Emma was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of the Kingdom of England twice, by successive marriages: first as the second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England (1002 1016); and then as a second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark (1017 1035). Two of her sons, one by each husband, and two stepsons, also by each husband, became kings of England, as did her great-nephew, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy.