Individual Page

Person Info

• Name: Agatha
• Sex: F
• Birth: Abt 1025 ^b
• Death: After 1066 ^d


Parents:

• Father:
  
• Jaroslav I Grand Prince Of Kiev Birth: 980 Death: 20 Feb 1054
Mother:

• Ingegard Death: 10 Feb 1050

Family:
Marriage:

• Edward Athling The Exile on 1043 .^m1
  
• Edward Athling The Exile Birth: 1016 in Wessex, England Death: 19 Apr 1057 in London

Children:

1. Christine Abbess Of Ramesey Death: After 1086
2. Saint Margaret Of Scotland Birth: 1045 in Hungary Death: 16 Nov 1093 in Edinburgh Castle, Lothian, Scotland
3. Eadger The Exile Birth: Abt 1051 Death: After 1126

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

date:

abt 1020/5 [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p31]

abt 1025 [Ref: DeVajay Agatha p84]

say 1015x1035 [Ref: HenryII agath000 6/20/2010],

parents:

[Ref: Felch Agatha p423, Jette Agatha p422],

note:

there have been a number of mutually contradictory theories regarding the origin of Agatha; the alternatives are discussed in the "Commentary" section [Ref: HenryII agath000 6/20/2010]

Sources with Inaccurate birth and parent Information

place:

Bavaria, Germany [Ref: Alan B. Wilson SGM 3/27/1997],

parents:

Liudolf Margrave of Westfriesland (#10420) & Gertrude (#13177) [Ref: Alan B. Wilson SGM 3/27/1997, DeVajay Agatha p84]

Mieszko II Lambert (#90163) & Richenza (#11488) [Ref: Guido Agatha p81, John Ravilious SGM 8/28/2009-120835, Ravilious Agatha p73]

St Stephen King of Hungary (#21098) & Gisela (#21099) [Ref: Moriarty Agatha p60],

father:

Bruno (#21380) Gf v Mittelfriesland [Ref: ES II #78]

Bruno of Bavaria (#21380), Bishop of Augsburg [Ref: Paget HRHCharles p167, Paget HRHCharles p56, Paget HRHCharles p59, Paget HRHCharles p60]

Henry II Emperor of Germany (#21379) [Ref: Burke Peerage ccli, Holloway WENTWORTH p18]

Liudolf Margrave of Westfriesland (#10420) [Ref: Faris Agatha]

probably Bruno of Bavaria (#21380) Bishop of Augsburg brother of Henry II [Ref: Paget HRHCharles p8]

Sources for death Information

date:

after 1066 [Ref: DeVajay Agatha p84, Moriarty Plantagenet p31]

living 1067 [Ref: HenryII edmun002 6/20/2010, HenryII edwar000 6/20/2010]

Sources with Information about marriage to Edward Athling The Exile

date:

1035/44 [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p31]

1043/44 [Ref: DeVajay Agatha p84]

before 1057 [Ref: HenryII agath000 6/20/2010],

names:

[Ref: HenryII ealdg000 6/27/2010, HenryII edmun002 6/20/2010]

King Edward & Agatha [Ref: Holloway WENTWORTH p18],

child:

[Ref: Burke Peerage ccli, DeVajay Agatha p85, ES II #78, HenryII agath000 6/20/2010, HenryII edwar000 6/20/2010, HenryII marga000 6/20/2010, Keats-Rohan DD p1106, Moriarty Plantagenet p31, Paget HRHCharles p153, Paget HRHCharles p167, Paget HRHCharles p56, Paget HRHCharles p8, Redlich CharlemagneDesc p184, Richardson RoyalAnc v4p576, Watney WALLOP #879, Weis AR7 #1, Weis MC #161]

Sources with Inaccurate marriage information

child:

Malcolm III King of Scots (#10416) [Ref: Holloway WENTWORTH p18]

