Emma,
daughter of Richard, Duke of Normandy,
married Ethelred the Unready in 1002
and the couple later had a son, Edward the
Confessor. In 1013 Emma and Ethelred were forced to flee to Normandy
after the country was invaded by Sevin Haralsson, the king of Norway.
In 1017 Emma was summoned to England to marry Ethelred's successor,
Canute, by whom she had two children,
Hardicanute and Gunnhildr. This marriage
created a dynastic link between the royal families in England and
Normandy.
Emma
was a generous patron of churches and monasteries such as those in
Winchester, Ely and Ramsey. She also provided money for churches in
Bremen (Germany) and Poitiers (France).
After
Hardicanute
died
in 1042 Edward
the Confessor
became
king. The following year Edward deprived Emma of all her estates.
Anglo-Saxon chroniclers claimed that Edward had done this because
he felt he had been neglected by his mother as a child. Emma
of Normandy died in 1052.
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