THE PROBLEMS OF IMAGE AND STATUS OF EDITH OF WESSEX IN THE LIFE OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR
The paper considers specific features of image and status of English king Edward the Confessor’s wife Edith based on “Vita Ædwardi Regis” that was written in the middle 60-s of the XI c. on the orders of Edward’s widow. Edith’s status as the queen at her husband’s court as reflected in the “Vita…” well fitted in the overall trend of late Anglo-Saxon rulers’ wives strengthening influence on state affairs. However, the key factor in Edith’s “career” and in her image interpretation by the “Vita…” was her kinship with the powerful Godwin’s clan, the English king had to reckon with. By representing herself in the “Vita…” as the ideal wife, queen, sister and daughter of the powerful Godwin family members Edith attempted at strengthening her position at the royal court after the death of king Edward, her husband.
Keywords: woman in the early Middle Ages, Anglo-Saxons, the queen’s status, Edith of Wessex, “The Life of king Edward”
References:
1. Campbell M. W. Queen Emma and Ælfgifu of Northampton: Canut the Great’s Women. Medieval Scandinavia. 1971. V. 4. Р. 66–79.
2. Campbell M. W. Emma, reine d’Angleterre: mere denature ou femme vindicative? Annales de Normandie. 1973. V. 23. P. 97–114.
3. Lifshitz F. The Encomium Emmae Reginae: A Political Pamphlet of the Eleventh Century. Haskins Society Journal. Studies in Medieval History. 1989. V. 1. P. 39–50.
4. Stafford P. Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England. Oxford, Blackwell, 1997. 371 p.
5. Tyler E. M. Fictions of Family: The Encomium Emmae Reginae and Virgil’s Aeneid. Viator. 2008. V. 36. P. 149–179.
6. The Life of King Edward Who Rests at Westminster / ed. and trans. F. Barlow. 2nd ed. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992. 172 p.
7. Barlow F. Edward the Confessor. Berkley, University of California Press, 1970. 375 p.
8. Barlow F. The Godwins: The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty. L., Pearson, 2002. 141 p.
9. Boldyreva I. I. Zhenshchina v anglo-saksonskom obshchestve kontsa IX – serediny XI vekov: sotsial’nyy status i khudozhestvennyy obraz [Woman in Anglo-Saxon society of the late IX – middle XI centuries: social status and literary image]. Voronezh, Istoki Publ., 2015. 211 p. (in Russian).
10. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle / ed. and trans. by M Swanton. New York, Routledge, 1996. 364 p.
11. William of Malmesbury’s Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Earliest Period to the Reign of King Stephen / ed. by J. A. Giles. L., George Bell and Sons, 1847. 544 p.
12. Florentii Wigorniensis Monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis / ed. B. Thorpe. T. I. L., Sumptibus Societatis, 1848. 293 p.
13. Glebov A. G. Angliya v ranneye Srednevekov’e [England in the early Middle Ages]. Voronezh, VGU Publ., 1998. 222 p. (in Russian).
14. La légende de Ste Édith en prose et vers par le moine Goscelin / ed. A. Wilmart. Analecta Bollandiana. 1938. V. 56. P. 5–101; 265–307.
15. Writing the Wilton Women: Goscelin’s Legend of Edith and Liber Confortatorius / ed. by S. Hollis. Turnhout, Brepols, 2004. 453 p.
16. Encomium Emmae Reginae / ed. by M. W. Campbell. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998. 112 p.
17. Ælfric’s Lives of Saints / ed. and trans. by W. W. Skeat. V. I, II. L., Trübner & Co., 1881–1900.
18. Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography / ed. by P. H. Sawyer. L., Offi ces of the Royal Historical Society, 1968. 538 p.
19. Stafford P. Queens, Concubines and Dowagers: The King’s Wife in the Early Middle Ages. L., Batsford Academic, 1983. 248 p.
20. Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen / hg. von F. Liebermann. Bd. I. Halle, Max Niemeyer, 1903. 675 s.
21. Willelmi Malmesberiensis. De Gestis Pontifi cum Anglorum / ed. N.E.S.A. Hamilton. L., Longman & Co., 1870. 630 p.
22. Regularis Concordia: The Monastic Agreement of the Monks and Nuns of the English Nation / ed. and trans. by T. Symons. L., Nelson, 1953. 75 p.
23. Boldyreva I. I. Gendernye stereotipy v anglosaksonskoy kul’ture i sotsial’nykh praktikakh (VII–XI vv.) [Gender stereotypes in Anglo-Saxon culture and social practices (VII–XI c.)]. Adam i Eva. Al’manakh gendernoy istorii – Adam and Eve. Gender History Yearbook. Moscow, 2014, vol. 22, pp. 147–167 (in Russian).
24. Wilson McKenzie D. The Bayeux Tapestry: the Complete Tapestry in Color. New York, Thames & Hudson, 2004. 234 p.
25. Barlow F. William I and the Norman Conquest. L., English Universities Press, 1965. 206 p. (Russ. ed.: Barlou F. Vil’gel’m I i normandskoye zavoevaniye Anglii: per. s angl. St. Petersburg, Evraziya Publ., 2007. 320 p.).
( 432.24 kB ) 
( 425.84 kB )
Issue: 9, 2015
Series of issue: Issue 9
Rubric: WORLD HISTORY
Pages: 196 — 201
Downloads: 807