Her Name Was Eadgifu

Today's guest is Paula Lofting, a fellow Pen & Sword author and Historical Writers Forum admin. She has recently released Searching for The Last Anglo-Saxon King: Harold Godwinson England's Golden Warrior and joins us today to talk about Eadgifu, Harold's wife.

Welcome, Paula!

~ Samantha

Her name was Eadgifu: Guest Post by Paula Lofting

Harold Godwinson had a reputation as being a lascivious philanderer which was peddled by the Norman Propaganda Machine. Though he did have two wives, the second one he married in the last year of his life for political reasons, and was something a lot of noblemen did in this era. He may, when he was younger, like many lusty young men, have had an oat-sewing stage, however there is no real evidence that he was promiscuous, or a sexual predator. After Harold’s death, Norman writers would go on to tarnish his reputation in any area of his life. His first wife, commonly known as Edith Swanneck or Eadgyth the Fair, Edita being the Latin version of her name. But her real name, according to eminent historian Richard Sharpe, was said to have been Eadgifu (Eadiva) Swanneck and in the Cartulary of St Benet in Norfolk to whom she was benefactor, she was also known by this name in her epithet. Some people insist these names are variants on one name, however they are made up of different components with different meanings.

To identify Eadgifu, it is important to identify who she wasn’t. When I was researching Eadgifu, it appeared that for some time, people had mistaken her for different women. Bill Flint, for example, really invested a lot in banking on the Lady of Walsingham being the wife of King Harold Godwinson, whom he refers to as Edith the Fair in the title of his book supposedly dedicated to her life. The real wife of Harold Godwinson did not have anything to do with Walsingham, but the confusion may have originated from the fact that Waltham, the estate on which she lived with Harold, had a similar name. The actual Visionary of Walsingham, also known as Rychold, or Richeldis, lived a century later. Flint, like others, claimed that ‘Edith the Fair’, (Harold’s wife) was the daughter of Thorkell the Tall and Wulfhild, daughter of Æthelred. However, there is no evidence to say that Thorkell married Æthelred’s daughter let alone Æthelred having a daughter of that name. In the early 12th century, a lady called Richeldis Faverches flourished. Her Christian name meant ‘rich in virtue’. She was, according to Anglican and Roman Catholic tradition, a virtuous Saxon woman married to the Lord of Walsingham, who died and left her with a son called Geoffrey. There was a legend that she had a vision one night that the Virgin Mary took her on a trip to Nazareth to show her the house that she had lived in when the angel Gabriel had come to her with the prophecy that she would give birth to the son of God the Father. The Blessed Virgin requested that she create the shrine at Walsingham to look like the house in Nazareth which she was said to have done. Does this sound like this could be the wife of Harold Godwinson who lived a century before? Not likely.

Suggestions have also been made that a daughter of a woman called Wulfgyth who gifted both Harold and his father, Godwin land in East Anglia. This daughter is referred to as ‘Ealdgyth’, and entirely different name from Eadgifu. These lands do not correspond with Eadgifu’s lands in the Domesday book, and according to the eminent historian, Ann Williams, Harold’s love was more likely to have been the daughter or niece, or some other close relative of Ordgar the Sherrif of Cambridgeshire. The allocation of lands among individuals in specific regions documented in the Domesday Book serves as a method for identifying characters referenced in historical sources. Using this theory to link Harold to his wife, we discover that Ordgar, known to be a man referred to as ‘Harold’s man’, had lands that were interlinked with two women known as Eadgifu the Rich and Edith the Fair. The lands of these two women were both linked with Harold’s properties suggesting that it is possible they were the same woman. And if Eadgifu was Ordgar’s daughter or niece, then Harold’s union with her would be of great use to him in drawing a sizeable chunk of followers to his cause. A lady who had the kind of wealth that Eadgifu possessed would have been advantageous to him, adding to his amassing wealth.

What actually put the stamp on my belief that Eadgifu the Rich, and the Eadgifu Swanneck named in the Benet St Holme Cartulary was the wife of Harold was the story of Gunhild Haroldsdottir, the couple’s daughter. During the upheaval of the ongoing Conquest by the Normans after the Battle of Hastings, this little girl had been hidden away in a convent, probably the same that her aunt, the former Queen of England, Edith, had retired to. When Gunhild was older, she was abducted by a Breton Count and either forced into a marriage or some sort of union. By the time of the Domesday Book, Alan was in was possession of Eadgifu’s lands in Cambridge, suggesting that Eadgifu was indeed the wife of Harold.

Harold may have been attracted to Miss Swanneck, a name that was undoubtedly awarded her for her beautiful long, white neck, which in all honesty was probably the only thing on show in the 11th century, for the privileges and benefits she would bring him as a wealthy young woman, and she had possibly been his first choice to enter into an alliance with, especially with her ties to one of the most important officials in his jurisdiction. The couple, however, were together for over twenty years, and had at least 7 children, of which only 6 reached maturity, for one child died as a baby. Legend has it that theirs was a true love story, and that Eadfifu was there right to the end, spending his last night on earth with him before he met his death on the battlefield the next day.

