Eadhild

Eadhild (died 937) was the second wife of Hugh, duke of the Franks. She was a daughter of Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons and his second wife Ælfflæd.^[1]

In 926 Edward's son, king Æthelstan, received an embassy from his cousin, Adelolf, Count of Boulogne, on behalf of Hugh, and Æthelstan agreed to give his half-sister, Eadhild, in marriage in return for an enormous quantity of gifts and relics. According to William of Malmesbury, these included spices, jewels, many swift horses, an elaborate onyx vase, a crown of solid gold, the sword of Constantine the Great, Charlemagne's lance and a piece of the Crown of Thorns.^[2] Eadhild's full sister, Eadgifu, was the wife of the deposed king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple. Hugh was a potential rival for the Frankish throne, and Eadgifu may have promoted the marriage in order sever a dangerous link between Hugh and Count Heribert of Vermandois.^[3]

Eadhild died childless in 937.^[4]

Citations

Sources

• Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan: the first king of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1. 
• Foot, Sarah (2010). "Dynastic Strategies: The West Saxon Royal Family in Europe". In Rollason, David; Leyser, Conrad; Williams, Hannah. England and the Continent in the Tenth Century:Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947). Brepols. ISBN 9782503532080. 
• Freeman, Edward Augustus (1867). The History of the Norman Conquest of England. Clarendon Press. 
• Ortenberg, Veronica (2010). "'The King from Overseas: Why did Æthelstan Matter in Tenth-Century Continental Affairs?". In Rollason, David; Leyser, Conrad; Williams, Hannah. England and the Continent in the Tenth Century:Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947). Brepols. ISBN 9782503532080.