The Wife of Alfred The Great

Forgotten Women

In 868, Alfred The Great, three years before he became king of Wessex married a woman named Ealhswith, whom he’d be married too for the rest of his life and didn’t discard her as sometimes happened in those days. Ealhswith was the daughter of a Mercian nobleman named Athelred Mucel. Her mother, Eadburh, was also descended from Mercian royal lineage whic…