The word "the" was never pronounced or spelled "ye" in Old or Middle English.[95] The confusion derives from the use of the character thorn (þ) in abbreviations of the word "the", which in Middle English text [Middle English the] looked similar to a y with a superscript e

I disagree with this statement.

In the domes day books, words such as Ealdorman (village elder) were often written "gealdorman". Taken in context it always gave me the impression of not being just "alderman", but "_the_ Alderman" (giving it some emphasis).

This is supported by my Old English text book, though not explicitly stated.

The "ge" (Old English) prefix is pronounced "ye" (Modern English): That would mean that

the word "the" was pronounced "ye" in Old English

, contrary to what Wikipedia (and the source they cite) states.