Talk:Ælfflæd (wife of Edward the Elder)

Latest comment: 5 years ago by Dekimasu in topic Requested move 27 November 2018

Requested move 27 November 2018 edit

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: reverted to stable title, Ælfflæd (wife of Edward the Elder), as a first step since the previous move was challenged and there is no clear consensus for the proposed title after a week. Please feel free to initiate a new move request if necessary, although normally neither the version with the parenthetical nor the version with the comma is strictly preferred under WP:ATDAB. Dekimasuよ! 07:16, 5 December 2018 (UTC)Reply


Ælfflæd of WessexÆlfflæd, wife of Edward the ElderWikimandia has changed to the current name from Ælfflæd (wife of Edward the Elder) without consulting other users, so I think it should be changed back if there is no consensus on the name, but I prefer 'Ælfflæd, wife of Edward the Elder'.

The new name is uninformative and could refer to any queen, saint or noblewoman in Wessex called Ælfflæd. The subject of the article is never referred to as Ælfflæd of Wessex in any reliable source so far as I can discover. She is 'Ælfflæd, w. of K. Edward the Elder' in the index to William of Malmesbury: Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. Mynors et al; 'Ælfflæd, wife of Edward the Elder' in Pauline Stafford's Queens, Concubines and Dowagers; 'Ælfflæd, second wife of Edward' in Edward the Elder, ed. Higham and Hill; 'Ælfflæd, second wife of Edward the Elder' in Sarah Foot's; Æthelstan; 'Ælfflæd, queen of Edward the Elder' in Alfred Smyth's King Alfred the Great. I prefer Stafford's version, which is simple and immediately identifies the subject of the article to readers. Dudley Miles (talk) 11:31, 27 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

  • Ælfflæd of Wessex is a superior title for a queen consort ie Mary of Teck, Alexandra of Denmark. Consorts should not be titled "(wife of)" as a disambiguator. (In fact, no article should be titled "wife of" in parentheses.) Since we do not know what royal/noble house she is from by birth, and she is FROM Wessex, "Wessex" is fine. Plus people refer to her as Ælfflæd of Wessex. МандичкаYO 😜 11:52, 27 November 2018 (UTC)Reply
  • 1. Historians do not believe that Ælfflæd was queen, as the article points out. In Wessex in this period consorts were not given any higher title than king's wife, much to Asser's disapproval (Keynes and Lapidge ed., Alfred the Great, p. 71). 2. Mary of Teck is given that name in reliable sources such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Describing a consort as "of x" normally refers to their foreign origin or a town she is associated with, such as Elizabeth of York. The source you cite for Ælfflæd of Wessex is a self-published website which refers to her as "Aelfflaed of Wessex", not a reliable source. 3. My suggestion is not to put "wife of" in parentheses. 4. There are other women who could be called Ælfflæd of Wessex, such as the wife of Byrhtnoth and the Ælfflæd who is mentioned in Alfred the Great's will. Dudley Miles (talk) 13:35, 27 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.