"Queen Emma and the Vikings" (Emma of Normandy, Queen of England) (985-1062)

[iowabelle]

For those of you yearning to learn about early English history or enthralled with strong women like Eleanor of Aquitaine, read this! Emma was born a Norman princess, married to a much older English king (Ethelread the Unready) and then his usurper, Cnut. She mothered 2 kings, by each husband, Edward the Confessor and Hardacnut. To top that off, she was the great-aunty of William the Conqueror. Emma became a major player in English politics. She makes the four Provence sisters look like rank amateurs!

There's love, power, greed and multitudes of murders. She must have been a tough cookie, and so terrible that she's been forgotten.

I highly recommend this.

[Warren]

Here's the review from The Guardian, 13 August 2005...

Review: Queen Emma and the Vikings by Harriet O'Brien | Books | The Observer

and some quotes:

Emma was the daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy, this Norman dynasty itself being descended from the Norsemen who had overrun northern France 100 years earlier.
In 1002, she was given in marriage to Aethelred II of England - Aethelred Unraed, or "uncounselled", as he was disparagingly dubbed by chroniclers unimpressed by his rule, although linguistic slippage has left him better known as Aethelred the Unready.

By the time of his death in 1016, most of Aethelred's realm had fallen under the control of Viking forces, and his crown was seized by the 19-year-old Danish king Cnut (who has had his own mythical afterlife as King Canute, exposing the folly of flattering courtiers by ordering the sea not to wet his royal feet). In order to validate his place on Aethelred's throne, Cnut wed his predecessor's widow, despite the fact that he was still married to his first wife, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman named Aelfgifu. Emma, already a mother of three at the age of about 30, went on to bear her second royal husband two more children.

When Cnut died suddenly in 1035, Emma and her rival Aelfgifu were precipitated into bitter conflict over the competing rights to the throne of their respective offspring. Aelfgifu's son Harold Harefoot initially triumphed, not least because he was the only claimant on English soil at the critical moment. But after Harold's death in 1040 the crown passed first to his half-brother Harthacnut, Emma's son by Cnut, and then to Edward, her son by Aethelred, known to posterity as Edward the Confessor, whose failure to produce an heir set the stage for the arrival of the Norman conquerors.

[iowabelle]

I was trying to think of who Emma reminds me of. I don't think she was a warm, fuzzy lady like the late Queen Mother. She was probably more like Queen Mary, mothering two kings albeit as a distant parent.

One interesting aspect of the book is its emphasis on a shared Viking culture common to England (or perhaps I should say Britain?), northern France and Scandinavia. Because of later English historians, I think we modern folk tend to think of the Vikings as hostile invaders of the poor Anglo-Saxons, yet the truth was that Vikings had long settled in England and married into all levels of its society, much as they had done in Normandy. It wasn't all rape and pillage and "save us from the Norsemen".

[BryanCornett]

I found this website on rootsweb.com RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Our Families King Canute the great died in 1035 a.d. so this means he must have had another son that was not told about in the sagas to keep the canute lineage alive.

[Lilla]

Originally Posted by iowabelle

For those of you yearning to learn about early English history or enthralled with strong women like Eleanor of Aquitaine, read this! Emma was born a Norman princess, married to a much older English king (Ethelread the Unready) and then his usurper, Cnut. She mothered 2 kings, by each husband, Edward the Confessor and Hardacnut. To top that off, she was the great-aunty of William the Conqueror. Emma became a major player in English politics. She makes the four Provence sisters look like rank amateurs!

There's love, power, greed and multitudes of murders. She must have been a tough cookie, and so terrible that she's been forgotten.

I highly recommend this.

Thank you very much for the information Iowabelle. This is my favorit kind of novel. I am looking forward to reading it

Originally Posted by BryanCornett

I found this website on rootsweb.com RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Our Families King Canute the great died in 1035 a.d. so this means he must have had another son that was not told about in the sagas to keep the canute lineage alive.

According to the homepage of the DRF, Hardecanute (Emma's son by Canute) became King of Denmark in 1035-42, and of England in 1040-42.

He gaind the Danish throne when his father Canute the Great (so he was called as the King of Denmark) died. Hardecanutes halfbrother Harald Harefoot (Aelfgifu's son by Canute) became King of England. When Harald died, Hardecanutes also became King of England but died two years later in London. After that Edward the Confessor, Emmas son by Aethelred, became King of England.

Canute the Great had a (Danish) sister living in England - Estrid - who's son Svend Estridsen (born and raised in England - but Danish) was a pretender to the Danish throne. When the Danish King Hardecanute died in 1042, he claimed the Danish throne, but lost to the King of Norway - Magnus the Good (the illegitimate son of the Norwegian King Olaf Haraldsson). After Magnus died, Svend Estridsen became King of Denmark but only after several years of fightings between the two families and their respective supporters among the nobility.

By the way as Emma was the daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy, this Norman dynasty itself being descended from the Norsemen (Scandinavians from Norway and Denmark) who had overrun northern France, she to had Scandinavian blood running in her veins.

And futhermore both Canute the Great, Harald Harefoot and Hardecanute are decendants of King Gorm the Old of Denmark who is an ancestor to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, CP Frederik, Prince Christian and Princess Isabella. List of Danish monarchs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Kongehuset - Monarkiet i Danmark - Kongerækken

More can be read here:

Canute the Great - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harthacanute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Harefoot

Magnus I of Norway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and Sweyn II of Denmark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

plus on the the homepage the DRF mentioned above (only the Danish version deepens the subject though).