Editing Edgar, King of England (section)

== Consorts and children ==
[[File:King Edgar from All Souls College Chapel.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Edgar in the second tier of the Royal Window in the mid-fifteenth century chapel of [[All Souls College, Oxford]]. The stained glass is original apart from Edgar's head, which was replaced with one made by [[Clayton and Bell]] in the 1870s.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1949|pp=37, 49, 53}} ]]

Edgar had children by three consorts. Almost all historians accept that he married the third one, but some question whether he married the first one and others the second.{{sfnm|1a1=Thomson|1a2=Winterbottom|1y=1999|1pp=139–140|2a1=Hart|2y=2007}} Yorke sees a case for recognising three marriages, as well as temporary liaisons.{{sfn|Yorke|2008|p=144}} The name of his first consort, who was the mother of his eldest son, [[Edward the Martyr]], was not recorded until after the Norman Conquest. According to [[Osbern of Canterbury]], writing in the late eleventh century, she was a nun who was seduced by Edgar, but this is rejected by later chroniclers,{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=3}} and historians generally accept the statements of the twelfth-century writers [[John of Worcester]] and William of Malmesbury that she was [[Æthelflæd Eneda]], the daughter of Ordmær.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=2008|1p=144|2a1=Williams|2y=2014|3a1=Darlington|3a2=McGurk|3y=1995|3p=417|4a1=Mynors|4a2=Thomson|4a3=Winterbottom|4y=1998|4p=261}} Ann Williams describes her as his wife, but [[Cyril Roy Hart|Cyril Hart]] says that Edward the Martyr was of doubtful legitimacy.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2014|2a1=Hart|2y=2007}} The chroniclers described Ordmær as an ealdorman, but no ealdorman or thegn with that name attested any surviving tenth century charter. According to the {{lang|la|[[Liber Eliensis]]}}, a {{lang|la|vir potens}} (powerful man) called Ordmær and his wife Ealde exchanged land with Æthelstan Half-King, and Edgar may have met Æthelflæd when he was Æthelstan's foster son.{{sfnm|1a1=Hart|1y=1992|1p=586|2a1=Darlington|2a2=McGurk|2y=1995|2p=417}} She probably died around 960.{{sfn|Yorke|2008|p=144}} The historian [[Nicholas Brooks (historian)|Nicholas Brooks]] argues that Edgar must have married Æthelflæd because Dunstan backed her son's succession to the throne, and he would not have supported an illegitimate son.{{sfn|Brooks|1984|pp=249–250}}

Edgar's second consort was called [[Wulfthryth of Wilton|Wulfthryth]]. According to the late eleventh century [[Benedictine]] writer [[Goscelin]], Edgar wished to marry her cousin Saint [[Wulfhilda of Barking|Wulfhild]], the daughter of a nobleman called Wulfhelm who had sent her to [[Wilton Abbey]] to be educated. Goscelin stated in his [[hagiography]] of Wulfhild that she resisted his determined advances as she wished to become a nun, and he agreed to marry Wulfthryth, who was also being educated at Wilton.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=2004c|2a1=Hollis|2y=2004|2pp=318–319}} They had a daughter, [[Edith of Wilton|Edith]]. Williams regards it as uncertain whether they married,{{sfn|Williams|2014}} but Yorke argues that they did, pointing out that Goscelin stated that she and Edgar were "bound by indissoluble vows", and that Edith's personal seal, which still survives, describes her as the "royal sister" of Kings Edward and [[Æthelred the Unready|Æthelred]], implying that they recognised her legitimacy. Wulfthryth returned to Wilton Abbey with her daughter by 964 and became a nun, allowing Edgar to remarry.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=2004a|2a1=Yorke|2y=2004b}} He employed the [[Lotharingian]] scholar Radbod of Rheims, and the artist Benna of Trier, to educate Edith.{{sfnm|1a1=Hollis|1y=2004|1pp=32, 311|2a1=Insley|2y=2012|2p=86|3a1=Ortenberg|3y=2002|3p=57}} Anglo-Saxon custom allowed for remarriage after a spouse entered a religious community, but on a strict interpretation of canon law, this was forbidden so long as the spouse lived, and so Edgar's third marriage may have had political repercussions.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=2008|1p=150|2a1=Yorke|2y=2003|2pp=108–109}} Wulfthryth and Edith were both later regarded as saints, but Wulfthryth's cult never became widely established, unlike that of Edith, who was the subject of another hagiography by Goscelin.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=2004a|2a1=Yorke|2y=2004b}}

[[William of Malmesbury]] wrote that the [[Danish king]] [[Cnut]] had no affection for English saints, and "when at Wilton one Whitsun he poured out his customary jeers at Edith herself: he would never credit the sanctity of the daughter of King Edgar, a vicious man, an especial slave to lust, and more tyrant than king". William claimed that Cnut ordered her tomb to be broken into so that she could prove her sanctity, and when this was done she threatened to attack him, terrifying him into submission.{{sfn|Winterbottom|2007|pp=299–301}} Yorke comments that the story has been used by William "to highlight her father's reputation for immorality".{{sfn|Yorke|2008|p=146}} Yorke sees a provision in the {{lang|la|[[Regularis Concordia (Winchester)|Regularis Concordia]]}}{{efn|For the {{lang|la|Regularis Concordia}}, see the 'Religion' section below}} that monasteries were under the protection of the king and nunneries of the queen to avoid scandal as "a pointed reference to Edgar's priapic interest in nuns", which would have been seen as normal royal behaviour by most people.{{sfn|Yorke|2008|pp=148, 157}} Williams observes that "the king's devotion to the Benedictine reform movement should not be taken as evidence of high personal morals".{{sfn|Williams|2014}}

Edgar's third consort was [[Ælfthryth (wife of Edgar)|Ælfthryth]], who was the widow of Ealdorman Æthelwold. He died in 962 and she married Edgar in 964. They had two sons, Edmund, who died young, and Æthelred, whose disastrous reign earned him the epithet of "the Unready".{{sfn|Stafford|2004b}} In 966 she attested the Winchester [[New Minster Charter]] as the "legitimate wife" of the king, and her recently born elder son Edmund attested as his "legitimate son", whereas Edward was described as "begotten by the same king", but it is uncertain whether this was on the king's instruction, which would indicate that he wished to cut Edward out of the succession, or was ordered by Bishop Æthelwold, who was a friend and ally of Ælfthryth. She was consecrated as queen in 973 and thereafter attested charters as {{lang|la|regina}}, the first West Saxon queen to do so on a regular basis.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=2008|1pp=147–149|2a1=Rumble|2y=2002|2pp=93–94}} Her consecration was a major change in status as previous West Saxon's kings' consorts had only been described as the king's wife, whereas she also had the status of being the queen.{{sfn|Stafford|2001|pp=164–165}}

Unlike Edgar's earlier consorts, Ælfthryth became politically influential, and Edgar appointed her father, [[Ordgar]], as ealdorman of [[Devon]].{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2014|2a1=Stafford|2y=2004b}} Williams describes her as "a force to be reckoned with"; [[Pauline Stafford]] regards her as "one of the most important tenth-century queens" and comments that "Ælfthryth, if not Eadgifu, heralded a new dawn in the history of English queens".{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2014|2a1=Stafford|2y=2004b|3a1=Stafford|3y=2001|3p=164}} Both women had a dominant position over other royal women, and both were most powerful as queen mothers, in Ælfthryth's case during the minority of her son Æthelred.{{sfn|Yorke|2008|pp=146–147}} She was later accused of being responsible for the murder of Edward the Martyr to make her own son king.{{sfn|Stafford|2004b}}