Ealhswith (died 5 December 902) was the Queen of Wessex as the wife of Alfred the Great. She was known to be a pious Christian and a good wife to Alfred, with whom she had many children, including Aethelflaed, Edward the Elder, and Aelfthryth of Flanders.
Biogarphy[]
Ealhswith in 871
Ealhswith was the daughter of the Mercian ealdorman Aethelred Mucel, and she was married to Prince Alfred of Wessex at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in 868. As a prince, Alfred was unfaithful to Ealhswith, having an affair with one of his servant girls. Despite originally not loving Alfred due to his youthful indiscretions, she came to love him, especially when he matured during his reign as King of Wessex after 871. Ealhswith was one of the most important figures at court and one of Alfred's closest advisors, and she often let her devout Christian faith influence her decisions, especially when it came to advising her husband to not trust the pagan Uhtred of Bebbanburg, who became his right-hand man. On Alfred's death in 899, he willed Edington in Wiltshire (the site of the Battle of Edington), Lambourn in Berkshire (the site of another one of his victories), and his birthplace of Wantage to Ealhswith, and she founded the convent of St. Mary's Abbey in Winchester after his death. Ealhswith failed in her attempts to ensure that Uhtred would hold no influence over her son, King Edward the Elder, as Edward ruled that his father had pardoned Uhtred of all of his offenses before his death, and that he would dispense his father's justice. Ealhswith died in 902.