Eadhild

{{Short description|English princess, the second wife of Hugh, duke of the Franks}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox royalty|name=Eadhild|birth_date=Unknown|death_date={{circa| 937}}|spouse=Hugh the Great|father=Edward the Elder|mother=Ælfflæd}}

'''Eadhild''' (died 937) was an English princess, the second wife of Hugh, duke of the Franks. She was a daughter of Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons and his second wife Ælfflæd.<ref>Foot, 2011, p. xv</ref>

In 926 Edward's son, king Æthelstan, received an embassy from his cousin, Adelolf, Count of Boulogne, on behalf of Hugh, and Æthelstan agreed to give his half-sister, Eadhild, in marriage in return for an enormous quantity of gifts and relics. According to William of Malmesbury, these included spices, jewels, many swift horses, an elaborate onyx vase, a crown of solid gold, the sword of Constantine the Great, Charlemagne's lance and a piece of the Crown of Thorns.<ref>Foot, 2011, p. 18, 47-48, 192-193</ref> Eadhild's full sister, Eadgifu, was the wife of the deposed king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple. Hugh was a potential rival for the Frankish throne, and Eadgifu may have promoted the marriage in order to sever a dangerous link between Hugh and Count Herbert of Vermandois.<ref>Foot, 2010, p. 246</ref>

Eadhild died childless in 937.<ref>Ortenberg, p. 228; Freeman, p. 234</ref>

==Citations== {{reflist}}

==Sources== *{{cite book | last = Foot | first = Sarah | authorlink= Sarah Foot | title=Æthelstan: the first king of England|publisher=Yale University Press| year = 2011 |ISBN= 978-0-300-12535-1}} *{{cite book|title=England and the Continent in the Tenth Century:Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947)|publisher=Brepols|year=2010|editor-first=David|editor-last=Rollason|editor2-first=Conrad|editor2-last=Leyser|editor3-first=Hannah|editor3-last=Williams|first=Sarah|last=Foot|chapter=Dynastic Strategies: The West Saxon Royal Family in Europe|isbn=9782503532080}} *{{cite book|title=The History of the Norman Conquest of England|first=Edward Augustus|last= Freeman|authorlink=Edward Augustus Freeman|url=https://archive.org/details/historynormanco01unkngoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/historynormanco01unkngoog/page/n270 234]|quote=eadhild childless.|year=1867|publisher=Clarendon Press}} *{{cite book|title=England and the Continent in the Tenth Century:Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947)|publisher=Brepols|year=2010|editor-first=David|editor-last=Rollason|editor2-first=Conrad|editor2-last=Leyser|editor3-first=Hannah|editor3-last=Williams|first=Veronica|last=Ortenberg|chapter='The King from Overseas: Why did Æthelstan Matter in Tenth-Century Continental Affairs?|isbn=9782503532080}}

==External links== * {{PASE|148563|Eadhild 1}}

Category:937 deaths Category:10th-century English people Category:10th-century English women Category:Year of birth unknown Category:House of Wessex Category:English princesses Category:Daughters of kings Category:Children of Edward the Elder