KING’S WIFE IMAGE IN THE WORKS OF ENGLISH BIOGRAPHERS AND CHURCH WRITERS OF 8TH – 9TH CENTURIES
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2018-5-74-80
The paper focuses on the images of Anglo-Saxon queens in the works of biographers and church writers of the 8th – 9th century England. Based on Asser’s Life of King Alfred, Life of St Wilfred of York and Ecclesiastical history of the English people it is shown that historical portraits of Anglo-Saxon rulers’ wives have their specificity depending on the genre, the author’s objectives and attitudes to women in power. Early Anglo-Saxon queens enjoyed high social status, participated in worldly and church affairs. Precedents of rivalry between queens and people within the king’s circle are discussed. Tradition and personal support of the king are identified as the sources of queen’s power. Queens influenced the rulers’ policy by means of their council, that Christian writers associated with the Fall. Not coincidentally, in the early Anglo-Saxon narrative evil queens always use their husbands, intriguing against nobles and hierarchs. Nevertheless, both secular and clerical attitudes to queens’ power were rather complex. On the one hand, their political activity caused concern. On the other, queens patronizing the Church were held in high esteem by ecclesiastical authors. Downgrading of the king’s wife’s position in the 9th century Wessex should be considered a matter of historical accident rather than conformity to historical patterns.
Keywords: the Anglo-Saxons, status of early Medieval queens, Asser, Eadburh of Mercia, Queen Iurminburg, Queen Eanflaed, Life of St Wilfred, Ecclesiastical History of the English People
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Issue: 5, 2018
Series of issue: Issue 5
Rubric: WORLD HISTORY
Pages: 74 — 80
Downloads: 798