Eadburh had become an incredibly powerful and influential ruler through her marriage to Beorhtric of Wessex. She signed two charters in 801 as ‘Regina’ (queen). But her life is recorded by Alfred’s biographer Asser as a cautionary tale. Her ‘headstrong and malevolent’ ways are explained as the reason why, in the ninth century, no subsequent wives of the king of Wessex were allowed to use the title ‘queen’, or even sit beside their husbands.
