Godgifu (daughter of Æthelred the Unready)

Goda of England or Godgifu or Gode (c.1004 – c.1049/1056) was the daughter of King Æthelred the Unready and his second wife Emma of Normandy, and sister of King Edward the Confessor. She married firstly Drogo of Mantes, count of the Véxin, probably on 7 April 1024,^[1] and had sons by him:

• Ralph the Timid, earl of Hereford.
• Gautier (or Walter) III, Count of the Vexin (d.1063), married Biota of Maine (d.1063), daughter of Herbert I of Maine, they both died in suspicious circumstances in the captivity of William Duke of Normandy, the future William I of England.
• Foulques (Fulk) de Vexin (d.1068)

Godgifu
Born	c.1004
Died	c.1049/1056
Spouse	Drogo of Mantes Eustace II, Count of Boulogne
Issue	Ralph the Timid Gautier III Foulques de Vexin
House	Wessex
Father	Æthelred the Unready
Mother	Emma of Normandy

She married secondly Eustace II, Count of Boulogne in 1035. This marriage was childless.

Historians disagree about the date of her death. Heather Tanner dates it c.1047 and says that Eustace remarried c.1049,^[2] whereas Elisabeth van Houts dates her death c. 1056.^[3] According to David Bates, the marriage between Godgifu and Eustace was criticised for unspecified reasons at the Council of Reims in 1049, which was presided over by the Pope. This seems to have resulted in an end to the marriage and her return to England, where she was treated generously by her brother.^[4]

After the Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror, the lands owned by Goda in Buckinghamshire were given to the Flemish-Norman knight Bertram de Verdun, lord of Farnham Royal, and the Breton knight Raoul, count of Fougères.

Notes

1. Elisabeth van Houts, 'Edward and Normandy', in Richard Mortimer ed., Edward the Confessor: The Man and the Legend, The Boydell Press, 2009, p. 65.
2. Tanner, Heather J. (2004). "Eustace (II), count of Boulogne (d. c.1087)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52359. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
3. Van Houts, p. 63
4. Bates, David (2016). William the Conqueror. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-300-23416-9.

References

• Hynde, Thomas (ed). The Domesday Book: England's History Then and Now. (1995)

External links

• Fit for a King's Sister, British Library