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About Edward I "the Elder", king of The Anglo-Saxons
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Anglo-Saxon-king
http://www.friesian.com/perifran.htm#saxons1
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/edwardelder.html
http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00020066&tree=LEO
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 870 – 17 July 924) was King of England (899 – 924). He was the son of Alfred the Great (Ælfrēd se Grēata) and Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, and became King upon his father's death in 899.
Three marriages:
A: Ecgwynn - three children
1. Ælfred
2. Æthelstan, King of Wessex
3. Eadgyth, married Sithric, King of York
B: Ælfflæd Æthelhelmsdottir of Wiltshire, eight (nine) children:
4. Ædfletha
5. (?) Æthelfletha
6. Eadgifu, married Charles III and Herbert
7. Ælfweard
8. Eadwine
9. Æthelhild
10. Eadhild, married Hugues Capet
11. Eadgyth, married Otto von Germania
12. Ælfgifu, wrongly assumed married to Boleslaw
C: Eadgifu daughter of Sigehelm of Kent
four children:
13. Edmund the Magnificent
14. Eadburgha
15. Eadgifu, married Ludwig Graf im Thurgau
16. Eadred
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%...
----------------------------
(Wikipedia article cont.)
He was king at a time when the Kingdom of Wessex was becoming transformed into the Kingdom of England. The title he normally used was "King of the Anglo-Saxons"; most authorities do regard him as a king of England, although the territory he ruled over was significantly smaller than the present borders of England.
Of the five children born to Alfred and Eahlswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's name was a new one among the West Saxon ruling family. His siblings were named for their father and other previous kings, but Edward was perhaps named for his maternal grandmother Eadburh, of Mercian origin and possibly a kinswoman of Mercian kings Coenwulf and Ceolwulf. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877.
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned Old English, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".
The first appearance of Edward, called filius regis, the king's son in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son. Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status. As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Eahlswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Aethelwold, the son of King Ethelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Aethelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Aethelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900
In 901, Aethelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Aethelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick.
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Ethelfleda (Æðelflǣd). Ethelfleda's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord". This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
Edward had four siblings, including Ethelfleda, Queen of the Mercians and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, and may have had illegitimate children too.
Edward married (although the exact status of the union is uncertain) a young woman of low birth called Ecgwynn around 893, and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric, King of Dublin and York in 926. Nothing is known about Ecgwynn other than her name, which was not even recorded until after the Conquest.
When he became king in 899, Edward set Ecgwynn aside and married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire. Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Edgiva aka Edgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933 was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Edgiva, aka Eadgifu, the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Edred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married Louis l'Aveugle.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Aelffaed, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
References
1. ^ a b N. J. Higham, David Hill, Edward the Elder, 899-924, p. 57.
2. ^ Higham & Hill, p. 67
3. ^ Higham & Hill, p. 206.
4. ^ Higham & Hill, pp. 73, 206.
5. ^ ODNB; Yorke.
6. ^ ODNB; Yorke; Asser, c. 75.
7. ^ ODNB; PASE; S 348; Yorke.
8. ^ ODNB; S 356; Yorke.
9. ^ Asser, c. 13; S 340; Yorke. Check Stafford, "King's wife".
10. ^ "England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php....
11. ^ "Edward the Elder: Reconquest of the Southern Danelaw". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
12. ^ "Edward the Elder: "Father and Lord" of the North". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
13. ^ "English Monarchs: Edward the Elder". http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_7.htm.
14. ^ "Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
15. ^ Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. pp. 98,99.
16. ^ a b Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. p. 99.
17. ^ Chart of Kings & Queens Of Great Britain (see References)
Sources
* anglo-saxons.net
* David Nash Ford's Early British Kingdoms
* "England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php....
* "English Monarchs: Edward the Elder". http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_7.htm.
* Higham, N.J. Edward the Elder, 899-924, 2001 ISBN 0-415-21497-1
* Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. pp. 98,99.
Eadweard I, King of Wessex (1)
M, #102434, b. circa 871, d. 17 July 924
Last Edited=6 Apr 2007
Eadweard I, King of Wessex was born circa 871 at Wantage, Dorset, England. (3) He was the son of Ælfræd, King of Wessex and Eahlwið, Princess of Mercia. He married, firstly, Ecgwyn (?). (3) He married, secondly, Ælflæd (?), daughter of Ethelhelm, Ealdorman and Elswitha (?), circa 901. (4) He married, thirdly, Eadgifu (?), daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent, circa 920. (5)
He died on 17 July 924 at Farndon-on-Dee, England. (6)
He was also reported to have died on 7 July 924 at Farndon, Cheshire, England. He was buried at Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, Hampshire, England. (6)
Eadweard I, King of Wessex also went by the nick-name of Edward 'the Elder' (?). (1) He succeeded to the title of King Eadweard I of Wessex on 26 October 899. (3) He succeeded to the title of King Eadweard I of Mercia on 26 October 899. (3) He was crowned King of Wessex and Mercia on 31 May 900 at Kingston-upon-Thames, London, England. (3)
Edward together with his sister Ethelfleda of Mercia, fought stoutly against the Danes. Ethelfleda built many forts notably at Chester, Hereford, Bridgenorth, Shrewsbury, Warwick, Gloucester and Tamworth. Known as The Lady of the Mercians, she died in 918 and Mercia was then united with Wessex. In 914, Edward secured the release of the Bishop of Llandaff (Cardiff) who had been captured by the Norsemen and following this, the princes of both North and South Wales pledged their perpetual allegiance to him. Edward doubled the size of the kingdom during his reign. It is now generally acknowledged that Edward died on the 7th July 924 but some historians give the date as 925.