Research Notes:
there have been a number of mutually contradictory theories regarding the origin of Agatha; the alternatives are discussed in the "Commentary" section [Ref: HenryII agath000 6/20/2010]

kinswoman of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor [Ref: Richardson RoyalAnc v4p576]

Anglo-Saxon Chroicle claims she was a relative of Emperor Henry. Florent of Worcester says she was the daughter of a brother of Emperor Henry, and William of Malmesbury that she was the sister of the Queen of Hungary. Orderic Vital, Geoffroy Gaimar, and Aelred of Rievaulx all claim that she was the daughter of the King of Hungary [Ref: Jette Agatha p420]

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in retrospect on the return of Edward Aethling to England in 1057, "This etheling King Knute had sent to Hungary, to betray him; but he there grew in favour with good men, as God granted him, and it well became him; so that he obtained the emperor's cousin in marriage, and by her had a fair offspring. Her name was Agatha." [Ref: Ravilious Agatha p70]

In 2009 John Ravilious published "The Ancestry of Agatha, Mother of St Margaret of Scotland," establishing a Polish theory of descent. In this hypothesis Agatha was presented as the daughter of Mieszko II Lambert of Poland by his wife Richenza, daughter of Ehrenfried Count Palatine of Lotharingia and Matilda of Saxony, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. [Ref: Guido Agatha p81]

Reusner (publisher of Royal Pedigrees in 1592) states that the father of Agatha was Canute the Dane, the son of Canute the Great by Emma of Normandy. No authority, however, is given [Ref: Felch Agatha p2]

reviews all of the records as of time of his article, and concludes Agatha was daughter of King Stephen of Hungary [Ref: Moriarty Agatha p60]

convincing argument against King Stephen being father of Agatha was made by Vajay and Ronay, that King Stephen had no surviving children, and if he had a marriagable daughter she would have been involved in the struggle for succession [Ref: Ingham MissingDau p233]

A definitive answer to the question of Agatha's parentage may be difficult to obtain. De Vajay (1962) presents the case for Liudolf, Margrave of West-Friesland, and Gertrude of Egisheim as her parents, while Jette (1996) argues for Jaroslav I, Grand- Prince of Kiev, and Ingegarde of Sweden. De Vajay's hypothesis makes Agatha a daughter of a half-brother of Emperor Henry III, consistent with early documents which specify that Agatha was "filia germani imperatoris Henrici," i.e., a blood relative of Emperor Henry, but Jette believes that this hypothesis requires an unreasonably tight chronology and that the absence of mention of such a connection by continental chroniclers makes it suspect. Jette also adduces onomastic support for his proposal that Jaroslav and Ingegarde were the parents of Agatha (a Greek name), since Jaroslav had an attraction to Greek culture, perhaps inspired by his stepmother Anne of Byzantium; in addition, none of Agatha's children or grandchildren were given German names, while two of her three children (Margaret and Christine) had Swedish names. Jette believes that the blood relationship with Emperor Henry may have been inferred by later chroniclers from William of Malmesbury's statement that Agatha was the sister of the Queen of Hungary. Jette's hypothesis makes Agatha a sister of Anastasia, queen of Andrew I of Hungary, but a later queen of Hungary was Judith, daughter of Emperor Henry III and wife of Andrew's son Salomon.
References:
Jette, Rene. 1996. "Is the Mystery of the Origin of Agatha, Wife of Edward the Exile, Finally Solved?" New England Historical and Genealogical Register 150: 417-432.
de Vajay, Szabolcs. 1962. "Agatha, Mother of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland." Duquesne Review 7:71-80. [Ref: Don Stone SGM 1/3/1997]

