Wulfthryth of Wessex

9th-century Queen of Wessex

For the 10th-century abbess and saint, see Wulfthryth of Wilton.

Wulfthryth

Queen consort of Wessex

The witness list of charter S 340, with Wulfthryth's name in sixth position.

Born| fl. 868
Spouse| Æthelred I, King of Wessex
Issue| Æthelhelm
Æthelwold

Wulfthryth (fl. 868) was a queen of Wessex, the wife of King Æthelred I.

Little is known of Wulfthryth. She witnessed a charter of 868, in which she has the title of regina ("queen").[1] The charter appears in the Codex Wintoniensis, but Wulfthryth is otherwise unrecorded in primary sources.[2] Stephanie Hollis notes that 868 was the year of Alfred the Great's marriage to a Mercian and that "Wulfthryth's name looks Mercian".[3]

Wulfthryth had two sons, Æthelhelm (c. 865 – c. 890) and Æthelwold (died 902), who were too young to succeed their father when he died in 871, and Alfred became king. Æthelwold unsuccessfully led Æthelwold's Revolt, disputing the throne with his cousin Edward the Elder after Alfred's death in 899.[4]

## Notes

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1. ^ Janet L. Nelson, 'Reconstructing a royal family: reflections on Alfred', in Ian N. Wood, Niels Lund (eds.), People and Places in Northern Europe, 500-1600: Essays in Honour of Peter Hayes Sawyer (Boydell & Brewer, 1991) p. 55
2. ^ Florence Elizabeth Harmer, Select English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (Cambridge University Press, 1914), p. 102
3. ^ Stephanie Hollis, Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Fate (1992), p. 215 (footnote)
4. ^ N. J. Higham, D. H. Hill, Edward the Elder: 899-924 (2013), p. 35

## External notes

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* Wulfthryth 2 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England