a foreign kingdom with few allies. She turned to her stepson Edmund Ironside, a warrior prince, hoping to keep control of her estates by staying close to his side.
Cnut returned to England with an army, and the two men fought for over a year. At the Battle of Assandun, Cnut decisively defeated Edmund, but respected him enough to negotiate a peace that divided the country between them. Edmund died on November 30, 1016, either from battle wounds or assassination, and Cnut became king of all England. Emma chose to remain in England, where she had royal estates and status, rather than return to Normandy with nothing.
Cnut was taken by her beauty and elegance and wanted her as his queen. He simply denied the validity of his earlier marriage to Ælfgifu and married Emma instead. She negotiated an agreement that Cnut would support their sons’ future claims to the throne. Unlike her first marriage, Emma’s union with Cnut seemed to be more of a partnership.
She was a visible public figure with considerable influence at court and bore him three children, including a son named Harthacnut. Cnut proved a wise and successful ruler, bringing England and Denmark together under his North Sea Empire. When his brother died, Cnut took the Danish crown, making Emma queen of Denmark. In 1028, he conquered Norway, and Emma became queen of all three realms.
Cnut died at age 45 in 1035, leaving Emma in a vulnerable position. She returned to her manor in Winchester, taking the royal treasury with her in hopes of passing it to her son Harthacnut, who was in Denmark. But Harold Harefoot, one of Cnut’s sons by his first wife, seized the initiative. An agreement made the half-brothers co-kings with Emma as regent, but after two years with Harthacnut still absent, Harold took the crown for himself and drove Emma into exile.
In early 1040, Emma and Harthacnut were preparing to invade England when they heard of Harold’s death. Harthacnut succeeded to the throne without a fight and later invited his half-brother Edward, the son of Æthelred who had spent nearly 25 years in Norman exile, to join him as his successor. Harthacnut ruled only two years, dying after collapsing at a wedding celebration in June 1042. Edward the Confessor ascended to the throne, but his relationship with Emma was strained after years of separation and his sense of abandonment.
One of his first acts was to ride to Winchester and take the treasury that had been left in his mother’s hands. Emma retired to her own estates away from court and died on March 6, 1052, aged around 68. She was buried next to Cnut. Another queen consort of the era remains more mysterious.
Ælswith, wife of Alfred the Great, was married to him for over 30 years, yet remarkably little is known about her. She was the consort of Alfred but was never actually crowned queen. She lived during the late 9th century, when England was still several separate kingdoms and Viking armies were decimating Anglo-Saxon realms. Ælswith married Alfred in 868.
Her father was Æthelred Mucel, an Anglo-Saxon noble from Mercia, and her mother Eadburh was reportedly a scholar descended from King Coenwulf of Mercia. With the kingdoms of England falling to the Vikings, Wessex and Mercia needed an alliance to survive. King Burgred of Mercia appealed to Alfred and his brother King Æthelred of Wessex for help after Viking invasions, and the marriage sealed the alliance. During the wedding celebrations, Alfred fell ill with what seemed to be a stomach or intestinal problem that apparently plagued him for life.
The Vikings remained a far greater concern, however. In 871, King Æthelred of Wessex died shortly after battle, and with his son too young to rule, Alfred was quickly crowned king of Wessex to lead its defense. Ælswith and Alfred had five children. Their daughter Æthelflæd married Æthelred of Mercia and became a formidable warrior known to history as the Lady of the Mercians.
Another daughter, Æthelgifu, became abbess of Shaftesbury. Their son Edward, later known as Edward the Elder, succeeded Alfred as king. A daughter named Ælfthryth married Baldwin of Flanders, and their last child Æthelweard showed a strong interest in books and learning. In 874, Mercia was conquered by the Vikings, leaving Wessex as the last surviving independent Saxon kingdom.
Alfred underestimated a Viking leader named Guthrum, who launched a surprise attack on Alfred’s court at Chippenham in 878. Many of Alfred’s bodyguards were killed, and Alfred fled with his wife and children to the marshes of Somerset. With her children young, it was a terrifying time as defeat and death were near. Alfred led guerrilla attacks from the marshes and planned a decisive battle.
