General Notes

[jweber.ged]

The identity of Judith, wife of Aethelwulf & Aethelbald is pieced together from three different sources.

Aethelwulf m. 856 "daughter of Charles II the Bald"

Aethelbald m. Judith, his step mother after his father Aethelwulf's death in 858.

Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald m. (3) 862 Baudouin I Count of Flanders.

Source: Frederick Lewis Weis & Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., Ancestral Rootsof certain American colonists..., (Edition 7, Genealogical PublishingCompany, Baltimore, 1992), 162-16.

Aged 12 when married to Aethelwulf; aged 16 when married to herson-in-law
Aethelbald   --- William George Searle, *Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings andNobles*, Cambridge, 1899, p 343

"Judith, Charles the Bald's daughter, was crowned and anointed on theoccasion of her marriage to king Aethelwulf of Wessex in 856.  Aethelwulfconferred on Judith the title of queen, which according to Prudentius ofTroyes was 'not customary to him or to his people.'  Judith's anointingmay have been intended in part as a form of protection.  She was afterall the first Carolingian princess to be married to a foreign ruler, andshe was at twelve years of age marrying an elderly man with a clutch ofsons older than herself.  The marriage itself has been associated withCharles the Bald's need for English assistance against the Vikings." ---Rosamond McKitterick, *The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians751-987*, London & NY (Longman) 1983, p 194-195

From same, p 249:  "In 864, thanks to the intervention of Pope NicholasI, who persuaded Charles the Bald to acknowledge Baldwin's marriage tohis daughter Judith (the couple had eloped in 860, aided and abetted byJudith's brother Louis), Ternois and Flanders were added to the countriesBaldwin already held, as well as the lay abbacy of St Peter's Ghent.Dhondt has argued that the strengthening of Baldwin;s position by Charlesthe Bald was part of an attempt to defend the kingdom against theVikings."

"The first ruler of Flanders of whom history has left any record isBaldwin, surnamed Bras-de-fer (Iron Arm)  This man, a brave and daringwarrior under Charles the Bald, fell in love with the king's daughterJudith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her and fledwith his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first very angry, was atlast conciliated and made his son-in-law Margrave (Marchio Flandriae) ofFlanders, which he held as an hereditary fief. The Northmen were at thistime continually devastating the coast lands and Baldwin was entrustedwith the possession of this outlying borderland of the west Frankishdominion in order to defend it against the invaders.  He was the first ofa line of strong rulers, who at some date early in the 10th centuryexchanged the title of margrave for that of count."

!Hist. of Buckfield

FOSTER LINE - 28th ggrandmother

!Baldwin I is her 3rd husband. [Desc. of Charlemagne]

!First husband was Ethelwulf, a marriage which did not please his people nor his grown-up sons, for the old king was forced into retirement.  Upon Ethelwulf's death, she married her oldest stepson, Athelstan, and on his death she married Baldwin, Count of Flanders. [Leaders & Landmarks, Vol. II, p. 16]

!Judith was only 13 when she was wed to Ethelwulf.  This source says she married Ethelbald instead of Athelstan.  Whoever it was, it upset the canons of the Church and she was sent back to her father. [Knight's Popular History of England, Vol. 1, p. 99]

!Widow of Ethelwulf, King of England,father of Alfred the Great. [Our Noble & Gentle Families of Royal Descent Together with Their Paternal Ancestry by Joseph Foster p 178 1884 Edition]

Princess of France, dau. of Charles II the Bald. [Royalty for Commoners, p. 119]