Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders

For other people of the same name, see Ælfthryth.
Ælfthryth of Wessex
Countess consort of Flanders
Born 877
Died 7 June 929 (aged 5152)
Spouse Baldwin II, Count of Flanders
Issue Arnulf I of Flanders
Adalulf, Count of Boulogne
Ealswid
Ermentrud
House House of Wessex (by birth)
House of Flanders (by marriage)
Father Alfred the Great
Mother Ealhswith

Ælfthryth of Wessex (877 – 7 June 929), also known as Elftrudis (Elftrude, Elfrida), was an English princess and a countess consort of Flanders.

Life

She was the youngest child of Alfred the Great, the Saxon King of England and his wife Ealhswith. She had four or five siblings, including King Edward the Elder and Ethelfleda.

Ælfthryth married Baldwin II (died 918), Count of Flanders.

They had the following issue:

Ælfthryth was an ancestor of Matilda of Flanders, who married William the Conqueror, first monarch from the House of Normandy, which means that following the Norman conquest of England and the death of William I all the monarchs of England were also descendants of the House of Wessex.

In fiction

Ælfthryth was the subject of the award-winning young adult novel Journey For a Princess by Margaret Leighton (1960: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, New York, NY). In this book, she is called Elstrid.

References

External links

Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders
Born: 877 Died: 7 June 929
Preceded by
Judith of Flanders
Countess consort of Flanders
c.890918
Succeeded by
Adele of Vermandois
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