King Canute's wife was reputedly called Emma. The illustration in the Liber Vitae shows a picture of the couple presenting a gold cross to Hyde Abbey. The picture is accompanied by the words "CNUT REX" and "ELFGYFU REGINA". Why not "EMMA REGINA"?

serpa

Emma was a second wife two times. Both her husbands had a first wife named Elfgyru. It seems she was sometimes known as Elfgyru? Emma of Normandy might well have seen herself as coming second to the first wife, in both of her marriages. In England, with respect to Æthelred's first wife Ælfgifu, who possibly died in childbirth or from complications during labour[1], she was known as Ælfgifu[1], a mere replacement. With her marriage to Cnut, set in the shade of his first wife, Ælfgifu of Northampton, she, at the time was known as Ælfgifu of Normandy. Each of her marriages, then, in some way left her as a second Ælfgifu, which she was clearly inclined to abandon, preferring Emma. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_of_Normandy Apr 15 10, 8:54 AM