Queen Judith de Francia

Judith was the daughter of Charles “Le Chauve” (the bald), the Western Emperor, and Ermentrude d’Orléans, Queen of the Franks. She was the eldest of eleven children and through her father, was the great-granddaughter of the great Emperor Charlemagne.

Growing up, Judith would have expected her life to be devoted to the church and to be given to God to spend her life as a nun; this is because it was highly unusual for a Carolingian Princess at the time to be allowed to marry. Unlike most Queen consorts of her time, Judith was not known for her piety, so the idea of spending her life in a nunnery may have been an unwelcome concept to her. Despite the irregularity of Carolingian Princesses marrying, Judith would in fact go on to have three husbands.

 

Her first marriage was to Æthelwulf of Wessex. Between 851-855, King Æthelwulf had proved a military might against the Viking raids across England. It was due to this that Emperor Charles wished to make an alliance with the powerful Saxon King, as the Vikings had landed in the Seine Valley, in Francia, in 856.

In 855, before this raid, Æthelwulf went on a pilgrimage to Rome, with his son Ælfred, passing through Francia en route. On his return, in 856, he received an invitation to visit Charles’ court, where he spent the next three months.

 

During this time, an alliance was negotiated, however, Æthelwulf, who had probably only just lost his first wife, Osburga, insisted that he be given a new wife as part of the alliance pact, in the form of Charles’ eldest daughter, Judith. At this point in time, we know that Judith was just 12 years of age, while King Æthelwulf was at least 50. Due to this age difference, significant even for the time, Charles insisted on provisions to safeguard Judith’s future.

 

On 1st October 856, Judith married King Æthelwulf at the Palace of Verberie. As part of the negotiated safeguarding procedures, a coronation for Judith was incorporated into the wedding ceremony and she was even anointed with consecrated oil. This unusual act was done to ensure her position in England, in the event of Æthelwulf’s death, and also to enhance her status to more than just his wife, while also prioritising any children she had with Æthelwulf over his children from his previous marriage.

 

In England however, the news that their King had married a foreigner, who had been anointed as Queen as well, was less than appreciated. When Judith landed in her new home, she found the land in open rebellion against her new husband, with Æthelbald, the King’s eldest surviving son, leading the rebels. In order to restore peace, the Kingdom was divided, with Æthelbald taking the more prosperous Western section and Æthelwulf and Judith having control over the central and Eastern parts of England.

 

Despite the troubles in her new land, there is no evidence of any troubles in Judith’s marriage. Æthelwulf is said to have treated her kindly and even defied the Anglo-Saxon traditions by having Judith sitting beside his throne.

Unsurprisingly, Judith’s first marriage was not long to last. Æthelwulf died in 858 and Judith found herself a widow at the age of 14.

 

However, Judith did not remain a widow for very long, as she quickly married her eldest step-son, Æthelbald, the very same year her first husband died. Despite his earlier protestations at Judith being an anointed Queen, going against Anglo-Saxon tradition, he suddenly found it quite a good idea to have his own consort anointed, as his own sons by Judith would be seen as more worthy of the throne, having two anointed parents. Alas, as with her first marriage, Judith would have no children with Æthelbald.

 

What she did get from her second marriage, however, was more prominence at court. Judith witnessed at least one surviving charter and was in fact named only after her husband, the King, and his brother, Ethelbert, who was the sub-King of Kent. In the charter she was described as the Queen and her signature came above other nobles at court, as well as the bishops. This was a prominence never before seen for a woman in 9th century Wessex.

 

Despite this new-found status, Judith did not have an easy second marriage. Even though she was 10 years younger than her new husband, she was still his step-mother, which in Christian law made her his mother in people’s eyes. Because of this, she faced hostility towards her marriage, not least from the church, who pressured the couple to annul their “incestuous” marriage. After only a year, Judith’s second marriage ended as she was repudiated in 860 on the grounds of consanguinity. Æthelbald died later that year, childless, his crown passing to his brother, Æthelberht.

 

After the end of her second marriage, Judith sailed for Francia, but immediately found herself sent to the nunnery at Senlis, the freedoms she had known as Queen stripped from her.

 

At some point, around Christmas in 861, Judith managed to elope with Comte Baudouin de Flandre (Count Baldwin I of Flanders, also known by his nickname Iron Arm). This was perhaps the first entirely autonomous act that Judith undertook in her lifetime, an act of a young woman taking control of her own destiny. Judith escaped the nunnery and evaded her father’s wrath until October of 862.

Emperor Charles was furious when he discovered what Judith had done and even tried to have the couple excommunicated. Judith and her husband travelled to Rome to ask for aid from Pope Nicholas I. Clearly they were persuasive, because the Pope had their sentence reversed and Charles was forced to recognise his daughter’s marriage.

Judith and Baudouin celebrated their official marriage in December 863 before finally settling in Flanders.

 

After their official marriage, Judith's new husband was given land by her father, however, this land was prone to Viking attacks and it is clear that Charles had given this to the couple out of spite. Nevertheless, Baudouin defended his land and proved himself not only a skilled soldier, apt in battle, but also a loyal supporter to Charles.

 

Judith had an obscure, and mostly undocumented, life as Comtesse de Flanders but it is known that she bore several children, including the future Baudouin II. Though there is no evidence, it is likely that she survived long enough to see her surviving children become adults and her eldest son, Baudouin, married to the daughter of England's King, Ælfred the Great. It was almost certainly a match made through Judith's English connections, as Ælfred was her step-son by her first marriage.

 

Her death is not recorded, but it must have been after 870.

 

Judith led an extraordinary life, not only for a Carolingian Princess, but also for a woman in general during the Low Middle Ages. She is truly an example of a remarkable young woman who took her destiny into her own hands and took control of her own life.