Children of Eadweard I, King of Wessex and Ecgwyn (?)
-1. Alfred (?) (4)
-2. Saint Edith (?) d. c 927
-3. Æthelstan, King of England7 b. c 895, d. 27 Oct 939
Children of Eadweard I, King of Wessex and Ælflæd (?)
-1. Edwin (?)7 d. 933
-2. Eadflæd (?) (8)
-3. Æthelhilda (?) (8)
-4. Eadgyth (?)+7 d. 26 Jan 946
-5. Edgiva (?) (7)
-6. Eadhilda (?)7 d. 26 Jan 947
-7. Ælfweard, King of England4 d. 1 Aug 924
-8. Elfleda (?)5 d. c 963
-9. Ethelfleda (?) (5)
-10. Eadgifu (?)+7 b. 902, d. c 953
Children of Eadweard I, King of Wessex and Eadgifu (?)
-1. Saint Edburga (?)7 d. 15 Jun 960
-2. Eadgifu (?)
-3. Eadmund I, King of England+1 b. bt 920 - 922, d. 26 May 946
-4. Eadræd, King of England1 b. bt 923 - 925, d. 23 Nov 955
Forrás / Source:
http://www.thepeerage.com/p10244.htm#i102434
Edward the Elder, King of England, 901-925,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 870 – 17 July 924) was King of England (899 – 924). He was the son of Alfred the Great (Ælfrēd se Grēata) and Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, and became King upon his father's death in 899.
He was king at a time when the Kingdom of Wessex was becoming transformed into the Kingdom of England. The title he normally used was "King of the Anglo-Saxons"; most authorities do regard him as a king of England, although the territory he ruled over was significantly smaller than the present borders of England.
Contents [hide]
1 Ætheling
2 Succession and early reign
3 Achievements
4 Family
5 Genealogy
6 References
7 Sources
8 External links
[edit] Ætheling
Of the five children born to Alfred and Eahlswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's name was a new one among the West Saxon ruling family. His siblings were named for their father and other previous kings, but Edward was perhaps named for his maternal grandmother Eadburh, of Mercian origin and possibly a kinswoman of Mercian kings Coenwulf and Ceolwulf. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877. [1]
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned Old English, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".[2]
The first appearance of Edward, called filius regis, the king's son in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son.[3] Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status.[4] As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Eahlswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.[5]
[edit] Succession and early reign
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Aethelwold, the son of King Ethelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Aethelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Aethelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [6]
In 901, Aethelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Aethelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[7]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick.
[edit] Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Ethelfleda (Æðelflǣd). Ethelfleda's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[8] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[9]
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
[edit] Family
Edward had four siblings, including Ethelfleda, Queen of the Mercians and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, and may have had illegitimate children too.
Edward married (although the exact status of the union is uncertain) a young woman of low birth called Ecgwynn around 893, and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric, King of Dublin and York in 926. Nothing is known about Ecgwynn other than her name, which was not even recorded until after the Conquest. [10][11]
When he became king in 899, Edward set Ecgwynn aside and married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire. [12] Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Edgiva aka Edgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[13] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Edgiva, aka Eadgifu,[12] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Edred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married Louis l'Aveugle.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Aelffaed, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 874-7[1] – 17 July 924) was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd, his sister.
All but two of his charters give his title as "king of the Anglo-Saxons" (Anglorum Saxonum rex).[2] He was the second king of the Anglo-Saxons as this title was created by Alfred.[2] Edward's coinage reads "EADVVEARD REX."[3] The chroniclers record that all England "accepted Edward as lord" in 920.[4] But the fact that York continued to produce its own coinage suggests that Edward's authority was not accepted in Northumbria.[5] Edward's eponym "the Elder" was first used in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold (tenth century) to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
Ætheling
Of the five children born to Alfred and Ealhswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877. [6]
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned the English of the day, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".[7]
The first appearance of Edward in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son.[8] Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status.[9] As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Ealhswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.[10]
[edit] Succession and early reign
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Æthelwold, the son of King Æthelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Æthelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Æthelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [11]
In 901, Æthelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Æthelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[12]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick. These burhs were built to the same specifications (within centimetres) as those within the territory that his father had controlled; it has been suggested on this basis that Edward actually built them all.[13]
[edit] Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Æthelflæd. Ætheflæd's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[14] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[15]
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon era monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
[edit] Family
Edward had four siblings, including Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, and may have had illegitimate children too.
Edward first married Ecgwynn around 893 and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric Cáech, King of Dublin and York in 926. Nothing is known about Ecgwynn other than her name, which was not even recorded until after the Conquest.[16][17]
When he became king in 899, Edward married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire.[18] Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Eadgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[19] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Eadgifu,[18] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Eadred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married "Louis, Prince of Aquitaine", whose identity is disputed.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Ælfflæd, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
[edit] Genealogy
For a more complete genealogy including ancestors and descendants, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wessex_family_tree#House_of_W...
Reign 26 October 899 – 17 July 924
Coronation 8 June 900, Kingston upon Thames
Predecessor Alfred the Great
Successor Athelstan of England and/or Ælfweard of Wessex
Spouse Ecgwynn, Ælfflæd, and Eadgifu
Father Alfred the Great
Mother Ealhswith
Born c.874-77
Wantage, Wessex, England
Died 17 July 924
Farndon-on-Dee, Cheshire England
Burial New Minster, Winchester, later translated to Hyde Abbey.
Edward the Elder
King of the English
Reign 26 October 899 - 17 July 924
Coronation 8 June 900, Kingston upon Thames
Predecessor Alfred the Great and
Ealhswith
Successor Ælfweard of Wessex and
Athelstan of England
Spouse Ecgwynn, Ælfflæd, and Edgiva
Father Alfred the Great
Mother Ealhswith
Born c.870
Wessex, England
Died 17 July 924
Farndon-on-Dee, Cheshire England
Burial New Minster, Winchester, later translated to Hyde Abbey
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 870 – 17 July 924) was King of England (899 – 924). He was the son of Alfred the Great (Ælfrēd se Grēata) and Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, and became King upon his father's death in 899.
He was king at a time when the Kingdom of Wessex was becoming transformed into the Kingdom of England. The title he normally used was "King of the Anglo-Saxons"; most authorities do regard him as a king of England, although the territory he ruled over was significantly smaller than the present borders of England.
Ætheling
Of the five children born to Alfred and Eahlswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's name was a new one among the West Saxon ruling family. His siblings were named for their father and other previous kings, but Edward was perhaps named for his maternal grandmother Eadburh, of Mercian origin and possibly a kinswoman of Mercian kings Coenwulf and Ceolwulf. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877. [1]
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned Old English, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".[2]
The first appearance of Edward, called filius regis, the king's son in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son.[3] Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status.[4] As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Eahlswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.[5]
Succession and early reign
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Aethelwold, the son of King Ethelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Aethelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Aethelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [6]
In 901, Aethelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Aethelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[7]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick.
Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Ethelfleda (Æðelflǣd). Ethelfleda's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[8] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[9]
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
Family
Edward had four siblings, including Ethelfleda, Queen of the Mercians and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, and may have had illegitimate children too.
Edward married (although the exact status of the union is uncertain) a young woman of low birth called Ecgwynn around 893, and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric, King of Dublin and York in 926. Nothing is known about Ecgwynn other than her name, which was not even recorded until after the Conquest. [10][11]
When he became king in 899, Edward set Ecgwynn aside and married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire. [12] Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Edgiva aka Edgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[13] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Edgiva, aka Eadgifu,[12] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Edred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married Louis l'Aveugle.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Aelffaed, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
He was king at a time when the Kingdom of Wessex was becoming transformed into the Kingdom of England. The title he normally used was "King of the Anglo-Saxons"; most authorities do regard him as a king of England,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 874-7[1] – 17 July 924) was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd, his sister.
All but two of his charters give his title as "king of the Anglo-Saxons" (Anglorum Saxonum rex).[2] He was the second king of the Anglo-Saxons as this title was created by Alfred.[2] Edward's coinage reads "EADVVEARD REX."[3] The chroniclers record that all England "accepted Edward as lord" in 920.[4] But the fact that York continued to produce its own coinage suggests that Edward's authority was not accepted in Northumbria.[5] Edward's eponym "the Elder" was first used in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold (tenth century) to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
Contents
[show]
* 1 Ætheling
* 2 Succession and early reign
* 3 Achievements
* 4 Family
* 5 Genealogy
* 6 Ancestry
* 7 References
* 8 Sources
* 9 External links
[edit] Ætheling
Of the five children born to Alfred and Ealhswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877.[6]
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned the English of the day, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".[7]
The first appearance of Edward in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son.[8] Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status.[9] As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Ealhswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.[10]
[edit] Succession and early reign
Silver brooch imitating a coin of Edward the Elder, c. 920, found in Rome, Italy. British Museum.
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Æthelwold, the son of King Æthelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Æthelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Æthelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [11]
In 901, Æthelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Æthelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[12]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick. These burhs were built to the same specifications (within centimetres) as those within the territory that his father had controlled; it has been suggested on this basis that Edward actually built them all.[13]
[edit] Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Æthelflæd. Ætheflæd's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[14] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[15]
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon era monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
[edit] Family
Edward had four siblings, including Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, (or according to some sources, an extramarital relationship and two marriages).
Edward first married Ecgwynn around 893 and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric Cáech, King of Dublin and York in 926. Conflicting information about Ecgwynn is given by different sources, none of which pre-date the Conquest.[16][17]
When he became king in 899, Edward married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire.[18] Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Eadgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[19] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Eadgifu,[18] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Eadred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married "Louis, Prince of Aquitaine", whose identity is disputed.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Ælfflæd, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
[edit] Genealogy
For a more complete genealogy including ancestors and descendants, see House of Wessex family tree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
Succession and early reign
Edward's succession to his father was not assured. When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Aethelwold, the son of King Aethelred I, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Aethelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Aethelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [1]
In 901, Aethelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Aethelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[2]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians returned the favour by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the Humber River.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick.
