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From: "Todd A. Farmerie" <>
Subject: Re: Edmund Ironsides
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 21:50:53 GMT


In a previous article, (Gee Gee Hughes) says:

>Can someone help me? Who was the wife of Edmund Ironsides?
>
>I have one source that says her name was Edith who married 1st. Sigeferth
>s/o Earngrim.
>
>I have another source that says Edmund's wife was Ealgeth, sister of
Ealdorman.
>

This is a matter of some debate. The primary reference, the AngloSaxon
Chronicle reports that Edmund took Ealdgyth, widow of Ealdorman Sigeferth
(who with Ealdorman Morcar was killed by the instigation of Eadric Streona)
from a convent, married her, and took over the Northumbrian posessions of
the Ealdorman, all without his father's permission. Who was she though? I
have seen three theories advanced:

1. An addition (which term is a matter of opinion in this case) to the
7th edition of Weis, Ancestral Roots calls her sister of Ealdorman Eadric
Streona, citing DNB, CCN, and Ronay. Ronay says nothing of the sort (see
below), and I don't have access to CCN, but It is not a source which
carries weight. As for DNB, all it says is that Eadric and Edmund were
brothers-in-law, which would seem to be the source of the statement. The
problem is that it was Eadric that married Edmund's sister, and not the
other way. (Alas, there is nothing worse than an incorrect correction to
such a source, since it is viewed as having some higher degree of validity
than what was there before.)

2. Ronay, in his biography of Edward the Exile, proposes that she was
daughter of Olaf, King of Sweden. (This relation was also used as the
nucleus of a work of historical fiction that I have seen referenced, called
"Olaf's kin" and dealing with the exiled princes.) I did not find a
reference for this statement, or even the statement itself, but it is
implied from his refering to her as half-sister of one of Olaf's daughters.
Without some source for this statement, I cannot evaluate this solution. I
have little faith in this solution however, since it is unlikely that the
daughter of the King of Sweden would marry a Northumbrian Ealdorman, when
the King of England had an unmarried son (who later did marry Sigeferth's
widow).

3.Moriarty, in his Plantagenet Ancestry, presents a reconstruction (I do
not recall off hand who first proposed this) that she was daughter of
Morcar, Ealdorman of Sigeferth, and his political ally. I cannot do this
argument justice, but I recommend giving it a read, since this solution is
the only one I have seen which appears to fit with the political history
of the time.

Keep in mind that none of these have contemporary evidence, so as far as
the proven parentage of Edmund's wife, "Unknown" may be the more
conservative answer.

Todd

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