According to Thomas of Marlborough's hagiographical life of Wigstan, when his father King Wigmund died in 840, Wigstan refused to become king, preferring a life of religion. His relative Beorhtwulf then asked for permission to marry the widowed queen, Æfflæd, and when Wigstan refused, he had him murdered. John of Worcester has a different version of Wigstan's parentage and death, which he dates to 849. Wigstan was regarded as a saint, like many other Anglo-Saxon royals murdered for political reasons.[2]
She was the heir of her father and his brother Coenwulf, and, by the middle of the century, she was probably abbess of Winchcombe, as she was disposing of its property. She died after 850, and may have been the mother of King Ceolwulf II[3] and Eadburh, wife of Æthelred Mucel.[4][5][6][7]
^Williams, Ann (1991). "Ælfflæd". In Williams, Ann; Smyth, Alfred P.; Kirby, D. P. (eds.). A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain. Seaby. p. 6. ISBN 1-85264-047-2.
^Kirby, D.P. (1992). The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-415-09086-5.
^This claim is based on the assertion made by the Welsh monk and bishop, Asser, that Eadburh was a member of the Mercian royal line. Similarly, the historian Richard Abels makes a connection to King Coenwulf of Mercia. Furthermore, D. P. Kirby goes further in claiming that Asser himself mentions Eadburh's kinship with Ceonwulf. Ford Mommaerts-Browne, nonetheless, observes that Ceonwulf's son, Cynehelm died young, and that his daughter, Cwoenthryth, was a nun, therefore Eadburh's descent from him seems unlikely. Alternatively, he suggests a connection to Coenwulf's brother, Ceolwulf, placing Eadburh as a daughter of Ælfflæd and Wigmund.
^Keynes & Lapidge, Asser, pp. 77; 240–41; Abels, Alfred the Great, p. 121
^Downham, Clare (2007), Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, Edinburgh: Dunedin, ISBN 978-1-903765-89-0, OCLC163618313
^Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5, OCLC123113911
^Zaluckyj, Sarah & Feryok, Marge. Mercia: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England (2001) ISBN 1-873827-62-8
^Barbara Yorke (1995), Wessex in the early Middle Ages, A & C Black, ISBN 071851856X; pp 79-83; table p. 81
^Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix I: Rulers of the English, c.450–1066". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
^Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-4152-4211-0.
^Lapidge, M.; et al., eds. (1999). "Kings of the East Angles". The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. London: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1.
^Searle, W. G. 1899. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles.
^Yorke, B. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England.
^Carpenter, Clive. Kings, Rulers and Statesmen. Guinness Superlatives, Ltd.
^Ross, Martha. Rulers and Governments of the World, Vol. 1. Earliest Times to 1491.
