Editing Eadwig (section)

=== Eadwig's marriage ===
Eadwig was crowned at [[Kingston-upon-Thames]], probably in late January 956. After the ceremony, a feast was held for the king and his leading magnates, including [[Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury]], and [[Dunstan]], the [[Abbot of Glastonbury]] and a future [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. According to Dunstan's earliest [[hagiographer]], who identified himself only as "B", a well born woman and her adult daughter, who hoped to secure a marriage with Eadwig to one of them, were pursuing Eadwig with "indecent proposals", and he offended the assembled nobles by leaving the feast to "caress these whores". Oda urged that he should be brought back to the feast, but almost all the nobles feared to offend the king, and only Dunstan and his relative [[Cynesige of Lichfield|Cynesige]], [[Bishop of Lichfield]], had the courage to face his ire.{{sfnm|1a1=Keynes|1y=2004|2a1=Winterbottom|2a2=Lapidge|2y=2011|2pp=xiii, 67, 69}} B went on:

{{quote|As the nobles had requested, they went in and found the royal crown, brilliant with the wonderful gold and silver and variously sparkling jewels that made it up, tossed carelessly on the ground some distance from the king's head, while ''he'' was disporting himself disgracefully between the two women as though they were wallowing in some revolting pigsty. They said to the king: "Our nobles have sent us to ask you to come with all speed to take your proper place in the hall, and not to refuse to show yourself at this happy occasion with your great men." Dunstan first told off the foolish women. As for the king, since he would not get up, Dunstan put out his hand and removed him from the couch where he had been fornicating with the harlots, put his diadem on him, and marched him off to the royal company, parted from his women if only by main force.{{sfn|Winterbottom|Lapidge|2011|p=69}}}}

"B" names one of the women as Æthelgifu, the mother of Eadwig's future wife, [[Ælfgifu (wife of Eadwig)|Ælfgifu]], but he does not name the daughter in his account.{{sfnm|1a1=Winterbottom|1a2=Lapidge|1y=2011|1p=69|2a1=Keynes|2y=2004}} "B" aimed both to show Dunstan in a favourable light and to present Eadwig as acting unregally at the coronation feast, thus demonstrating his unfitness to be king.{{sfn|Roach|2013|pp=169–170}} Dunstan was exiled from England, and "B" said that he was driven out as a result of the machinations of Æthelgifu, and that Dunstan's own pupils sided against him. Dunstan's opponents probably included [[Æthelwold of Winchester|Æthelwold]], Abbot of [[Abingdon Abbey|Abingdon]] and future [[Bishop of Winchester]].{{sfn|Winterbottom|Lapidge|2011|pp=xxxii–xxxiii, 69, 71 }} Æthelwold supported the marriage, describing Ælfgifu in an Abingdon charter as "the king's wife", and she left him an estate in her will.{{sfnm|1a1=Jayakumar|1y=2008|1p=89|2a1=Yorke|2y=1988|2p=80|3a1=Robertson|3y=1956|3p=59|4a1=Whitelock|4y=1930|4pp=21, 119|ps=; [https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/1292.html S 1292]}}

"B"'s version is accepted by [[Michael Wood (historian)|Michael Wood]], who describes Eadwig as "deeply unpleasant",{{sfn|Wood|1999|p=59}} but most historians are sceptical. Ælfgifu was a member of the highest West Saxon aristocracy and she appears to have been on good terms with Edgar after his accession. He described her as his relative in charters granting her property.{{sfnm|1a1=Brooks|1y=1984|1pp=225–226|2a1=Williams|2y=2014}} The historian Rory Naismith sees the story of Dunstan's intervention at the coronation dinner as "essentially a piece of propaganda designed to blacken the reputation of Eadwig, Ælfgifu and her mother".{{sfn|Naismith|2021|p=235}} [[Frank Stenton]] comments on the story:

{{quote|Even in its earliest form it has already assumed a scandalous colour which clashes with better evidence. It is known, for example, that the younger of the two ladies married the king and that she was honoured in one of the greatest of English monasteries. In the {{lang|la|[[New Minster Liber Vitae|Liber Vitae]]}} of [[New Minster]], Ælfgifu, wife of King Eadwig, appears in a list of "illustrious women, choosing this holy place for the love of God, who have commended themselves to the prayers of the community by the gift of alms". Churchmen of the highest merit were willing to come to court when both the ladies were present. All that can be safely inferred from the story is the high probability that Dunstan was exiled because he had affronted the king, the woman who became the king's wife, and her mother.{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=366}}}}

