Eadgifu of Wessex
Eadgifu (also: Eadgyfu, Edgifa, Edgiva, Eadgivu, Hedwig, Odgiva, Ottogeba etc.; * to 903; † after 951), the second wife of the West Frankish king Charles III was ..
Life
Origin and Youth
Eadgifu was the daughter of the English King Edward I ( 899-924 ) from the House of Wessex, and whose second wife Ælfflæd in Wessex. It is hardly mentioned in Anglo-Saxon sources. In Frankish texts her life, however, is fairly well documented.
First marriage
Between 917 and 919, she was widowed with the West Frankish king Charles III. ( 893/898-922 ) married. As a jointure she received from Charles the royal possessions Tusey on the Meuse in Lotharingia. Charles had six daughters from his first marriage. Between April and September 921 brought Eadgifu with Ludwig, later King Louis IV Transmarinus ( d' Outremer, " the Overseas "; 936-954 ), the longed-for male heir to the world. From 920 Karl had to contend with a strong opposition from the nobility. This culminated in Robert I. ( 922-936 ) was proclaimed King Charles and 923 fell into the captivity of Count Heribert II of Vermandois, in the prison he died on October 7, 929.
Widowhood
In order to protect her son from persecution by Hugo the Great and Heribert II of Vermandois, sent Eadgifu Ludwig 923 or only after Charles' death 929 for its protection to England to the court of her half-brother Æthelstan. Historians are divided on whether Eadgifu also fled to England, or remained in the West Frankish kingdom in order to protect their property.
Presumably they played, even though they suffered even under persecution, 926 at the marriage of her sister Eadhild with the dux francorum Hugo the Great, which ended its alliance with Heribert II, a role. Eadgyth, another sister, married 929/930 the East Frankish King Otto the Great. On the one hand brought the young dynasty of the Saxon emperors through association with the prestigious British royal house an additional legitimacy, on the other hand, another ally was for Ludwig as a pretender won. At least 929 seems to have gone into exile in England also Eadgifu.
King Rudolf died in January 936 and Eadgifus son Louis was recalled by her brother " Hugo and the other big ones" from exile and proclaimed King. Already 937 tried to break away from the " guardianship " Hugo Ludwig. He continued his mother as abbess of the convent of rich Notre Dame in Laon, which he not only recognized their political influence, but increased. Around this time Eadgifu received from her son, the royal palace Attigny.
By Louis marrying Gerberga, a sister of Otto I, in 939 to Eadgifus position at the court apparently did not change. When Louis was captured by the Normans in 946, it was Gerberga and not Eadgifu, the I. to the English King Edmund ( 939-946 ) turned to for help. Eadgifu fell in the following years more and more into the shadows of her son and her daughter.
Second Marriage
To escape the political wilderness to Eadgifu decided to marry Heribert III. the old man of Meaux and Troyes ( 927-980/984 ). For Heribert, who could boast of being descended in direct line from the Great Karl meant marrying the Queen Dowager an enormous prestige. In order to marry Heribert and without informing her son about it, she left by men of their future husband and his brother Adalbert escorted in 951 Laon. As a wedding gift she received from Heribert extensive lands over which he could have as abbot of Saint- Médard. Ludwig was outraged and dispossessed them of their possessions. The monastery of Notre -Dame, he gave Gerberga and took the royal palace Attigny back into their own possession.
About Eadgifus further life mention the sources. She died in a December 26 an unknown year in Soissons and was buried in Saint- Médard. Heribert died childless between 980 and 984 Eadgifus strongly weathered grave stone was deciphered in the mid-17th century by Jean Mabillon.
Swell
- Æthelweard: Chronica
- Flodoard Reims: Annales
- Richer of Reims: Historiarum libri IV
- Folcuin of Lobbes: Gesta Abbatum Sithiensium