Together, Eadgifu and Harold enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and seem to have spent quite some time together in her home in Nazeing or perhaps in his manor of Waltham. Nazeing was 5 miles from Waltham, but we know Eadgifu had some close connection to the collegiate Harold had set up within the precinct of the Church of the Holy Rood. The Waltham Chronicle mentions that the canons Ælfric and Osgod fetched her to the battle ground to identify Harold’s body, giving us some indication that she was well known to them. Independently, Eadgifu was worth over £500 in 1066. Her lands amounted to 280 hides and 450acres. She had 29 men, and 3 women commended to her. Adding this to Harold’s revenue made them an extremely wealthy couple. She also had 2 goldsmiths in her employ. Eadgifu would have most likely been able to kit herself out in finery that might have almost rivalled the queen. However, though she was likely to have signed deeds etc, we do not see her signing royal charters or diplomas, suggesting she was not at court too much. Local tradition has it that she and Harold set up home in Nazeing which, as mentioned previously was her own land. They had six children, three daughters and four boys. The eldest daughter, Gytha, escaped England after the Conquest with her grandmother, also called Gytha, and married a prince of Kiyv. Her youngest daughter, Gunhild, was taken out of her convent by a Breton count and then after he died, went on to have an affair with his brother. Conveniently, they were both called Alan. The youngest son, Ulf, was a hostage in Normandy, but seems to have been treated well, and may have been the little boy holding the hand of a noble woman thought to be Eadgifu, rushing out of a burning house on the Bayeux Tapestry. The three oldest sons, Godwin, Edmund, and Magnus fled with the Dragon of Wessex standard to Ireland who helped them to gather an army to support them in an invasion to win back their father’s crown. They made a couple of attempts, but they were unsuccessful.

Woman and child running out of a burning building thought to be Eadgifu and her son Ulf

In 1066 Harold married again for political convenience in the very year he died, and it is the Norman writer, William of Jumièges, who describes her as Ealdgyth (Aldith), the beautiful sister of Mercian brothers, Earls Edwin and Morcar. Harold needed to bring the northerners on board when he claimed the throne with the approval of the witan, as they had left court after Edward’s death without swearing their fealty. It could have been that they wanted to support Edgar and were plotting to rebel. However, Harold’s charm and diplomatic skills obviously won them over. Better to be brother-in-law of Harold, than a supporter of a boy king they had no marital alliance with. Their sister would go on to birth a son probably after Harold died, but Edwin and Morcar were never to realise their ambition when William seized the throne after Hastings.

If the legends that Eadgifu was close by when the battle of Hastings was in process, and was brought to the field by William the Conqueror to identify his body are true, it is reasonable to think that they had remained close to one another when Harold wedded Aldith of Mercia. This second marriage was not an unusual custom in the 11th century, and throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, even after the conversion to Christianity had taken place, Noble men, especially royals, were apt to have more than one woman on the go. The great King Cnut had also entered into an earlier alliance before Emma of Normandy with a lady of Northampton, Ælfgifu, a daughter of one of the ealdormen in the northern provinces. When Cnut married Emma, there is no evidence that he put Ælfgifu aside but continued the relationship alongside Emma. If a man took a wife and confirmed it with a simple pagan-style ‘handfastening’ ceremony, then he was free to remarry later for political convenience. Harold was following Cnut’s example in 1066 when he took Aldith for his bride in order to secure the loyalty of her brothers.

How Eadgifu would have felt about this we cannot know. In fact, Eadgifu is never mentioned in the contemporary sources. She is mentioned in the Domesday book at times as concubine Heraldi, and there is reference to an unnamed woman referred to as the concubine of one said Heraldi in Canterbury. Now Harold wasn’t a common name, but it is uncertain that this was Eadgifu because her lands were known to have been on the north side of the Thames. It is not until much later in the latter half of the twelfth century that she is mentioned as Edith Swanneck by the Waltham Chronicle, and in the Vita Haroldi. It is thought that the scribes misspelled her name as Edith instead of Eadgifu, perhaps because of the mistakes made by the Domesday scribes.

The Waltham Chronicle remembers her as the woman whom Harold loved, before he became King of the English. ‘She had at one time been the king’s concubine, and new the secret marks on the king’s body, better than others did for she had been admitted to a greater intimacy of his body.’ The referral to Eadgifu as ‘concubine’ suggests that by the time the chronicle was written some time in the 11thc, unions between men and women that were not blessed by the church – there was still no official marriage ceremony until later – were not acceptable in the eyes of the church. Therefore, Eadgifu had lost her status as a legitimate wife.

But though there is little evidence for the woman that shared half of his life with him, Eadgifu can be brought to life by filling out the little we do know with the story of Harold’s life. All it takes is the bare bones, and a good bit of imagination for both historical fiction writers as well as those who write non-fiction to put flesh on the woman who loved, laughed, and bore witness to the man that he was.

Paula was born in the ancient Saxon county of Middlesex in 1961. She grew up in Australia hearing stories from her dad of her homeland and its history. As a youngster she read books by Rosemary Sutcliff and Leon Garfield and her love of English history grew. At 16 her family decided to travel back to England and resettle. She was able to visit the places she'd dreamt about as a child, bringing the stories of her childhood to life. It wasn't until later in life that Paula realised her dream to write and publish her own books. Her debut historical novel Sons of the Wolf was first published in 2012 and then revised and republished in 2016 along with the sequel, The Wolf Banner, in 2017. The third in the series, Wolf's Bane, will be ready for publishing later this year.

In this midst of all this, Paula has acquired contracts for nonfiction books with the prestigious Pen & Sword publishers. Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold Godwinson, England’s golden Warrior is available now, and a biographic of King Edmund Ironside is also in the pipeline. She has also written a short essay about Edmund for Iain Dale's Kings and Queens, articles for historical magazines. When she is not writing, she is a psychiatric nurse, mother of three grown up kids and grandmother of two and also re-enacts the Anglo-Saxon/Viking period with the awesome Regia Anglorum.

Connect with Paula on her website, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky@paulaloftingauthor.bsky.social, and X.