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The Royal Women Who Made England:

The Tenth Century in Saxon England

By MJ Porter

Publication Date: 30th January 2024
hardback UK/epub direct from the publisher/4th April 2024 US and Kindle edition

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Page Length: 237 Pages

Genre: Historical Non-Fiction

Throughout the tenth century, England, as it would be recognized today, formed. No longer many Saxon kingdoms, but rather, just England. Yet, this development masks much in the century in which the Viking raiders were seemingly driven from England’s shores by Alfred, his children and grandchildren, only to return during the reign of his great, great-grandson, the much-maligned Æthelred II.

Not one but two kings would be murdered, others would die at a young age, and a child would be named king on four occasions. Two kings would never marry, and a third would be forcefully divorced from his wife. Yet, the development towards ‘England’ did not stop. At no point did it truly fracture back into its constituent parts. Who then ensured this stability? To whom did the witan turn when kings died, and children were raised to the kingship?

The royal woman of the House of Wessex came into prominence during the century, perhaps the most well-known being Æthelflæd, daughter of King Alfred. Perhaps the most maligned being Ælfthryth (Elfrida), accused of murdering her stepson to clear the path to the kingdom for her son, Æthelred II, but there were many more women, rich and powerful in their own right, where their names and landholdings can be traced in the scant historical record.

Using contemporary source material, The Royal Women Who Made England can be plucked from the obscurity that has seen their names and deeds lost, even within a generation of their own lives.

Excerpt

The first wife of King Edward the Elder, mother of King Athelstan

Almost nothing is known of the woman who was King Edward the Elder’s first wife. Her name is believed to have been Ecgwynn. But all that can be said with any certainty is that she did exist, as her son, Athelstan, later king of the English, most certainly existed and was not claimed by either of King Edward’s second and third wives as belonging to them. Athelstan was invested by King Alfred during his lifetime, and this, more than anything, proves that the marriage was deemed as legitimate and that Alfred believed Athelstan would one day rule in his stead.

It is believed that Ecgwynn’s family may have had roots in the west of the country. The pair had married by c.893. A later reference in the Vita S Dunstani suggests the possibility that she may have been related to Archbishop Dunstan’s family. William of Malmesbury describes her as an illustris femina, ‘noble lady’. Alternatively, she may have been a Mercian by birth.

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MJ Porter

MJ Porter is the author of over fifty fiction titles set in Saxon England and the era before the tumultuous events of 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a young age that it housed the long-dead bones of Saxon kings, it’s little wonder that the study of the era was undertaken at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

The Royal Women of the Tenth Century is a first non-fiction title. It explores the ‘lost’ women of this period through the surviving contemporary source material. It stemmed from a frustration with how difficult it was to find a single volume dedicated to these ‘lost’ women and hopes to make it much easier for others to understand the prestige, wealth and influence of the women of the royal House of Wessex.

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