Judith JudithJudith's known history is the history of her three notable marriages. She first married king Æthelwulf of Wessex, many years her senior. When he died, she caused a scandal when she was married her stepson, Æthelwulf's son Æthelbald. After his death, she sold her English lands and returned to her father's custody, but soon afterward caused another scandal by eloping with Baldwin of Flanders. For a detailed discussion of Judith's marriage to Baldwin and her children of that marriage, see the page of Baldwin I. [Sproemburg (1936) is the most detailed account of Judith.]
Date of Birth: say 844.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: after 870.
Place of
Death: Unknown.
Father:
Charles the Bald, d. 6 October 877, king of the West Franks, Emperor.
Mother: Ermentrude, d. 6 October 869, daughter of Eudes, count of Orleans.
Spouses:
(1) m., at Verberie, near
Senlis, 1 October 856, Æthelwulf,
d. 858, king of Wessex.
["Edilvulf rex occidentalium Anglorum Roma rediens,
Iudith, filiam Karli regis, menso Iulio desponsatam, Kalendis
Octobribus in Vermaria palatio in matrimonium accipit, ..."
Ann. Bertin., s.a. 856, 47; "Æthelwulfus ...
Quo peracto, ad patriam suam remeavit, adferens secum Iuthittam,
Karoli, Francorum regis, filiam." Asser, c. 11 (p. 9)]
(2) m. 858, Æthelbald,
d. 860, king of Wessex, son of her first
husband Æthelwulf.
["Edilvulf rex occidentalium Saxonum, moritur; relictam
eius, Iudit reginam, Adalboldus, filius eius, uxorem ducit."
Ann. Bertin., s.a. 858, 49; "Defuncto autem
Æthelwulfo rege <sepultoque apud Wintoniam>, Æthelbald,
filius eius, contra Die interdictum et Christianorum dignitatem,
necnon et contra omnium paganorum consuetudinem, thorum patris
sui ascendens, Iuthittam, Karoli, Francorum regis, filiam, cum
magna ab omnibus audientibus infamia, in matrimonium duxit,
effrenisque duobus et dimidio annis Occidentalium Saxonum post
patrem regni gubernacula rexit." Asser, c. 17 (p. 16)]
(3) m. 863, Baldwin I, d. 879, count of Flanders.
Children:
(by Baldwin I of Flanders)
Baldwin II, d. 918, count/marquis of Flanders, 879-918; m. Ælftrude,
daughter of Ælfred
("the Great"), king of Wessex.
Raoul (Rodulfus),
d. 28 June 896, count of Vermandois, 895-896.
Ann. Bertin. = G. Waitz, ed., Annales Bertiniani (MGH SRG 6, Hannover, 1883).
Asser = William Henry Stevenson, ed., Asser's Life of King Alfred (Oxford, 1959).
MGH SRG = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (separate editions).
Sproemberg (1936) = H. Sproemberg, "Judith, Königin von England, Gräfin von Flandern", Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 15 (1936): 397-428, 915-950.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 23 May 2007.