[edit]Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Ethelfleda (Æðelflǣd). Ethelfleda's daughter, Aelfwinn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[3] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[4]
He died leading an army against a Cambro-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and King Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
[edit]Family
Edward had four siblings, including Ethelfleda, Queen of the Mercians and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders .
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, and may have had illegitimate children too.
Edward married (although the exact status of the union is uncertain) a young woman of low birth called Ecgwynn around 893, and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric, King of Dublin and York in 926. Nothing is known about Ecgwynn other than her name, which was not even recorded until after the Conquest. [5][6]
When he became king in 899, Edward set Ecgwynn aside and married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire. [7] Their son was the future king, Ælfweard, and their daughter Eadgyth married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. The couples other children included five more daughters: Edgiva aka Edgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married Conrad King of Burgundy; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. According to the entry on Boleslaus II of Bohemia, the daughter Adiva (referred to in the entry for Eadgyth) was his wife. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[8] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Edgiva, aka Eadgifu,[7] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Edred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married Louis d'Aveugle, King of Arles.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Aelffaed, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
[edit]
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 874-7[1] – 17 July 924) was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd, his sister.
All but two of his charters give his title as "king of the Anglo-Saxons" (Anglorum Saxonum rex).[2] He was the second king of the Anglo-Saxons as this title was created by Alfred.[2] Edward's coinage reads "EADVVEARD REX."[3] The chroniclers record that all England "accepted Edward as lord" in 920.[4] But the fact that York continued to produce its own coinage suggests that Edward's authority was not accepted in Northumbria.[5] Edward's eponym "the Elder" was first used in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold (tenth century) to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
Contents [hide]
1 Ætheling
2 Succession and early reign
3 Achievements
4 Family
5 Genealogy
6 Ancestry
7 References
8 Sources
9 External links
[edit] Ætheling
Of the five children born to Alfred and Ealhswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877.[6]
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned the English of the day, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".[7]
The first appearance of Edward in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son.[8] Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status.[9] As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Ealhswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.[10]
[edit] Succession and early reign
Silver brooch imitating a coin of Edward the Elder, c. 920, found in Rome, Italy. British Museum.When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Æthelwold, the son of King Æthelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Æthelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Æthelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [11]
In 901, Æthelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year, he attacked Cricklade and Braydon. Edward arrived with an army, and after several marches, the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Æthelwold and King Eohric of the East Anglian Danes were killed in the battle.
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[12]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick. These burhs were built to the same specifications (within centimetres) as those within the territory that his father had controlled; it has been suggested on this basis that Edward actually built them all.[13]
[edit] Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Æthelflæd. Ætheflæd's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[14] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[15]
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon era monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
[edit] Family
Edward had four siblings, including Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, (or according to some sources, an extramarital relationship and two marriages).
Edward first married Ecgwynn around 893 and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric Cáech, King of Dublin and York in 926. Conflicting information about Ecgwynn is given by different sources, none of which pre-date the Conquest.[16][17]
When he became king in 899, Edward married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire.[18] Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Eadgifu, whose first marriage was to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[19] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Eadgifu,[18] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Eadred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married "Louis, Prince of Aquitaine", whose identity is disputed.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Ælfflæd, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
[edit] Genealogy
For a more complete genealogy including ancestors and descendants, see House of Wessex family tree.
Diagram based on the information found on Wikipedia[edit] Ancestry
Ancestors of Edward the Elder[hide]
16. Ealhmund of Kent
8. Egbert of Wessex
4. Æthelwulf of Wessex
9. Redburga
2. Alfred the Great
10. Oslac
5. Osburga
1. Edward the Elder
6. Æthelred Mucil
3. Ealhswith
[edit] References
1.^ Barbara Yorke in Higham & Hill Eds, pp. 25-26
2.^ a b Simon Keynes in Higham & Hill Eds, p. 57.
3.^ Higham & Hill, p. 67
4.^ Higham & Hill, p. 206.
5.^ Higham & Hill, pp. 73, 206.
6.^ ODNB; Yorke.
7.^ ODNB; Yorke; Asser, c. 75.
8.^ ODNB; PASE; S 348; Yorke.
9.^ ODNB; S 356; Yorke.
10.^ Asser, c. 13; S 340; Yorke. Check Stafford, "King's wife".
11.^ "England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php....
12.^ "Edward the Elder: Reconquest of the Southern Danelaw". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
13.^ Was Alfred really that great? David Keys. BBC History magazine, January 2009 volume 10 no. 1 pages 10-11
14.^ "Edward the Elder: "Father and Lord" of the North". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
15.^ "English Monarchs: Edward the Elder". http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_7.htm.
16.^ "Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
17.^ Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. 98-99.
18.^ a b Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. 99.
19.^ Chart of Kings & Queens Of Great Britain (see References)
[edit] Sources
anglo-saxons.net
"England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php....
"English Monarchs: Edward the Elder". http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_7.htm.
Higham, N.J. & Hill, D.H., Eds, Edward the Elder, 899–924, Routledge, 2001 ISBN 0-415-21497-1
Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray.
