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{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Edith the Fair
| succession   = 
| reign        = 
|image=Vernet Edith discovering King Harold's corpse on the battle field of Hastings.jpg|
|caption=''[[Edith Recovering Harold's Body after the Battle of Hastings]]'' by [[Horace Vernet]], 1827
| birth_date   = c. 1025
| death_date   = c. 1086 (age about 61)
| death_place  = 
| consort      = yes
| spouse       =[[Harold Godwinson]]
| issue        =  [[Godwin, son of Harold Godwinson|Godwin]]<br />[[Edmund, son of Harold Godwinson|Edmund]]<br />[[Magnus, son of Harold Godwinson|Magnus]]<br />[[Gunhild of Wessex|Gunhild]]<br />[[Gytha of Wessex|Gytha]]<br />[[Ulf, son of Harold Godwinson|Ulf]]
| father       = [[Thorkell the Tall]]
| mother       = a daughter of [[Æthelred the Unready]]?
| house              = 
}}

'''Edith the Fair''' ({{langx|ang|Ealdgȳð Swann hnesce}}, "Edyth the Gentle Swan"; born c. 1025, died c. 1086), also known as '''Edith Swanneck''',<ref group=note>Her first name is also spelled '''Ealdgyth''', '''Aldgyth''', ''Edeva'' or '''Eddeva''', and sometimes appears as ''Ēadgȳð'' and ''Ēadgifu''. (Compare ''Godgifu'' which was modified to ''Godiva'' in Latin texts.)</ref> was one of the wealthiest magnates in England on the eve of the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]], and may also have been the first wife of King [[Harold Godwinson]].<ref name=DNB>{{Cite ODNB|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/52349|title=Eadgifu [Eddeua] the Fair [the Rich] (fl. 1066), magnate|author=Williams, Ann|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/52349|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref> "Swanneck" (or Swan-Neck) comes from the folk etymology which made her in Old English as ''swann hnecca'', "swan neck", which was actually most likely a corrupted form of ''swann hnesce, ''"Gentle Swan"'' ''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ardagh|first=Philip|title=Philip Ardagh's Book of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Rotten Wart-Nosed Commoners|date=7 October 2011|publisher=Pan Macmillan |isbn=9781447212010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KidmME9ZLksC&pg=PT104 }}</ref> She is sometimes confused with [[Ealdgyth, daughter of Earl Ælfgar]] of Mercia, who was queen during Harold's reign.

==Early life==
Edith was born circa 1025, and is thought by some to have been a daughter of [[Thorkell the Tall]] and his wife, a daughter of [[Ethelred the Unready]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/articles/culture/features/edith-the-handfasted-queen-of-england/|title=Edith – The Handfasted Queen of England|first=Hastings Independent|last=Press|date=7 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catholicherald.co.uk/was-walsingham-founded-by-the-last-queen-of-anglo-saxon-england/|title=Was Walsingham founded by the last Queen of Anglo-Saxon England?|first=Fr Alexander|last=Lucie-Smith|date=26 June 2015}}</ref>

==Marriage==

Edith may have been the mother of Harold's daughters [[Gunhild of Wessex]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bates |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xobAgAAQBAJ&dq=Edith+swanneck&pg=PA229 |title=The Normans and Empire |date=2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-967441-1 |pages=138–139 |language=en}}</ref> who became the mistress of [[Alan Rufus]], and [[Gytha of Wessex]], who was taken by her grandmother to Denmark in 1068.<ref name=DNB/> Gytha was addressed as "princess" and married the Grand Duke of Kiev, [[Vladimir II Monomakh]].<ref name="Poole1998">{{cite book|last=Poole|first=Russell Gilbert|title=Old English Wisdom Poetry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rmuB9adUC8C&pg=PA238|year=1998|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-0-85991-530-4|page=238}}</ref>

Though Harold is said to have lawfully married Ealdgyth, the daughter of Earl Ælfgar, the widow of the Welsh ruler [[Gruffydd ap Llywelyn]] whom he had defeated in battle, that marriage in spring 1066 is seen by most modern scholars as one of political convenience.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Kaye|title=1066: History in an Hour|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BHyO6eL3zUC&pg=PA32 |page=32|publisher=History In An Hour |isbn=9781452392318}}</ref> [[Mercia]] and [[Wales]] were allied against England, and the marriage gave the English claim in two very troublesome regions, and also gave Harold Godwinesson a marriage deemed "legitimate" by the clergy, unlike his long time common law marriage with Edith the Fair.