In May 878, the Battle of Edington took place. According to the monk Asser, Alfred fought ferociously, forming a dense shield wall against the pagan army, and gained victory, overthrowing the enemy with great slaughter. He won back his kingdom, and a treaty was negotiated with Guthrum, who was baptized, bringing peace to Wessex. Ælswith turned her attention to establishing St.
Mary’s Abbey in Winchester. She is said to have been in charge of constructing the monastic buildings, assembling the nuns, appointing the first abbess, and funding much of the proceedings. She did not live to finish the project, but her son Edward the Elder completed it. Ælswith endured hardship throughout her life.
Her husband was constantly at war, she was forced to flee for her life with her children, and she suffered for months in the marshes during winter, knowing that if Alfred failed, death awaited her and her children. After Alfred died in 899, she appeared in a charter of her son Edward the Elder, likely to bolster his support when his cousin Æthelwold challenged his claim to the crown. Ælswith survived Alfred by three years, seeing Edward defeat his rival and become king of Wessex. She died on December 5, 902, and was buried next to Alfred.
Edith the Fair, also remembered as Edith Swan-Neck, was an 11th-century Anglo-Scandinavian noblewoman who witnessed the reigns of six English kings. She was the lover of King Harold Godwinson and mother of his six children, though they never formally married. Edith was among England’s wealthiest nobles and was renowned as the most beautiful woman in the realm. Her father was Thorkell the Tall, a Viking chief and lord of the legendary Jomsvikings.
Edith was born in 1025 in East Anglia. Her father ruled the region on behalf of King Cnut the Great. Thorkell had a dramatic history, raiding and extorting much of England before allying with King Æthelred the Unready and marrying one of his daughters. He later abandoned Æthelred’s service and joined Cnut, his foster son and cousin.
After the Viking conquest of England, Cnut rewarded Thorkell with East Anglia. Edith’s lineage combined Viking conquerors with Anglo-Saxon royalty. Her father was reputed to be the grandson of Harold Bluetooth, and her mother was a princess, daughter of King Æthelred the Unready. Raised in Cnut’s household and possibly sharing her childhood with Cnut’s son Harthacnut, Edith grew to be one of the most powerful and wealthiest noblewomen in the land.
The deaths of Cnut the Great in 1035 and Thorkell around 1039 marked the end of the major figures of the Viking invasion. Cnut’s son Harold Harefoot took the English throne before Harthacnut ascended in 1040, and Edith matured during the reign of the Viking kings. Harthacnut died at just 24, reportedly poisoned at a wedding feast, ending the Viking line of kings in England. The throne returned to the Saxon line with Edward the Confessor in 1042.
Edward the Confessor, weary of powerful Scandinavian nobles, expelled Edith’s mother and brothers from England. Edith found herself alone but remained immensely wealthy, inheriting vast estates in East Anglia. Around 1043, she began a relationship with Harold Godwinson, the newly appointed Earl of East Anglia. Their union, known as “more danico” or in the Danish manner, was a form of marriage not sanctioned by the church but widely accepted in England.
Harold likely entered the relationship partly to secure support in his new earldom, as Edith owned much of the land in East Anglia. Both came from extremely wealthy families with impeccable bloodlines. In 1053, Harold succeeded his father as Earl of Wessex, making him the most powerful figure in England after the king and raising Edith’s status as well. By 1065, Harold and Edith had shared two decades together and had at least six children.
But the declining health of King Edward the Confessor created a political imperative for Harold to formalize a marriage to strengthen his position. He married Ealdgyth, daughter of the Earl of Mercia, securing crucial support from powerful northern earls. Though his new wife outranked Edith, the mother of his children, Edith remained loyal. Edward the Confessor died on January 5, 1066, and the Witan selected Harold to succeed him as king, with his coronation on January 6.
