See also
1 EMMA1,2 (c. 985-1052) [14610]. Born c. 0985.2 Marr ETHELRED II 1002.2 Died 1052.2
From The Rise of the Medieval World, 500-1300: A Biographical Dictionary by Jana K. Schulman, 2002.
"EMMA OF ENGLAND (C. 985-1052) Queen of England, she was the daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy. She married King Ethelred the Unready of England in 1002 as part of Aethelred's attempt to gain the Norman's aid against the Viking invaders. Emma and Aethelred had three children. Edward, (later called the Confessor), Alfred and Godgifu. The marriage did not end England's Viking problems, however. After Aethelred died in 1016, the Dane Cnut became king of England and married Emma in 1017. As Cnut's wife, Emma had two children, Hardaenut and Gunnhild. Perhaps the most significant contribution that Emma made was the family tie between Norman dukes and the English kings: William I the Conqueror's claim to the English throne was based on his kinship to Emma.
As Queen, Emma gained a reputation for generosity to the Church as well as a reputation for political machinations that involved supporting one son's claim to the throne against another's. Emma, especially while she was Cnut's queen consort, gave lavish gifts to several monasteries, including altar pieces of gold, silver and gems, various relics, and illuminated manuscripts. The implication seems clear, both Emma and Cnut, as foreigners ruling the realm, wanted to gain support of the Church through the practice of gift giving. As for her political endeavors, Emma tried to secure the English throne for Hardacnut, but when Cnut died in 1035, Harold I, his son by another woman, succeeded him. Harold's short reign saw Emma in exile, but she returned to England when Hardaenut ascended the throne in 1040. Hardacnut;s death in 1042 resulted in Edward the Confessors gaining the crown and in Emma losing her land. Exactly why Edward deprived his mother or her estates in not entirely clear, although she did not originally support his claim to the throne, and she was implicated as an accessory to his brother Alfred's murder. Despite this, he did allow her to live out her life in relative ease in Winchester.".
| 1 | "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard and Kaleen E. Beall, 2004". |
| 2 | "The Rise of the Medieval World, 500-1300: A Biographical Dictionary by Jana K. Schulman, 2002". |