Æthelgifu

Ieldra Æthelgifu was the Ieldra of London until the eve of the English Civil War in 1642, when she vanished to Edinburgh to seize power there.

Overview

Daugher of Æthelstan, the first King of England who ruled from 924 to 927^[1], Æthelgifu became Ieldra at some point between 1066 to 1450, during the High Medieval Period.^[2]

The Ieldra was securely on the throne by the time of the War of the Roses (specifically, by the time the freehold of London entered the conflict in 1456), during which the changelings of the Court of Blood requested her aid in killing Snow courtiers.^[3]

A notable member of the Weihan Cynn, Æthelgifu drove bargains with the other strange creatures of the Chronicles of Darkness so as to maintain the safety of her people.^[4] When the wild places became rarer, she pushed for modernization into city life.^[4]

At the time of the English Civil War, the Ieldra was observant enough to notice the slow trickle of Gallows Post members out of the country and took the hint, vanishing from London just before the war began.^[5]

Though little is known of her deeds after, the London kindred rediscovered her in Edinburgh, where she had carefully maintained the Weihan Cynn's power.^[6]

Trivia

In the real world, Æthelstan never married and never had any children, Æthelgifu or otherwise. He was succeeded by his half-brother Edmund I. Æthelgifu was, however, the name of his aunt, a woman who became the first Abbess of Shaftesbury Abbey.

References