11/06/2026
English European Alliances through Athelstan's sisters
Eadgyth (pronounced Edith), was half sister to King Athelstan (both being grandchildren of Alfred the Great and children of Edward the Elder).
Is it possible she visited Kingston upon Thames aged 14/15 to attend Athelstan's coronation in 924?
After becoming King, Athelstan decided to create a powerful union between the kings of England and Germany by sending his half-sisters Eadgyth and Algiva to Saxony as potential brides for Otto 1, the Holy Roman Emperor. Otto and Eadgyth were married in 929 and Eadgyth lived in Saxony until her death in 946, aged 36. Algiva married Charles III of France.
Eadgyth's burial place at Magdeburg Cathedral was opened in 2008 and the skeleton represents the oldest complete set of remains from any English royal family. https://blog.oup.com/2017/05/ottonian-queenship-powerful-women-early-medieval-germany/
Despite re-marrying, Otto was buried next to Eadgyth and after she died wrote an important surviving document, in which he donates a large estate to his church in Fallersleben for the “salvation of the soul” of his beloved English queen, recently re-dated following analysis by an Exeter historian.
Professor Levi Roach, an expert in Western European history of the Middle Ages and historian in the University of Exeter’s Department of Archaeology and History researchied a corpus of documents relating to King Otto, including this one held by the State Archives of Saxony-Anhalt.
https://news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-humanities-arts-and-social-sciences/archaeology-and-history/historical-analysis-helps-to-re-date-a-kings-tribute-to-his-late-english-queen/
