Emma of Normandy

     Emma of Normandy was born circa 985.¹ She married King Æthelred II the Unready, son of King Edgar the Peaceful and Queen Ælfthryth, in 1002 at Wessex, England; Æthelred's marriage to Emma was an English strategy to avert the aggression of dangerous Normandy, and the Danish strategy was much the same. With Normandy in feudal subordination to the kings of France, who kept it as their dukedom, England was the Norman dukes' main target, after baronic feuds and rampaging pillages through Brittany had run their course. English kings could not afford to underestimate the Norman threat. Emma of Normandy died on 6 March 1052 at Winchester, Hampshire, England.¹