Vikings / Famous Vikings / Emma of Normandy
Emma of Normandy
Queen of England, Denmark and Norway
- Lived
- c. 984 – 1052
- Role
- Queen of England, Denmark and Norway
Emma was the daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy and great-granddaughter of Rollo. Married in 1002 to Æthelred the Unready, she fled to Normandy when Sweyn Forkbeard conquered England, then in 1017 married the conqueror's son Cnut. She was the wife of two kings and mother of two more, Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor, and a major landholder and patron based at Winchester. Her Norman kinship later underpinned her great-nephew William the Conqueror's claim to England.
Known for
- Wife of Æthelred the Unready and of Cnut
- Mother of Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor
- Commissioned the Encomium Emmae Reginae
In the story
On the timeline
Events that name Emma of Normandy
4 events. Each opens in the timeline.
- 1002 Æthelred Marries Emma of Normandy In the spring of 1002 King Æthelred marries Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy and sister of the reigning Richard II…
- 1017 Cnut Sole King; Marries Emma Edmund Ironside dies on 30 November 1016 and Cnut is accepted as king of all England. In 1017 he divides the country into four…
- 1036 Murder of Alfred Ætheling Alfred, younger son of Æthelred and Emma, crosses from Normandy in 1036, apparently to join his mother at Winchester. Earl Godwin…
- 1037 Harold Harefoot Becomes King of England At Oxford after Cnut's death the English magnates make Harold Harefoot regent while Harthacnut is detained in Denmark by the…
Sources
Wikipedia — Emma of Normandy Wikipedia — Encomium Emmae Reginae Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Emma of NormandyPicture: Emma_Receiving_the_Encomium, Anonymous (11th-century illuminator) · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.