The marriage was politically important as part of Eadwig's efforts to strengthen his position as king,{{sfn|Stafford|2004a}} and it may have been seen as a threat by the circle around Edgar as it could have cut him out from the prospect of inheriting the crown.{{sfn|Lewis|2008|p=106}} According to version "D" of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' (''ASC D''), in 958 "Archbishop Oda separated King Eadwig and Ælfgifu, because they were too closely related".{{sfn|Whitelock|1979|p=225}} It is not certain what their relationship was, but Eadwig's wife has been identified as the Ælfgifu who made a will naming Æthelweard as her brother, and he has been identified as the chronicler [[Æthelweard (historian)|Æthelweard]], who was descended from King Æthelred I, which would have made her Eadwig's third cousin once removed.{{sfnm|1a1=Keynes|1y=2004|2a1=Yorke|2y=1988|2pp=76–77}}{{efn|Roman civil law forbade marriages within four degrees, counting up from a prospective spouse to the common ancestor and back down the other prospective spouse, which made marriages between first cousins incestuous, and this rule was adopted by the early church. In the ninth century, the church adopted a much stricter rule, forbidding marriages between people related in seven degrees and counting only once back to the common ancestor, which made marriages between people with a common great-great-great-great-grandparent ineligible. Churchmen denounced marriages within forbidden degrees as incestuous, and in the tenth and eleventh centuries Continental nobility increasingly tried to avoid such unions. This created severe problems, especially for royalty, as almost all prospective partners of suitable status were too closely related, and in 988 [[Hugh Capet]], [[King of the Franks]], unsuccessfully sought a daughter of the Byzantine emperor as a wife for his son [[Robert II of France|Robert]].{{sfn|Bouchard|1981|pp=269–276}} After Hugh died, Robert married [[Bertha of Burgundy]], who was his second cousin, and thus related in the third degree, shocking contemporaries. [[Pope Gregory V]] condemned the marriage as incestuous and a Roman synod demanded that Hugh leave Bertha and sentenced the couple to seven years' penance, but Robert ignored the complaints until it became clear that Bertha was not going to give him a son, and the charge of incest then provided a convenient excuse for ending the marriage.{{sfnm|1a1=D'Avray|1y=2014|1pp=44–46|2a1=Stafford|2y=1998|2pp=83–84}} Consanguinity which was ignored at the time of a marriage provided a convenient justification for ending it in other cases, such as that of King [[Louis VII of France]] and [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]] in 1152.{{sfn|Bouchard|1981|pp=268–269}} The law code of 1008 known as VI{{nbs}}Æthelred declares that "it must never happen that a Christian man marries among his own kin within six degrees of relationship, that is, within the fourth generation".{{sfnm|1a1=Brooks|1y=1984|1p=225|2a1=Robertson|2y=1925|2p=95}} If Ælfgifu was the sister of the chronicler Æthelweard, who stated that Alfred the Great's elder brother King [[Æthelred I]] was his great-great-grandfather, she and Eadwig were related in the fourth degree on his side and the fifth on hers by their common descent from King [[Æthelwulf]] and his wife [[Osburh]].{{sfnm|1a1=Brooks|1y=1984|1p=225|2a1=Campbell|2y=1962|2p=39}}}}

[[Simon Keynes]] also questions "B"'s account of the coronation feast, suggesting that Oda may have objected to the marriage on the ground that it was against ecclesiastical law and that "B"'s version may have been based on an unsuccessful attempt by Dunstan and Cynesige to dissuade him from the marriage.{{sfn|Keynes|2004}} In the view of [[Michael Winterbottom (academic)|Michael Winterbottom]] and [[Michael Lapidge]] "B's account [of the feast] is a lurid fabrication of Oda's implementation of the procedures of canon law".{{sfn|Winterbottom|Lapidge|2011|p=xxxi n. 89}} On the other hand, Sean Miller argues that objections to the marriage were political rather than religious,{{sfn|Miller|2014|p=156}} and [[Pauline Stafford]] sees the annulment as a result of the successful revolt of Edgar, which weakened Eadwig so much that his enemies felt able to act against him.{{sfn|Stafford|1981|p=15}}

[[Byrhtferth]], in his hagiographical ''Life of St Oswald'', states that Eadwig, who was "leading a wicked life{{snd}}as immoderate youth is accustomed to do{{snd}}loved another woman as if she were his own wife"; he eloped with her, and Oda (Oswald's uncle) went on horseback to the house where she was staying, seized her and took her out of the kingdom. He then urged Eadwig to abandon his wicked ways, and henceforth the king "knelt before Oda with contrite visage". Some historians regard this story as a version of the account of Eadwig's marriage,{{sfnm|1a1=Lapidge|1y=2009|1pp=13 and n. 30, 15|2a1=Stafford|2y=2004a}} but Keynes thinks that different stories about Eadwig and his women may have been conflated.{{sfn|Keynes|2004}}

Historians almost all accept that the marriage between Eadwig and Ælfgifu was dissolved, but Stenton was an exception, pointing out that ''ASC D'', which is a northern document dating to the second half of the eleventh century or the early twelfth, is the only source for the annulment.{{efn|The twelfth century chronicler [[John of Worcester]] stated that Oda separated Eadwig and Ælfgifu, but John was uncertain whether this was because they were too closely related or they were unmarried.{{sfn|Darlington|McGurk|1995|p=409}}}} In his view it "is too late to have authority on a subject which invited legendary accretions".{{sfnm|1a1=Stenton|1y=1971|1p=366 n. 3|2a1=Cubbin|2y=1996|2pp=xi, lxi}}