==Walsingham visionary==
Flint identifies Edith as the visionary known colloquially as "Rychold" or "[[Richeldis de Faverches]]", who authored [[Our Lady of Walsingham]].  The identification of Edith as the Walsingham visionary is rooted in his belief that the earlier date of the shrine's foundation, given by [[Richard Pynson]] as 1061, is credible. Pynson's history, which is given in a narrative poem known as the ''Pynson Ballad'', had been previously thrown out by historians on the grounds it was unreliable as an oral narrative, but Flint defends the ballad on the grounds that Pynson was a respected historian, employed by [[Henry VII of England|King Henry VII]], who also collaborated with [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]]. Flint contests the theories of J.C. Dickinson (1959) on the grounds that the 1131 Norfolk Roll, which Dickinson claims refers to the foundation of the shrine, actually refers to the foundation of the Priory of the Austin Friars, which preceded the foundation of the Walsingham Shrine (see p. xxii). He also notes that Edith Swanneshals was known within the court as "Rychold", meaning "fair and rich", and the appellatory title given by Pynson could therefore refer to the Anglo-Saxon Queen—a reference which is consistent with the original date given in the Pynson Ballad as 1061, for Edith Swaneshals was the Lady of the Walsingham Manor in this period (p. xxvii). Flint therefore establishes Edith Swaneshals as a Christian queen and the legitimate spouse of Harold Godwinson; as well as defending her Christian character as the probable visionary of the Shrine of Walsingham. In defending Edith's Christian character Flint cites her friendship with [[Wulfstan (died 1095)|Wulfstan of Worcester]].

==Folklore==
[[File:Edith discovering the body of Harold.jpg|thumb|Edith identifies Harald's body (from [[François Guizot]]'s ''History of France'')]]
According to folklore, Edith identified Harold's mutilated body after his loss to [[William the Conqueror]] at the [[Battle of Hastings]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Kaye|title=1066: History in an Hour|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BHyO6eL3zUC&pg=PA33 |page=33|publisher=History In An Hour |isbn=9781452392318}}</ref> Despite pleas by Harold's mother, [[Gytha Thorkelsdóttir]], for William to surrender Harold's body for burial, the Norman army refused, even though Gytha offered Harold's weight in gold. It was then that Edith the Fair walked through the carnage of the battle so that she might identify Harold by markings on his chest known only to her. It was because of Edith the Fair's identification of the body that Harold was given a Christian burial by the monks at [[Waltham Abbey Church|Waltham Abbey]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Mason|first=Emma|title=The House of Godwine: The History of a Dynasty|year=2004|page=178|publisher=A&C Black |isbn=9781852853891|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPhC5mlZQb4C&pg=PA178 }}</ref> This legend is recounted in the well-known poem by [[Heinrich Heine]], "''The Battlefield of Hastings''" (1855), which features Edith the Fair (as Edith Swan-Neck) as the main character and claims that the "marks known only to her" were [[Hickey|love bites]].

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}
{{Clear}}

==Sources==
* ''[[A History of Britain (TV series)|A History of Britain]]: At the Edge of the World, 3500 BC - 1603 AD'' by [[Simon Schama]], BBC/Miramax, 2000 {{ISBN|0-7868-6675-6}}
*''Edith the Fair'', Bill Flint, 2015, Gracewing Press {{ISBN|978-0-85244-870-0}}
*  ''The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English in Twenty Volumes'' by Kuno Francke {{URL|https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12473}}
* ''Great Tales from English History: The Truth About King Arthur, Lady Godiva, Richard the Lionheart, and More'' by Robert Lacey, 2004  {{ISBN|0-316-10910-X}}
* ''House of Godwine: The History of Dynasty'' by Emma Mason, 2004 {{ISBN|1-85285-389-1}}
* ''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'' by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 176–2, 176A-4, 177–1
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=omEJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA11  'Who Was Eddeva?'] by J.R. Boyle, F.S.A.; ''Transactions of East Riding Antiquarian Society'', Volume 4  (1896); pages 11–22

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Edith the Fair}}
[[Category:Anglo-Norse women]]
[[Category:Anglo-Norse people]]
[[Category:1020s births]]
[[Category:1060s deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Year of death uncertain]]
[[Category:House of Godwin]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon royal consorts]]
[[Category:11th-century English landowners]]
[[Category:11th-century English women]]
[[Category:Women in medieval European warfare]]
[[Category:People from Walsingham]]
[[Category:Harold Godwinson]]
[[Category:11th-century women landowners]]