Edith of Wessex, (c. 1029 – December 19 1075), married King Edward the Confessor of England in 1045. The marriage produced no children - later ecclesiastical writers claimed that this was because Edward took a vow of celibacy, but modern historians have postulated alternative hypotheses (including the fact that Edward refused to consummate the marriage due to his antipathy to Edith's family, the Godwines).
Edith was the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, one of the most powerful men in England at the time of King Edward's rule. Her mother Gytha Thorkelsdóttir was daughter to Torkel Styrbjörnsson, granddaughter to Styrbjörn Starke and Tyra and great-granddaughter to both Olof (II) Björnsson and his sister Gyrid by Harold I of Denmark.
When Godwine and his family were expelled from the country in 1051, Edith was put aside by Edward and sent to a nunnery. When the Godwines effected their return through force in 1052, Edith was reinstated.
Upon Edward's death, in January 1066, he was succeeded by Edith's brother, Harold Godwinson. At the Battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings later that year, Edith lost her remaining four brothers (Tostig, Harold, Gyrth and Leofwine) and was therefore the only 'senior' member of the Godwine family to survive the Norman Conquest (the sons of Harold fled to Ireland).
Carola Hicks, an art historian, has recently put her forward as a candidate for the author of the Bayeux Tapestry [1].(Carola Hicks, The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life of a Masterpiece, ISBN 0701174633)
Further reading
- Stafford, Pauline (1997). Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women's Power in Eleventh-Century England, Blackwell ISBN 0-0631-16679-3
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