[edit] External links
The Laws of King Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder Coinage Regulations
Find A Grave: Edward the Elder
Preceded by
Alfred the Great King of the Anglo-Saxons
899–924 Succeeded by
Ælfweard in Wessex
Athelstan in Mercia
[hide]v • d • eEnglish monarchs
Kingdom of the
English
886–1066 Alfred the Great · Edward the Elder · Ælfweard · Athelstan the Glorious1 · Edmund the Magnificent1 · Eadred1 · Eadwig the Fair1 · Edgar the Peaceable1 · Edward the Martyr · Æthelred the Unready · Sweyn Forkbeard · Edmund Ironside · Cnut1 · Harold Harefoot · Harthacnut · Edward the Confessor · Harold Godwinson · Edgar the Ætheling
Kingdom of
England
1066–1649 William I · William II · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda · Henry II2 · Henry the Young King · Richard I · John2 · Henry III2 · Edward I2 · Edward II2 · Edward III2 · Richard II2 · Henry IV2 · Henry V2 · Henry VI2 · Edward IV2 · Edward V2 · Richard III2 · Henry VII2 · Henry VIII2 · Edward VI2 · Jane2 · Mary I2 with Philip2 · Elizabeth I2 · James I3 · Charles I3
Commonwealth of
England, Scotland and Ireland
1653–1659 Oliver Cromwell4 · Richard Cromwell4
Kingdom of
England
1660–1707 Charles II3 · James II3 · William III and Mary II3 · Anne3
1Overlord of Britain. 2Also ruler of Ireland. 3Also ruler of Scotland. 4Lord Protector.
Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.
Persondata
NAME Edward the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English monarch
DATE OF BIRTH 871
PLACE OF BIRTH Wessex, England
DATE OF DEATH 17 July 924
PLACE OF DEATH Farndon-on-Dee, Cheshire England
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder"
Categories: 870s births | 924 deaths | People from Hampshire | English monarchs | Anglo-Saxon monarchs | Anglo-Saxons killed in battle | 10th-century rulers in Europe | 9th-century rulers in Europe | 9th-century English people | 10th-century English people
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 870 – 17 July 924) was King of England (899 – 924). He was the son of Alfred the Great (Ælfrēd se Grēata) and Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, and became King upon his father's death in 899.
He was king at a time when the Kingdom of Wessex was becoming transformed into the Kingdom of England. The title he normally used was "King of the Anglo-Saxons"; most authorities do regard him as a king of England, although the territory he ruled over was significantly smaller than the present borders of England.
Of the five children born to Alfred and Eahlswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's name was a new one among the West Saxon ruling family. His siblings were named for their father and other previous kings, but Edward was perhaps named for his maternal grandmother Eadburh, of Mercian origin and possibly a kinswoman of Mercian kings Coenwulf and Ceolwulf. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877.
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned Old English, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".
The first appearance of Edward, called filius regis, the king's son in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son. Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status. As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Eahlswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.
Became King in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. All but two of his charters give his title as "king of the Anglo-Saxons" (Anglorum Saxonum red). He was the second king of the Anglo-Saxons as this title was created by Alfred.
Edward's cousin attempted to claim his throne and began Aethelwold's Revolt and the two sides met at the Battle of Holme. Aethelwold expired in battle.
Edward went on to conquer English lands occupied by the Danes. He died in battle leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion. His last resting place was moved after the Norman Conquest and is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
From http://www.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy/ps05/ps05_318.htm
Edward succeeded his father in October 899; often repulsed the Danish Vikings; received the submission of Welsh and Scottish kings; was buried in the "New Minster" at Winchester. He unified most of England south of the Humber River. {See "Anglo-Saxon England," 3rd Ed., Frank M. Stenton, 1971.}
He acceded 31 MAY 900, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey.
The reconquest of the area settled by the Vikings, the Danelaw, was
begun by Alfred's son and Heir. In this he was ably assissted by his
sister, aethelflaed, the "Lady of the Mercians".
The claim to be the first king of all England remains a matter of
some dispute. "All the people of Mercia who had been under allegiance to
Aethelflaed turned in submission to him. The kings of Wales, Hywel Clydog
and Idwal and all the people of Wales, gave him their allegiance... and
then the king of the Scots and the whole Scottish nation accepted him as
'Father and Lord"; so also did... all the inhabitants of Northumbria,
both English and Danish, Norwegians and all others; together with the
king of the Strathcylde Welsh and all his subjects."