Harold’s reign was immediately threatened by Harold Hardrada seeking the English crown and Harold’s own brother Tostig, who betrayed him and sided with Hardrada. Harold defeated Hardrada at Stamford Bridge in a stunning surprise attack, but victory was short-lived as William, Duke of Normandy, was crossing the channel. At the time of the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066, Queen Ealdgyth was in London, but Edith followed Harold to battle, staying near the battlefield at Senlac Hill alongside his mother Gytha. The Saxon army fought fiercely and was on the cusp of victory, but William managed to turn the tide.
Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, was slain by Norman knights. According to tradition, Harold’s mother Gytha made desperate pleas to William to surrender Harold’s body for burial, offering his weight in gold, but the Normans refused. In a final act of devotion, Edith walked through the carnage of the battlefield to identify Harold’s body, which had been mutilated beyond recognition. Accounts describe a brutal end, with one knight cleaving his breast, another cutting off his head, a third piercing his belly, and a fourth hewing off his thigh.
Edith searched for unique markings on Harold’s chest, possibly his tattoos, which only she would recognize. Her intimate knowledge of these details allowed her to confirm his identity amidst the sea of the dead. Because of Edith’s identification, Harold was given a Christian burial by the monks at Waltham Abbey. Edith and Harold’s sons fled to Ireland after the fall of their father, with most surviving into the 1080s.
History records no further trace of Edith after Harold’s burial, leaving her fate to speculation and legend. Ælfgifu of Northampton is another figure from this turbulent period, known largely for her rivalry with Emma of Normandy. Born in 990 into an important noble family in Mercia, she was the daughter of Ælfhelm, ealdorman of Northumbria. When she was young, her father was murdered and her brothers blinded with the king’s blessing.
When Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England, the family again came under suspicion of treachery. Sweyn married his son Cnut to Ælfgifu to seal the loyalty of the north. Sweyn briefly ruled England but died in February 1014. Æthelred returned from exile, and Cnut fled back to Denmark.
After Æthelred’s death, Cnut returned, took the land as his father had done, and was crowned king of England in 1016. Ælfgifu must have expected to take her place as queen, but Cnut married Emma of Normandy instead, a decade older than him and previously married to Æthelred. Emma was crowned queen in 1017 and enjoyed much higher status than Ælfgifu. The birth of Emma’s son Harthacnut, whom Cnut treated as his heir despite having two older sons, solidified Emma’s influence.
Ælfgifu’s whereabouts are not recorded for most of Cnut’s reign, but in 1030, he sent her and their son Sweyn to Norway to rule as regents. Ælfgifu quickly developed a bad reputation for introducing new laws and taxes, making herself and other Danes very unpopular. After a challenger named Tryggvi came with an army claiming to be the son of Olaf Tryggvason, Sweyn defeated him in battle, but the conflict emboldened opposition. Norwegian nobles brought back Magnus, son of the now-sainted Olaf Haraldsson, and the people sided with him against the Danes.
Sweyn fled to Denmark, where he died shortly after. In 1035, Cnut the Great died, and Ælfgifu returned to England to be reunited with her remaining son, Harold. Emma had announced that Harthacnut was the heir, but he was far away in Denmark. Harold took the initiative and demanded the crown, though the Archbishop of Canterbury refused until a council decided who should rule.
At Oxford, it was decided Harold would rule as regent until his brother’s return. Ælfgifu hosted feasts and offered gifts to nobles to win support for Harold as undisputed king. With Harthacnut still absent, Ælfgifu’s cause strengthened, and in 1037, Harold secured the crown in his own name, driving Emma into exile. Ælfgifu finally had the upper hand and ruled England with her son.
But Emma and Harthacnut gathered a fleet to invade, and in March 1040, Harold died after reigning only three years. Ælfgifu then disappears from the sources. With the death of her last son, she probably fled, knowing Emma and Harthacnut would show no mercy. Harthacnut was crowned king, ending the power struggle between the two women.
All of their sons had short-lived reigns: Sweyn ruled Norway for five years, Harold Harefoot ruled England for three, and Harthacnut ruled England for two before apparently dying from excessive drinking. With Harthacnut’s death, the Danish line of kings in England ended, and Edward the Confessor, Emma’s son by Æthelred, became king, though Emma had never groomed him for the role. The line of Ælfgifu of Northampton was extinguished, and she soon disappeared from history.