Lady Rædburh of the Alemanni

While she wasn’t, strictly speaking, a Queen of all of England, Rædburh, sometimes known as Redburga, is a very important figure, as she is the ancestress of all but four of the monarchs of England who came after her. The dynasty that she founded alongside her husband, King Ecgberht, would rule a united England for over 200 years. As such, a clear and unbroken line of English Queens can be drawn directly from Rædburh. She is also the consort of the first English monarch who was able to establish a secure reign over all of Anglo-Saxon England.

 

I should note here that she is not a traditional “Queen.” In Anglo-Saxon England, the misogyny was strong and, due to horror stories of previous women who had wielded power, most Queen consorts of Anglo-Saxon England were not crowned as such and were styled simply as “Lady” and not “Queen,” despite being married to a King. The very role a Queen played in society was obscure by the 9th century and the vast majority wielded no political power.

Unfortunately, the further we go back in history, the less we actually know about people, especially women, who were regularly seen as irrelevant figures and thus left out of the chronicles and rarely witnessed charters.

 

However, we do know some things about these women, as we will learn.

Rædburh is thought to have been born around 788. Some sources suggest she was a kinswoman of the great Frankish Emperor, Charlemagne, the first Emperor to rule what would become known as the Holy Roman Empire. Her links to Charlemagne are obscure and some place her as the sister of his fourth wife, Luitgard, the daughter of an Alamannian Count. Some other sources suggest she was related to Charlemagne by blood, which would actually make her Dame Redbourge de Francia. Further sources suggest that she was actually a native to the Kingdom of Wessex.

 

Her wedding to Ecgberht is not recorded in the chronicles, so it is unknown precisely when they were married. However, we do know that Ecgberht was briefly exiled to the court of Charlemagne, in Francia, in around 800. He didn’t return to Wessex to claim his crown until 802, so it is believed that they met and married at some point during these two years, possibly with Emperor Charlemagne’s involvement in their union.

 

In 802, when Ecgberht claimed his crown through conquest, Rædburh travelled to Wessex with him and became his consort. They were the King and Lady of Wessex, a land which became prosperous and grew in size during Ecgberht’s reign, as he added dependencies to his domains. Through this absorption of other lands, Ecgberht was the King of all of Anglo-Saxon England by the time of his death.

 

According to the few sources we have from this time, it is suggested that Rædburh had no involvement in the upbringing of her children, only three of whom survived long enough to have their names recorded and only one, her son Æthelwulf, fully to adulthood. It is important to remember that while this may seem horrific to us, noble-born women in history rarely had involvement in their children’s upbringing or education and some had little-to-no contact with their children either. It is impossible to suggest how Rædburh felt about her situation, but just because there is a lack of evidence to suggest she was involved in her children’s lives, this does not necessarily mean that she did not love them, or that she didn’t see them regularly. As mentioned earlier, the chroniclers rarely ever mentioned the women of the time, so it is possible that she was still allowed to be with her children.

 

Rædburh’s death is, unsurprisingly, not recorded. Her husband died in 839, to be succeeded by their son, Æthelwulf, and there is no evidence to suggest that Rædburh survived Ecgberht. However, some sources do seem to imply that she did survive him and suggest her death as being somewhere between 839-871.

Unfortunately, there is nothing more recorded of Rædburh’s story, but I hope that I was able to provide you with some basis for her in your mind. Rædburh, along with so many other hidden women in history, deserves to be remembered.