While on the continent (probably in Russia) he married Agatha, called by some sources niece of Emperor Henry (whether this was Henry II or Henry III is not specified in the origial source), but by others kinswoman of the King of Hungary. Various modern interpretations include that she was daughter of St. Stephen of Hungary (by Gisela, sister of Emperor Henry II), that she was daughter of Bruno of Augsburg (brother of Henry II), that she was daughter of Liudolph of Brunswick (half-brother of Henry III), or that she was daughter of Yaroslav I of Russia (and hence sister-in-law of Andrew, King of Hungary). The first two can be readily dismissed. The latter two are still being hotly contested.
Stephen and Gisela: 1) contemporary records make it clear that Stephen d.s.p.s, and his immediate heirs were a nephew, son of a sister, who interhited in spite of being a foreigner, and a brother-in-law, husband of Stephen's sister. In other words, the chances of there having been a daughter and son-in-law running around who neer were put forward is slim. 2) As best can be determined, Edward never set foot in Hungary until after Stephen had died, and when he did so it was a friend of a rival branch of the royal family. 3) the latin used to describe the relationship to Emperor Henry is specific for "uncle on the father's side", and this would not apply.
Bruno of Augsburg: No evidence that he was ever married, no evidence that he ever had children, any child born before he bacame Bishop would have been too old to have had son Edgar when he was born.
Bruno of Brunswick: Vajay's argument was that the "uncle Henry" source does not specify Henry II. Henry II had no acceptable siblings anyhow (see above).
Henry III had no brothers, but he did have three half-brothers. Bruno is the only one old enough to have possibly been father of Agatha. Henry had a daughter married to a King of Hungary, explaining that kinship. The biggest argument against it is that while the chronology is possible, it is very tight, bumping both Bruno and his mother earlier than the previous concensus in order to make it possible.
Jaraslav: Jette argues that 1) later, but perhaps better informed sources make her daughter of a Russian ruler. 2) Edward was a relative nobody at the Russian court at the time (just another exile, along with the princes of Norway and Hungary), and hardly a prime target for an Emperor's neice. 3) Andrew, later King of Hungary, who Edward accompanied to Hungary, was another son-in-law to Yaroslav, explaining the reported kinship to the Hungarian royals. 4) the name of Agatha herself, of her daughter Christina, and her grandchildren David and Alexander, would be innovations for a german family, but would be more in keeping with the neo-eastern christian Russians. The last is too new to have been thoroughly hashed out, and followup discussion is still appearing in the genealogical literature. [Ref: Todd Farmerie SGM 4/30/1998]

The root of the problem is that the closest that exist to contemporary sources present information that is contradictory, and impossible to harmonize into a single solution. These two theories each reject the chronicles which support the other position as being mistaken or corrupt, and while circumstantial arguments can be made on both sides, it has proven impossible to definitively exclude either one.
Thus, we are now in the position of the man with two watches (a man with one watch always knows what time it is, but one with two can never be sure that either is right). [Ref: Todd Farmerie SGM 6/17/2000]

Prof. David H. Kelley recently made the following comments to me on the matter of Agatha's parentage:
Even if one accepts Yaroslav, which I think is a reasonable explanation, one still should have some sort of Hungarian wife, because it seems to me that the evidence from Britain is awfully strong in favor of actual Hungarian lineage (which, of course, Vajay's explanation doesn't supply, and neither does the new one, but there's no reason that Yaroslav couldn't have had half a dozen other wives).
Kelley goes on to point out that Byzantine names were used in the Hungarian family as well as in the Russian family. [Ref: Don Stone SGM 11/24/1998]

Several points come to mind in reading Kelly's comments. First and most compelling (to me, anyway) is whether we can rely on 11th-century English reports about what Agatha's parentage was *thought* to be. One confused chronicler could have touched off the whole confused train of thought, with other chroniclers merely repeating what the first confused fellow had written. Remember, there IS evidence that the short-lived twin brother of Agatha's husband HAD married an Hungarian king's daughter, and an English chronicler might well have conflated the two wives. Vajay's system at least fits the imperial kingship criterion--and an English chronicler might well have got just that sort of FAMILY connection right, yet still muff an exact geographical origin for Agatha.
I'm not sure what bearing Byzantine names have on any argument because no such names occur among Agatha's immediate descendants. Most of St Margaret's children bore Anglo-Saxon names (her son Alexander is known to have been named to honor the pope, and David is of course Biblical.) [Ref: John Carmi Parsons SGM 11/24/1998]

