Emma of Normandy Queen in Viking times (987-1052) (Editions La Louve, 2010) , is writing a book by Stephen William Gondoin , historian and journalist Norman. He is the author of several books on the medieval period.
One imagines wrongly William the Conqueror was the first Norman to sit on the throne of England. Some sixty years before Hastings, it was preceded by a young girl named Emma ...
First victory: Aethelred II
Emma is the daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy, and sister of Duke Richard II. It was he who decided at the beginning of the year 1002, of the marriage with King Ethelred II of England (or Æthelred II).
There is then a fortnight of spring and about 20 years younger than the man to whom it unites. Widower with one or two occasions Æthelred is already the father of a dozen brats. Emma comes then into the unknown and lost in a huge family she does not even speak the language. The oldest of her step-son was barely his age.
Soon, Emma discovers that the man whom we have united without asking her opinion is a monster and bloodthirsty incompetent. This is especially he who ordered the massacre of all Danes in England's famous day of Saint-Brice in a sort of St. Bartholomew in the north.
The terse contemporary texts suggest that she feels only contempt for the king weak, cruel, unable to stem the onslaught Scandinavian ready for all the meanness. She gives him nevertheless and son, Edward and Alfred, and a daughter named Godgifu. During these years "learning" , she says her character and gets a taste of power.
In 1013, the pressure on England Scandinavian becomes so strong that Emma and her family must leave briefly in Normandy, the court of his brother Richard II. The royal couple may return to the island the following year, but the two youngest children remain at the ducal court to be brought up safely. Only Edward, the eldest, seems to have accompanied and play a role in the unfolding of events.
Emma arrives at Richard II, however, that the Dane Svein is killed by Saint Edmond (the history of St. Edward King translated from Latin, Cambridge Library, a manuscript of the thirteenth century )
Second ring: Knut the Great
Æthelred died in 1016, while the Danish chief Knut (or Knútr ) carries out the conquest of his kingdom. Emma can hope to play a political role as a mother of two potential heirs to the throne, but the alien invasion threatens to reduce its hopes to nothing. She may even lose her dower in turmoil.
She does not hesitate a moment when Knútr, ascended the throne at the tip of his sword, he offers to marry her. By joining the widow its predecessor, the new sovereign is a continuation and legitimate dynastic conquest. Emma is on her queen of the peoples of England. They both earn. Edward returns to his part in Normandy promptly "to avoid being slain" .
Knútr then becomes the Great King of Denmark (1019) and Norway (1028), constituting what historians often call the Danish Empire.
In his arms, Emma 18-year reign over England. Many signs point to a government held together. It also seems to have assumed the regency during the frequent absences of her husband. She gives him a son, Hörthaknútr, and a daughter, Gunnhildr. She forgets the three children from his first marriage, which will face a long exile in Normandy.
Triumph
Knútr died in 1035, leaving behind him, in addition Hörthaknútr, a son born of an illegitimate union called Harold Harefoot ( Pied-de-Lièvre ).
Hörthaknútr then being held in Denmark, he can not defend its interests in person. Emma takes charge, but Harold and his mother managed to oust him. It must, for the second time in his life, resolve to take the path of exile. This time she finds refuge in Flanders and plots tirelessly to try to put her son on the throne. Finally in 1040, Harold died suddenly.
Hörthaknútr Emma and sail at once to England at the head of an impressive fleet. She finally accomplished his dream and becomes the almighty "mater regis" , the king's mother. She remembers her son Edward, who lives in Normandy for 20 years, and invited him to travel with her, probably for purely policies. She is also writing a book about this period in his glory, ' "Encomium Emma Reginae " ( praise of Queen Emma ).
Emma of Normandy receiving the Encomium Emma Reginae of its author, circa 1041-1042. His son Edward the Confessor and Hardiknut are in the background
Falling
But in Emma's life, the happiness and moments of triumph are often ephemeral. In 1042, Hörthaknútr died suddenly during a banquet and Edward encircled the crown in turn. Emma hopes to retain power at his side and perform a sort of regency occult. It fails very soon.
Island, said the Confessor, has not forgotten the scorn with which she was once treated and he bluntly rejects business from 1043.
Thus ends the political career of Emma of Normandy, twice queen of England and mother of two kings. She ended her days peacefully in his area of Winchester and off March 6, 1052. A poet sums up his life in the late eleventh century "She had a son of kings and kings for my husband" .
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_de_Normandie
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