A 19th century illustration imagining Queen Elfrida welcoming her stepson King Edward the Martyr to her home, moments before his murder by one of her henchmen.
My Mother’s Day article in Smithsonian Magazine discusses the medieval English royal mothers who feature in the first few chapters of my book, Raising Royalty: 1000 Years of Royal Parenting, including Elfrida, Emma of Normandy, Matilda of Flanders and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Elfrida and Emma dealt with their children’s rivals in very different ways: Elfrida may have arranged the murder of her stepson while Emma married an invading Viking king who claimed her son’s throne. Matilda and Eleanor, the queens to William and the Conqueror and Henry II respectively, intervened in warfare between their husbands and sons.
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