William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the earliest period to the reign of King StephenWilliam, of Malmesbury
History
William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen
William, of Malmesbury
Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Great Britain -- History -- To 1066; Middle Ages -- Sources
died five years before her brother, and was buried in the monastery of
St. Peter’s, at Gloucester; which, in conjunction with her husband,
Ethered, she had erected with great solicitude. Thither too she had
transferred the bones of St. Oswald, the king, from Bardney; but this
monastery being destroyed in succeeding time by the Danes, Aldred,
archbishop of York, founded another, which is now the chief in that
city.
As the king had many daughters, he gave Edgiva to Charles, king of
France, the son of Lewis the Stammerer, son of Charles the Bald, whose
daughter, as I have repeatedly observed, Ethelwulf had married on his
return from Rome; and, as the opportunity has now presented itself, the
candid reader will not think it irrelevant, if I state the names of his
wives and children. By Egwina, an illustrious lady, he had Athelstan,
his first-born, and a daughter, whose name I cannot particularise, but
her brother gave her in marriage to Sihtric, king of the Northumbrians.
The second son of Edward was Ethelward, by Elfleda, daughter of earl
Etheline; deeply versed in literature, much resembling his grandfather
Alfred in features and disposition, but who departed, by an early
death, soon after his father. By the same wife he had Edwin, of whose
fate what the received opinion is I shall hereafter describe, not with
confidence, but doubtingly. By her too he had six daughters; Edfleda,
Edgiva, Ethelhilda, Ethilda, Edgitha, Elgifa: the first and third
vowing celibacy to God, renounced the pleasure of earthly nuptials;
Edfleda in a religious, and Ethelhilda in a lay habit: they both lie
buried near their mother, at Winchester. Her father gave Edgiva, as I
have mentioned, to king Charles,[156] and her brother, Athelstan, gave
Ethilda to Hugh:[157] this same brother also sent Edgitha and Elgifa to
Henry,[158] emperor of Germany, the second of whom he gave to his son
Otho, the other to a certain duke, near the Alps. Again; by his third
wife, named Edgiva, he had two sons, Edmund and Edred, each of whom
reigned after Athelstan: two daughters, Eadburga, and Edgiva; Eadburga,
a virgin, dedicated to Christ, lies buried at Winchester; Edgiva, a
lady of incomparable beauty, was united, by her brother Athelstan, to
Lewis, prince of Aquitaine.[159] Edward had brought up his daughters
in such wise, that in childhood they gave their whole attention to
literature, and afterwards employed themselves in the labours of the
distaff and the needle that thus they might chastely pass their virgin
age. His sons were so educated, as, first, to have the completest
benefit of learning, that afterwards they might succeed to govern the
state, not like rustics, but philosophers.
[Sidenote: [A.D. 912.] EDWARD.]
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