The Wicked Queen and Her Scandalous Daughter: How Murder & Mayhem Took a Saxon Princess from Palace to Poverty
While we might be gripped by the intrigues, the machinations, and the violence of the Lannisters and the Starks in the Game of Thrones television series and the Song of Ice and Fire series of novels, at the end of each episode or chapter, we can all breathe a sigh of relief and say “Well, it’s just fiction, an entertaining made-up story.” Or can we?
Regular Ancient Origins contributor Charles Christian has been digging through the dustier pages of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and uncovered a tale of two Saxon queens whose antics would have caused even Cersei Lannister to shake her head in disbelief…
A Powerful Woman Brought Down
The time is the late eighth century; the location is England, and we are looking at the bloody careers of Queen Cynethryth (the closest modern equivalent would be Gwyneth) and her daughter Princess, later Queen Eadburh, (also spelled as Eadburgh or Edburga – the modern equivalent would be Edith) who was born in circa AD 773.
Bust of Queen Cynethryth, wife of Offa of Mercia. (Public Domain)
Cynethryth was married to King Offa of Mercia, a man now best known for ordering the construction of Offa’s Dyke, a massive 150-miles (241 km) long series of earthworks that broadly follows the modern border between England and Wales, but in the eighth century it separated the Kingdom of Mercia from the hostile Welsh kingdoms of Powys and Gwent. (And the inspiration for the Games of Thrones’ ice wall?)
Looking along Offa's Dyke, near Knill, Herefordshire. (Mike Christie/CC BY-SA 2.0)
However, in his time, Offa was the most powerful king in England, dominating the Midlands and the South, becoming the Bretwalda or overlord of all the other Saxon kingdoms, with the exception of Northumbria. As for his wife Cynethryth, she was the only Saxon queen who had coins issued in her own name—a clear indication her power and status.
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But, there was also a darker side to the tale of Cynethryth.