History Today, May 1999 issue, Letters page contains a letter from Gabriel Ronay, author of "The Lost King of England", about Edward the Exile, who puts foward the theory that Edward's wife Agatha was the daughter of Liudolf of Brunswick.
The letter is an attack on Rene Jette's article in the NEHGR proposing that Agatha was a daughter of Yaroslav of Kiev, which he describes as "distorted use of 'new theories' without any fresh evidence." In essence, Ronay argues that Jette shows no hole in Ronay's and Szabolcs de Vajay's arguments for Liudolf, and that his sole adduced 'proof' of a Russian parentage is a 13th century interpolation in the Leges Edovardi Confessori which only gives the following two facts about Agatha: that she was of noble birth and that she had at some point in her life lived in Russia; which of themselves prove nothing. [Ref: Chris Bennett SGM 5/12/1999]

It is sad to see that Gabriel Ronay, a writer whom I admire, has joined those few who have very unfairly attacked the ideas and scholarly integrity of Rene Jette. In a letter to the British magazine HISTORY TODAY (May 1999), Ronay charges that Jette's article about the origin of Agatha, wife of Prince Edward the Exile (NEHGR [1996]) offered nothing new and instead took material from Ronay's book, misrepresented the "Leges Edwardi Confessoris," and made a "leap in the dark" to conclude that Agatha was a daughter of Yaroslav of Kiev. The truth is that Rene made insightful use of materials from Ronay and several other sources (with full acknowledgement) to argue brilliantly for an important NEW conclusion--one which Gabriel Ronay himself came very close to saying but inexplicably backed away from, missing the chance for a scoop. Unfortunately, Jette's article had to go through translation and layers of editing and ended up so concise that some readers have not followed the incisive argument. And Gabriel Ronay fails to mention that my own small contribution in NEHGR (1998) introduced at least two significant new pieces of evidence in support of Rene's case.
Consulting with Jette, several other genealogists, and leading specialists in relevant fields (historians, Latinists, linguists), I subsequently undertook a fundamental review of the whole question of Agatha's origin, going back to the original sources and the scholarship about them. My full article "Has a Missing Daughter of Iaroslav Mudryi Been Found?" (nearly 40 pages in length) is just about to appear in the delayed no. 3 (1998) of the journal RUSSIAN HISTORY/HISTOIRE RUSSE. Among other things, I attempt to show step by step why Szabolcz de Vajay's conjecture is unproven and unconvincing, as is also the variant of it suggested very tentatively by Gerd Wunder. Rene Jette is almost certainly right that Agatha/Agafiya was a daughter of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev and his Swedish wife Ingigerd-Irina. Dare I hope that readers will be patient enough to wait for my article, and that they will try to read it objectively and without prejudice? [Ref: Norm Ingham SGM 5/14/1999]