- ***********
Edward the Elder was the second son of Alfred the Great and was born about 871. His elder brother, Edmund, apparently died in infancy, though one tradition asserts he lived long enough to be crowned as heir apparent. In any case, the choice of his first two sons' names demonstrate Alfred's hopes for them. Both names mean 11 protector" (mund) or "guardian" (ward) of "riches", showing that Alfred hoped his sons would guard the prosperity of the nation for the future. Edward grew up firmly believing this. He was a soldier from childhood, not a scholar like his father and grandfather, and he knew, once his brother died, that it was in his hands that the future of the nation rested. He was a child throughout the wars that his father waged with the Danes, and they would have left a vivid impression on his mind. When the Danish problems arose again in 892 and 893 he commanded part of the army that captured the raiders. The Saxons were therefore already accustomed to him as their leader. However, after his father's death his succession did not go unchallenged. His nephew, Athelwold, the son of Athelred, was dissatisfied with the terms of Alfred's will and felt dispossessed. He seized Wimborne manor and, though he was soon chased out of Wessex, he was accepted by the Danes and Angles of York as their leader and subsequently led a revolt amongst the Danes of East Anglia. He remained a thorn in Edward's side until he was defeated and killed in 902, after which Edward was able to seal a peace treaty with the Danes of the east. However the Danes of the north still defied Edward's sovereignty, ruling jorvik as a separate Danish kingdom. Throughout 909 the Danes tested Edward's resolve with a number of border raids and skirmishes, and eventually Edward moved against them, raising a vast army. Edward harried Northumbria with little result. The following year he was tricked by the Danish fleet moving down the east coast, while the main Danish army moved across Northumbria and down into Mercia. Edward realised his error and chased the Danes, catching them at Tettenhall in August 910, where he inflicted upon them one of their most crushing defeats, resulting in the deaths of the two Danish kings Halfdan and Eowils. It was the end of the Danish hold on Jorvik, although soon after the Norse under Ragnall moved in.
The Norse had been expelled from Dublin in 902 and were now landless. They first caused a nuisance in Wales and Scotland, but by 9 1 0 had become bold enough to enter Northumbria, and no sooner had Edward defeated one foe than another arrived. Rather than take them on instantly, Edward decided to work on one plan at a time. Since 905 Edward had been refortifying England. He rebuilt Chester and, along with his sister, Athelfled of Mercia, established a chain of fortified towns along the border with the Danelaw, including Runcorn, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, down to Hertford and over to Witham in Essex. Even before these forts were finished Edward was able to use them as a base to defeat a major Danish army which moved across England into Wales in 914, but no matter where the army tried to inflict major destruction, Edward was there, and the army eventually moved out of Britain at the end of the year' Most of the forts were completed by 915, and Edward progressively advanced into Danish territory. The Danes responded and from 916 on a series of skirmishes occurred across middle England. In almost all cases the English were victorious, with major successes at Leicester, Nottingham and Bedford. Early on the Danish king, Guthrum II ,was killed, and thereafter there was no coordinated strategy from the Danes. Edward was able to pick off small bands of men one at a time. Eventually the Danes submitted. The year 920 saw the Danes of East Anglia and the Five Boroughs submitting to him.
In 918, during the war with the Danes, Athelfloed had died, and though her daughter Elfwynn technically succeeded, Edward could not consider a young girl in charge during such a difficult period. Thus in 919 he assumed direct control over Mercia. With similar authority over the Danes of the east midlands, Edward now ruled over half of England. The Welsh princes, Idwal Foel, Clydog Ap Cadell and Hywel Dda, submitted to him, recognizing Edward as their overlord, for all that they remained sovereign princes. Even in the north, Edward's authority was recognized, though this was rather more tenuous. Ragnall of York had tried to goad the Danes into further revolt but by 920 they recognized that Edward was the victor. Ragnall realised his subterfuge would not succeed and recognized Edward as overlord; but his successor, Sitric, did not. This must have alarmed Constantine II of Scotland and Donald Mac Aed of Strathclyde, both of whom had suffered from the Norse and now felt that they needed Edward's protection by acknowledging his supremacy. Thus, by the year 922, Edward was overlord of all of Britain except for the Norse settlements of York, Orkney and the Western Isles. It was a remarkable achievement for a man whose boyhood had been spent in hiding from the Danes. Edward was a fitting son of Alfred and it was important that a strong king followed him to maintain and build upon his successes. Athelstan was such a king.
Edward was married at least three times, though the legitimacy of the first is in question. Of his many children, most were daughters, but of the sons who survived him, all of them - Edwin, Elfweard, Athelstan, Edmund and Eadred – succeeded him in some form within the kingdom.
References: [AR7],[RFC],[Weis1],[WallopFH],[Moncreiffe], [Paget1]
Edward was the eldest son of King Alfred the Great and Queen Elswith. At the age of twenty-two, he appears to have married a noblewoman named Egwina, though the wedding may have been uncanonical and was not recognized in some quarters. They had three or four children. At the same time, Edward was already active in his father's campaigns against the Vikings and towards the end of Alfred's reign, he was probably appointed Sub-King of Kent.
Edward's path to the throne was not altogether smooth. Upon his father's death in AD 899, a rebellion broke out in favour of Edward's cousin, Aethelwold, the son of the late King Aethelred I. Failing to secure Wessex, this prince went north and found support from the people of the Norse Kingdom of York, where he was proclaimed King. With the help of the East Anglians, he subsequently attacked both Mercia and Wessex but was killed at the Battle of Holme (Essex) in AD 902. Around the same time, the King married for a second time to Aelflaed the daughter Ealdorman Aethelhelm of Wiltshire. They had eight children together. Four years later, Edward made peace with the Northerners at Tiddingford in Bedfordshire; but by AD 909, he took on a more aggressive stance by raiding the North-West. The following year, a joint Mercian and West Saxon army marched north and defeated the Northern Vikings so completely at Tettenhall (Staffordshire) that they subsequently felt it best to remain within their borders. King Edward was then able to concentrate his attentions on the Danes of East Anglia and the Five Boroughs (of the East Midlands). With the help of his sister, the formidable Lady Aethelflaed of Mercia, the next eight years saw a prolonged campaign aimed at pushing the boundaries of Wessex and Mercia northwards. This was largely achieved through the extension of King Alfred's old policy of building defensive burghs across the country, as recorded in the 'Burghal Hidage'. They were both places of refuge in time of attack and garrisoned strongholds from which assaults could be launched.
