A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Elswitha
ELSWITHA,
Was the wife of Alfred the Great, who, in one of his incognito visits to his subjects, first saw her at the house of her father, Albanac, a chieftain of rank and power. The king was so struck with her dignified deportment, and the grace and elegance of her person, that he conceived a strong attachment for her, and soon after made her queen, (A. D. 868.) Her after conduct confirmed his affection. She was a true wife to him, both in prosperity and adversity, and an excellent mother to her children, of whom several died, in infancy.
Elswitha enjoyed the society of her husband for nearly twenty-eight years, during the two last of which he suffered greatly from a grievous and distressing malady; his excellent wife smoothed his pathway to the grave, and gladly shared with him in the pious work of restoring and patronizing several religious establishments Alfred died A.D. 900, and bequeathed to Queen Elswitha three towns and other lands in Berkshire; she had also other property, some of which she bestowed on the monastery at Glastonbury. She founded the abbey of St, Mary at Winchester, mentioned by some authorities as Nunna-minstre, or New Minstre, of which her granddaughter, Eadburga, was made abbess. In the society of this excellent and pious woman, the queen passed the four years of her widowhood, and died, as she had lived, in the profession and exemplification of the Christian faith.
Of her eldest daughter, Ethelfleda, one of the most learned and remarkable women of her time, an account will be found further on.