The Theories
The main hypotheses are listed here, along with the labels that they have been assigned for purposes of the discussion... A few impossible theories which can be easily dismissed are not given labels.
The German Hypothesis (main version): Conjectured father (possible): Liudolf, d. 15 or 23 April 1038, count (Braunschweig). Conjectured mother (possible): Gertrude.
The Russian Hypothesis: Conjectured father (possible): Iaroslav I, d. 1054, grand prince of Kiev. Conjectured mother (possible): Ingegerd, daughter of Olaf, king of Sweden.
The Polish Hypothesis: Conjectured father (improbable): Mieszko II Lambert, d. 10 May 1034, king of Poland. Conjectured mother (improbable): Richenza, daughter of Ezzo, count palatine of Lorraine.
The Bulgarian Hypothesis: Conjectured father (improbable): Gavril Radomir, d. 1015, emperor of Bulgaria. Conjectured mother (improbable): NN, sister of Istvan (Stephen) I, king of Hungary.
The Hungarian Hypothesis: Conjectured father (very improbable): Istvan (Stephen) I, d. 1038, king of Hungary. Conjectured mother (improbable): Gisela, sister of Heinrich II, emperor.
The Cristinus Hypothesis: Conjectured father (very improbable): Christinus, count. Conjectured mother (highly improbable): Oda, daughter of Bernhard, count of Haldensleben.
The German Hypothesis (alternate version): Conjectured father (very improbable): Ernst II, d. 17 August 1030, duke of Swabia.
The Bruno Hypothesis: Conjectured father (very improbable): Bruno, d. 24 April 1029, bishop of Augsburg, 1007-1029, brother of emperor Heinrich II.
The Byzantine Hypothesis: Conjectured father (no reasonable basis): Constantine IX "Monomachos", d. 1055, Byzantine emperor.
Others: Falsely attributed father: Salomon, d. 1087, king of Hungary, 1063-74. [OV; see above for details] Orderic Vitalis is the only early medieval source to name the alleged father of Eadweard's wife. However, the claim is chronologically impossible.
Falsely attributed father: Heinrich II, d. 13 July 1024, emperor. [e.g., Burke (1848-51), 1: ped. cxix; 2: ped. xxxviii]
Although the secondary sources giving this relationship of which I am aware do not state sources, it is clear that this theory came about because "filia germani imperatoris Heinrici" was misinterpreted as "daughter of the German emperor Heinrich" [see Appendix 3 for the meaning ofgermanus]. However, it is virtually impossible that a child of Heinrich II, if one had existed, would have gone unmentioned by continental sources.
Falsely attributed father: Heinrich III, d. 5 October 1056, emperor. [e.g., Baverstock (1832), 20]
This comes about by the same misunderstanding as the previous theory. It is chronologically impossible.
Falsely attributed father: Hardicanute, d. 8 June 1042, king of Denmark and England. [Felch (1894), 2, mentions this claim, the ultimate source of which was apparently royal pedigrees published by Reusner in 1592; this reference was pointed out by Todd Farmerie on soc.genealogy.medieval] The supposed logic behind this chronologically impossible theory is unknown. [Ref: HenryII agath000 6/20/2010]

Commentary on these alternatives contained in (and continued in) [Ref: HenryII agath000 6/20/2010, HenryII agath001 7/4/2010]



Pedigree of Agatha
                                                                /-----Roric Slingeband King Of Denmark And Sweden
                                                       /-----Harald Hildetand King At Lethra
                                                      |         \-----Aud
                                              /-----Halfdan Margrave Of Frisia
                                     /-----Rurik, Danish Viking Grand Prince Of Kiev
                            /-----Igor Grand Prince Of Kiev
                           |         \-----Alfrind
                   /-----Svatislav I Grand Prince Of Kiev
                  |         \-----Saint Olga
          /-----Saint Vladimir Grand Prince Of Kiev
         |         \-----Predslawa
 /-----Jaroslav I Grand Prince Of Kiev
|        |         /-----Rognald Prince Of Polotzk
|         \-----Rogneide Of Polotzk
Agatha
|                                                               /-----Bjorn Ironside King At Uppsala
|                                                      /-----Eric III King Of Sweden
|                                             /-----Eymund King Of Sweden
|                                    /-----Eric V King Of Swedes And Goths
|                           /-----Bjorn The Old King Of Sweden
|                  /-----Erik SEGERSALL, King Of Sweden
|         /-----Olaf III SKOTKONUNG, King Of Sweden
|        |        |         /-----Skoglar TOSTE, Viking
|        |         \-----Sigrid STORRADA
 \-----Ingegard
          \-----Astrid



Descendants of Agatha

2nd generation


3rd generation


4th generation


5th generation