Frithugyth

Frithugyth (floruit 737) was the wife of King Æthelheard of Wessex (died 740).

Frithugyth is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have made a pilgrimage to Rome in 737 along with Forthhere, Bishop of Sherborne. The Chronicle offers no further information.

Frithugyth, like her predecessor as Queen of Wessex, Æthelburg, wife of Ine of Wessex, is recorded in surviving charters, not merely witnessing her husband's donations of land to the church, but also making donations in her own right. Although the reliability of many of these charters is questionable, historian Barbara Yorke notes that "Queen Frithugyth would be an unlikely choice as donor in a completely fictitious" charter.

The principal donation attributed to Frithugyth is a sizable estate at Taunton, given to Winchester Cathedral. This was expanded by later Kings of Wessex and England, including Æthelwulf, Æthelstan, and Eadred, who refer to Frithugyth's earlier donation.

No descendants of Æthelheard and Frithugyth are known.

References

• "Frithugyth 1 (Female) Queen of the West Saxons, fl. 737". Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 2007-10-01. 
• Sean Miller. "Anglo-Saxons.net". Retrieved 2007-10-01. 
• Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxons England. London: Seaby, 1990
• Yorke, Barbara, Wessex in the Early Middle Ages. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1995.