by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2025
Agatha’s husband, Edward the Exile; Credit – Wikipedia
Born circa 1025, Agatha was the wife of Edward the Exile. Very little is known about her, and what is known is debatable. There are several different theories about Agatha’s parents, but none of them has gained widespread acceptance by historians. There is speculation that she was born in Eastern Europe.
After the Danish conquest of England and the death of Edmund II Ironside, King of the English in 1016, Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway, sent the very young Edward, the future Edward the Exile, and his brother Edmund Ætheling, to King Olof Skötkonung of Sweden to be murdered. Instead, King Olof sent them to Kyiv, where his daughter was the queen. Sometime in the 1040s, Edward the Exile and Edmund Ætheling, now adults, both traveled to Hungary and helped the exiled Andrew of Hungary become King of Hungary. It is known that Agatha was sent to the court of the Grand Duke of Kiev, Yaroslav the Wise, and that may be where she met her future husband, Edward the Exile. The marriage probably occurred around 1044 because Agatha gave birth to her first child in 1045.
Agatha and Edward the Exile had three children:
- Saint Margaret of Scotland (circa 1045 – 1093), married Malcolm III, King of Scots, had eight children, including three Kings of Scots (Edgar, Alexander I, and David I) and Edith, also called Maud or Matilda, who married King Henry I of England
- Edgar the Ætheling (circa 1051 – circa 1126), unmarried
- Cristina (circa 1057 – circa 1093), Abbess at Romsey Abbey
In 1057, Edward the Confessor, the childless King of England, discovered that his nephew Edward the Exile was still alive and summoned him to England as a potential successor. Edward the Exile arrived in England with his wife Agatha and their children, but he died within a few days of his arrival, on April 19, 1057, without meeting King Edward the Confessor. The cause of his death has never been determined. Murder is a possibility, as he had many powerful enemies.
After Edward the Exile’s death, his son Edgar the Ætheling had the best hereditary claim to the English throne. Edward the Exile’s three children were then raised in the court of Edward the Confessor, who died in January 1066. However, Edgar the Ætheling was considered too young to be king, and the Witenagemot elected Harold Godwinson, who reigned as Harold II, King of England, mainly because it was thought he could defend England against foreign claimants to the English throne.
In October 1066, William of Normandy (the Conqueror) invaded England and defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Following Harold II’s death in battle, the Witenagemot elected Agatha and Edward the Exile’s son, Edgar the Ætheling, the last of the House of Wessex, as King of England. As William of Normandy’s position grew stronger, it became evident to those in power that King Edgar should be abandoned and that they should submit to William, who then reigned as King William I of England, the first English monarch of the House of Normandy.
In 1067, a year after the Norman Conquest, Agatha fled with her children to Scotland, finding refuge with her future son-in-law Malcolm III, King of Scots, who married her daughter Margaret circa 1070. The last reference to Agatha in the contemporary chronicles was in 1070, and it is presumed that she died circa 1070. It is possible that Agatha was buried in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland, where her daughter and son-in-law, Saint Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Scots, and Malcolm III, King of Scots, were buried.
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Works Cited
- Agatha. (2025). Geni.com. https://www.geni.com/people/Agatha/6000000010444330411
- Flantzer, Susan (2025). Edward the Exile, son of Edmund II Ironside, King of the English. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/edward-the-exile-son-of-edmund-ii-ironside-king-of-the-english/
- Princess Agatha von Brunswick of Wessex… (2023). Findagrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/132724043/agatha-of_wessex
- Wikipedia Contributors. (2025). Agatha (wife of Edward the Exile). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation.
- Współtwórcy projektów Fundacji Wikimedia. (2010). krewna cesarza Henryka III, żona królewicza angielskiego Edwarda Wygnańca. Wikipedia.org; Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agata_(%C5%BCona_Edwarda_Wygna%C5%84ca)
