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List of royal consorts of Wessex

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The royal consorts of Wessex were the wives of the reigning monarchs of the Kingdom of Wessex. History has not always recorded whether each king of Wessex was married or not. In Wessex it was not customary for kings' wives to be queens but Judith was crowned queen following her marriage to Æthelwulf.[1][2][3]

Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from AD 519 until England was unified by Æthelstan (who never married) in AD 927. There have thus been no consorts of an independent Wessex since that date and the following consorts have been those of the monarch of England.

Picture Name Parents Birth Marriage Became Consort Ceased to be Consort Death Spouse
Seaxburh (possibly) no earlier than c. 642 645 c. 674 Cenwalh
Cynewise (possibly) no earlier than 645 no later than 648 Penda
Seaxburh no earlier than 648 672
Thereafter ruled in her own right
c. 674 Cenwalh
Not reliably recorded. Possibly a sister of Queen Iurminburh. no earlier than c. 676 no later than c. 686 Centwine
Cynethryth no earlier than 685 no later than 688 Cædwalla
Æthelburg c. 688 726 Ine
Frithugyth no earlier than 726 no later than 740 Æthelheard
Eadburh Father, King Offa of Mercia
Mother, Queen Cynethryth
before 788 no earlier than 786 802 Beorhtric
Unknown
Late recording as Redburga but name is of doubtful historicity
no earlier than 802 no later than 839 Egbert
Osburh Father, Oslac before 839 839 no later than 856 Æthelwulf
Judith Father, Charles the Bald
Mother, Ermentrude of Orléans
October 844 1 October 856 13 January 858
Husband's death
after 870
858 860
Æthelbald
Wulfthryth Period 865 to 868 not after 871 Ethelred I
Ealhswith Father, Æthelred Mucil.
Mother, Eadburh
868 23 April 871 26 October 899 5 December 905 Alfred the Great
Ælfflæd Father, Æthelhelm circa 901 late 910s after 910 Edward the Elder
Eadgifu Father, Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent before 904 circa 919 17 July 924 after 965

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Janet L. Nelson, Æthelwulf, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
  2. ^ Williams et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain
  3. ^ Stafford 1981, pp. 139–42; Story 2003, pp. 240–42.

Bibliography

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  • Stafford, Pauline (1981). "Charles the Bald, Judith and England". In Gibson, Margaret; Nelson, Janet L. (eds.). Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom. Oxford, UK: B A R. pp. 137–51. ISBN 0-86054-115-0.
  • Story, Joanna (2003). Carolingian Connections: Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c. 750–870. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-0124-2.