After Aethelflaed's death in AD 918, Edward was able to take advantage of his niece Aelfwinn's minority and brought Mercia under direct Wessex control. Two years later, the Kings of the north - including Sigtrygg Caech (the Squinty) of Norse York, Constantine II of the Scots and Donald mac Aed of Strathclyde - met Edward at Bakewell and also finally recognised his overlordship. At the time of his third marriage, to Edith daughter of Ealdorman Sigehelm of Kent, therefore King Edward was in a strong position. Holding his territories together was not easy, however, and revolts against Edward's rule continued. In AD 924, he was forced to lead an army north once more to put down a Cambro-Mercian rebellion in Cheshire. He died at Farndon-upon-Dee in that county on 17th July.
Edward's body was taken south to the reduced diocese of Winchester for burial - he had sub-divided the West Saxon sees in AD 909, creating new Bishops of Ramsbury & Sonning, Wells and Crediton. The King was interred at the family mausoleum, his own foundation (AD 901) of New Minster in the centre Winchester, and was succeeded by his sons, Aelfweard and Aethelstan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Elder
Edward the Elder
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Edward the Elder
King of the Anglo-Saxons
Reign 26 October 899 – 17 July 924
Coronation 8 June 900, Kingston upon Thames
Predecessor Alfred the Great
Successor Athelstan of England and/or Ælfweard of Wessex
Spouse Ecgwynn, Ælfflæd, and Eadgifu
Father Alfred the Great
Mother Ealhswith
Born c.874-77
Wantage, Wessex, England
Died 17 July 924
Farndon-on-Dee, Cheshire England
Burial New Minster, Winchester, later translated to Hyde Abbey
Edward the Elder (Old English: Ēadweard se Ieldra) (c. 874-7[1] – 17 July 924) was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd, his sister.
All but two of his charters give his title as "king of the Anglo-Saxons" (Anglorum Saxonum rex).[2] He was the second king of the Anglo-Saxons as this title was created by Alfred.[2] Edward's coinage reads "EADVVEARD REX."[3] The chroniclers record that all England "accepted Edward as lord" in 920.[4] But the fact that York continued to produce its own coinage suggests that Edward's authority was not accepted in Northumbria.[5] Edward's eponym "the Elder" was first used in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold (tenth century) to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
Contents
[show]
* 1 Ætheling
* 2 Succession and early reign
* 3 Achievements
* 4 Family
* 5 Genealogy
* 6 Ancestry
* 7 References
* 8 Sources
* 9 External links
[edit] Ætheling
Of the five children born to Alfred and Ealhswith who survived infancy, Edward was the second-born and the elder son. Edward's birth cannot be certainly dated. His parents married in 868 and his eldest sibling Æthelflæd was born soon afterwards as she was herself married in 883. Edward was probably born rather later, in the 870s, and probably between 874 and 877.[6]
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports that Edward was educated at court together with his youngest sister Ælfthryth. His second sister, Æthelgifu, was intended for a life in religion from an early age, perhaps due to ill health, and was later abbess of Shaftesbury. The youngest sibling, Æthelweard, was educated at a court school where he learned Latin, which suggests that he too was intended for a religious life. Edward and Ælfthryth, however, while they learned the English of the day, received a courtly education, and Asser refers to their taking part in the "pursuits of this present life which are appropriate to the nobility".[7]
The first appearance of Edward in the sources is in 892, in a charter granting land at North Newnton, near Pewsey in Wiltshire, to ealdorman Æthelhelm, where he is called filius regis, the king's son.[8] Although he was the reigning king's elder son, Edward was not certain to succeed his father. Until the 890s, the obvious heirs to the throne were Edward's cousins Æthelwold and Æthelhelm, sons of Æthelred, Alfred's older brother and predecessor as king. Æthelwold and Æthelhelm were around ten years older than Edward. Æthelhelm disappears from view in the 890s, seemingly dead, but a charter probably from that decade shows Æthelwold witnessing before Edward, and the order of witnesses is generally believed to relate to their status.[9] As well as his greater age and experience, Æthelwold may have had another advantage over Edward where the succession was concerned. While Alfred's wife Ealhswith is never described as queen and was never crowned, Æthelwold and Æthelhelm's mother Wulfthryth was called queen.[10]
[edit] Succession and early reign
Silver brooch imitating a coin of Edward the Elder, c. 920, found in Rome, Italy. British Museum.
