#house normandy

[cesareeborgia]

♔ Houses that ruled the Kingdom of England (9th - 18th century)

[venicepearl]

Emma receiving the Encomium, in The Encomium of Queen Emma, c. 1050, British Library MS 33241

Emma of Normandy (Referred to as Ælfgifu in royal documents; c. 984 – 6 March 1052) was Queen of England, Denmark and Norway through her marriages to Æthelred the Unready (1002–1016) and Cnut the Great (1017–1035). She was the daughter of the Norman ruler Richard the Fearless and Gunnor.

After her husbands' deaths Emma remained in the public eye, and continued to participate actively in politics during the reigns of her sons by each husband, Edward the Confessor and Harthacnut. In 1035, when her second husband Cnut died and was succeeded by their son Harthacnut, who was in Denmark at the time, Emma was designated to act as his regent until his return, which she did in rivalry with Harold Harefoot.

She is the central figure within the Encomium Emmae Reginae, a critical source for the history of early-11th-century English politics. As Catherine Karkov notes, Emma is one of the most visually represented early medieval queens.

[venicepearl]

Constance of Normandy (between 1057 and 1061 – 13 August 1090) was a Duchess of Brittany.

She was one of the nine children of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders. She was born in Normandy, where her father was duke. William of Jumièges, the monk who chronicled the 1066 Norman conquest of England, names Constance second among the daughters of King William and Queen Matilda. No source indicates the order of birth of the couple's daughters, however.

In 1086, Constance's father arranged a marriage between the duke of Brittany Alan Fergant and Constance, who was already nearly 30, to ensure peace at his Western border. Like her mother, Constance was an able administrator. William of Malmesbury, an early 12th century historian, wrote that her "severe and conservative manner" made Constance an unpopular duchess. According to his contemporary, Orderic Vitalis, however, Constance was caring, considerate, and well-liked by her subjects. William of Malmesbury alleges that her husband had their servants poison her. She died on 13 August 1090.

[venicepearl]

Death of William Rufus, lithograph by Alphonse de Neuville, 1895