Edith Godwinson WESSEX

   Other names for Edith were Aldgyth and Eadgyth.

   General Notes:

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute andRomilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Eadgyth, Daughter of Gytha and Godwine Earl of Wessex and Kent, Mar Edward the Confessor, Died 1075."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch I, p6:
[1066] "From some point along this line of march between Dover and Wallingford, William [Conqueror] had detached a force to secure the submission of Winchester. This city was of considerable importance, both because it was the old royal residence and still the financial centre of the state, and because it was the abode of Edith, the queen of Edward the Confessor, to whom it had been assigned as part of her dower. The submission the city seems to have been immediate and entirely satisfactory to William, who confirmed the widowed Lady of England in her rights and showed later some favour to the monks of the new minster..."

The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, Elizabeth Longford, 1991, Oxford Univ Press, pxviii: "Saxons and DanesGenealogy: Edith mar Edward The Confessor, died 1075."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co 1956 p133 "House of Wessex...Aldgyth Daughter of Godwin Brother of Harold II Mar Edward III The Confessor..."
p145: "Edward was a quiet, pious person without liking for war or much aptitude for administration. His Norman upbringing made him the willing though gentle agent of Norman influence, so far as Earl Godwin would allow...To make all smooth Edward was obliged to marry Godwin's young and handsom daughter, but we are assured by contemporary writers that this union was no more than formal. According to tradition the King was a kindly, weak, chubby albino... Nevertheless, his main interest in life was religious, and as he grew older his outlook was increasingly that of a monk...His saintliness brought him as the years passed by a reward in the veneration of his people, who forgave him his weakness for the sake of his virtues..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p25: "Edward the Confessor, mar Edith died 1075..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Micropaedia, Vol III, p799, Edward the ConfessorSaint:
"...Edward succeeded to the throne in 1042 and quickly seized the property of his mother, who had plotted against his accession. Nevertheless, for the first 11 years of his reign the real master of England was Godwin, Earl of the West Saxons. Edward married Godwin's daughter Edith in 1045, but by 1049 a breach had occurred between the two men. In 1051 Edward outlawed the Godwin family and dismissed Edith..."

From Alfred to Henry III 871-1272, Christopher Brooke, 1961, Norton Library History of England, p83:
"...In [Edward Confessor's] early years the most powerful of the earls was Godwin of Wessex, the king-maker: the man who had secured the succession of Harold I to Cnut, and probably played a part in Edward's own succession. He and his family dominated the south of England and ruled the King; Godwin's daughter Edith, was married to Edward. It is clear, nevertheless, that Edward was eager to throw off the tutelage... But Edward was supported by the earls of Mercia and Northumbria in this crisis, and by skillful manoeuvering he forced the family of Godwin into exile- all save Queen Edith who was sent into enforced retreat among the nuns of Wherwell..."

   Marriage Information:

Edith married King Saint Edward ENGLAND, III, son of King Ethelred ENGLAND, II and Queen Emma Normandy ENGLAND, in 1045. The marriage ended in divorce. (King Saint Edward ENGLAND, III was born about 1003-1004 in Islip, Oxfordshire, England, died on 5 Jan 1066 in London, Middlesex, England and was buried on 6 Jan 1066 in Church, St Peters, Abbey, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England.)