Her mother was Eadburh, a member of the Mercian royal family and her lineage was one of the primary reasons for Alfred taking Ealhswith as his wife.
A charter of 897 (S 1442) discusses the responsibilities of Ealhswith's brother Æthelwulf towards the monastery of Winchcombe, and Barbara Yorke argues that as this monastery was claimed as a possession by the family of Ceolwulf and Coenwulf, brothers who were both kings of Mercia, Ealhswith was probably a member of this family.
[2] This descent from Mercian Kings was what drew Alfred to Ealhswith, making her an attractive candidate for marriage.
Alfred grants her estates at Lambourn, Wantage, and Edington, along with one hundred pounds of gold.
Asser was a Welsh monk who lived during the same time as Alfred, and he learned and taught at St. David’s in Wales.
In Alex Traves, Genealogy and royal women in Asser’s Life of King Alfred: politics, prestige, and maternal kinship in early medieval England, he highlights her significance to Alfred and that she was an ideal bride for him in terms of the lineage tied to her.
Traves and other modern authors give her recognition for her contributions to the English throne compared to Ealhswith's contemporaries.
His elder brother Æthelred was then king, and according to Asser, Alfred was regarded as heir apparent.
[8][9] The Danes occupied the Mercian town of Nottingham in that year and her marriage to King Alfred was seen as political leverage.
[9] Ealhswith died on 5 December 902, and was buried in her son Edward's new Benedictine abbey, the New Minster, Winchester.
[13] Nunnaminster was renamed to the abbey of St.Mary, and Ealhswith's son, Edward the Elder, sent his daughter Eadburh there to become a nun.
[13] After Alfred’s death in 899, Edward had Ealhswith move to his nunnery in New Minster, where she lived out the rest of her days.