Marriage to Cnut Įmma fleeing England with her two young sons following the invasion by Sweyn Forkbeard (1013). Some scholars believe that the marriage saved her sons' lives, as Cnut tried to rid himself of rival claimants, but spared their lives. Queen Emma attempted to maintain Anglo-Saxon control of London until her marriage to Cnut was arranged. He was held out of London until the deaths of Æthelred and Edmund in April and November 1016, respectively. In 1015, Cnut, the son of Sweyn Forkbeard, invaded England. Although this movement was supported by Æthelred's chief advisor, Eadric Streona, it was opposed by Edmund Ironside, Æthelred's third-oldest son, and his allies, who eventually revolted against his father. Emma made an attempt to get her older son, Edward, recognised as heir. Emma's sons had been ranked after all of the sons from Æthelred's first wife, the eldest surviving of whom was Edmund Ironside. Æthelred's oldest son from his first marriage, Æthelstan, had been heir apparent until his death in June 1014. They returned to England after Sweyn's death in 1014.Įmma and Æthelred's marriage ended with Æthelred's death in London in 1016. When King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark invaded and conquered England in 1013, Emma and her children were sent to Normandy, where Æthelred joined soon after. Æthelred and Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and Alfred Ætheling, and a daughter, Goda of England (or Godgifu). She received properties of her own in Winchester, Rutland, Devonshire, Suffolk and Oxfordshire, as well as the city of Exeter. Upon their marriage, Emma was given the Anglo-Saxon name of Ælfgifu, which was used for formal and official matters, and became Queen of England. ![]() Viking raids on England were often based in Normandy in the late 10th century, and for Æthelred this marriage was intended to unite against the Viking threat. Similarly Richard II, Duke of Normandy hoped to improve relations with the English in wake of recent conflict and a failed kidnapping attempt against him by Æthelred. In an attempt to pacify Normandy, King Æthelred of England married Emma in 1002. ![]() As Catherine Karkov notes, Emma is one of the most visually represented early medieval queens. Emma is the central figure within the Encomium Emmae Reginae, a critical source for the history of early-11th-century English politics. ![]() In 1035, when her second husband Cnut died and was succeeded by their son Harthacnut, who was in Denmark at the time, Emma was designated to act as his regent until his return, which she did in rivalry with Harold Harefoot. ![]() As Cnut's wife, she was Queen of England from their marriage in 1017, Queen of Denmark from 1018, and Queen of Norway from 1028 until Cnut died in 1035.Īfter her husbands' deaths, Emma remained in the public eye and continued to participate actively in politics during the reigns of her sons by each husband, Edward the Confessor and Harthacnut. Æthelred died in 1016, and Emma remarried to Sweyn's son Cnut. The daughter of the Norman ruler Richard the Fearless and Gunnor, she was Queen of the English during her marriage to King Æthelred from 1002 to 1016, except during a brief interruption in 1013–14 when the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard occupied the English throne. 984 – 6 March 1052) was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the Danish king Cnut the Great.
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