Eadgifu of Kent

     Eadgifu of Kent was born circa 896 at Kent, England.¹ She was the daughter of Sigehelm Ealdorman of Kent.¹ Eadgifu of Kent married Edward the Elder, son of King Alfred the Great and Ælhswitha, circa 919 at Berkshire, England; Edward was married three times and had fourteen children. Four of his sons were king after him, and five of his daughters married into continental noble or royal houses.
Eadgifu was the third wife of Edward the Elder, King of the Alnglo-Saxons. She survived Edward by many years, dying in the reign of her grandson Edgar.

She disappeared from court during the reign of her step-son, King Æthelstan, but she was prominent and influential during the reign of her two sons. As queen dowager, her position seem to have been higher than that of her daughter-in-law.¹ Eadgifu of Kent died on 25 August 968 at England; Following the death of her younger son Eadred in 955, she was deprived of her lands by her eldest grandson, King Eadwig, perhaps because she took the side of his younger brother, Edgar, in the struggle between them. When Edgar succeeded on Eadwig's death in 959 she recovered some lands and received generous gifts from her grandson, but she never returned to her prominent position at court. She is last recorded as a witness to a charter in 966.¹