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Æthelwold, the son of King Æthelred of Wessex, rose up to claim the throne and began Æthelwold's Revolt. He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Æthelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Æthelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Northumbria, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward is alleged to have been crowned at Kingston upon Thames on 8 June 900 [11]
In 901, Æthelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in East Anglia to rise up. In the following year he attacked English Mercia and northern Wessex. Edward retaliated by ravaging East Anglia, but when he retreated south the men of Kent disobeyed the order to retire, and were intercepted by the Danish army. The two sides met at the Battle of the Holme on 13 December 902. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Danes "kept the place of slaughter", but they suffered heavy losses, including Æthelwold and a King Eohric, possibly of the East Anglian Danes.[12]
Relations with the North proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Chester in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.[13]
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Northumbria. In the following year, the Northumbrians retaliated by attacking Mercia, but they were met by the combined Mercian and West Saxon army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where the Northumbrian Danes were destroyed. From that point, they never raided south of the River Humber.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses (burhs), at Hertford, Witham and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were built at Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick. These burhs were built to the same specifications (within centimetres) as those within the territory that his father had controlled; it has been suggested on this basis that Edward actually built them all.[14]
[edit] Achievements
Edward extended the control of Wessex over the whole of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex, conquering lands occupied by the Danes and bringing the residual autonomy of Mercia to an end in 918, after the death of his sister, Æthelflæd. Ætheflæd's daughter, Ælfwynn, was named as her successor, but Edward deposed her, bringing Mercia under his direct control. He had already annexed the cities of London and Oxford and the surrounding lands of Oxfordshire and Middlesex in 911. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. By the end of his reign, the Norse, the Scots and the Welsh had acknowledged him as "father and lord".[15] This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland led to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.
Edward reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious. In fact, the Pope delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.[16]
He died leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-Upon-Dee and was buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901. After the Norman Conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey to the north of the city and Edward's body was transferred there. His last resting place is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.
The portrait included here is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxon era monarchs by an unknown artist in the 18th century. Edward's eponym the Elder was first used in the 10th century, in Wulfstan's Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr.
[edit] Family
Edward had four siblings, including Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders.
King Edward had about fourteen children from three marriages, (or according to some sources, an extramarital relationship and two marriages).
Edward first married Ecgwynn around 893 and they became the parents of the future King Athelstan and a daughter who married Sihtric Cáech, King of Dublin and York in 926. Conflicting information about Ecgwynn is given by different sources, none of which pre-date the Conquest.[17][18]
When he became king in 899, Edward married Ælfflæd, a daughter of Æthelhelm, the ealdorman of Wiltshire.[19] Their son Ælfweard may have briefly succeeded his father, but died just over two weeks later and the two were buried together. Edward and Ælfflæd had six daughters: Eadgyth who married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Eadgifu, married to Charles the Simple; Eadhild, who married Hugh the Great, Duke of Paris; Ælfgifu who married "a prince near the Alps", sometimes identified with Conrad of Burgundy or Boleslaus II of Bohemia; and two nuns Eadflæd and Eadhild. A son, Edwin Ætheling who drowned in 933[20] was possibly Ælfflæd's child, but that is not clear.
Edward married for a third time, about 919, to Eadgifu,[19] the daughter of Sigehelm, the ealdorman of Kent. They had two sons who survived infancy, Edmund and Eadred, and two daughters, one of whom was Saint Edburga of Winchester the other daughter, Eadgifu, married "Louis, Prince of Aquitaine", whose identity is disputed.
Eadgifu outlived her husband and her sons, and was alive during the reign of her grandson, King Edgar. William of Malmsbury's history De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesiae claims that Edward's second wife, Ælfflæd, was also alive after Edward's death, but this is the only known source for that claim.
References
1. ^ Barbara Yorke in Higham & Hill Eds, pp. 25-26
2. ^ a b Simon Keynes in Higham & Hill Eds, p. 57.
3. ^ Higham & Hill, p. 67
4. ^ Higham & Hill, p. 206.
5. ^ Higham & Hill, pp. 73, 206.
6. ^ ODNB; Yorke.
7. ^ ODNB; Yorke; Asser, c. 75.
8. ^ ODNB; PASE; S 348; Yorke.
9. ^ ODNB; S 356; Yorke.
10. ^ Asser, c. 13; S 340; Yorke. Check Stafford, "King's wife".
11. ^ "England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php....
12. ^ Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press, 1971, pp. 321-2; Bernard Cornwell, Æthelwold of Wessex: King of the Pagans
13. ^ "Edward the Elder: Reconquest of the Southern Danelaw". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
14. ^ Was Alfred really that great? David Keys. BBC History magazine, January 2009 volume 10 no. 1 pages 10-11
15. ^ "Edward the Elder: "Father and Lord" of the North". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
16. ^ "English Monarchs: Edward the Elder". http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_7.htm.
17. ^ "Edward the Elder, king of the Anglo-Saxons". http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=EdwardtheE....
18. ^ Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. 98-99.
19. ^ a b Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray. pp. 99.
20. ^ Chart of Kings & Queens Of Great Britain (see References)
[edit] Sources
* anglo-saxons.net
* "England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php....
* "English Monarchs: Edward the Elder". http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxon_7.htm.
* Higham, N.J. & Hill, D.H., Eds, Edward the Elder, 899–924, Routledge, 2001 ISBN 0-415-21497-1
* Lappenberg, Johann; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray.
[edit] External links
* The Laws of King Edward the Elder
* Edward the Elder Coinage Regulations
* Find A Grave: Edward the Elder
This page was last modified on 25 July 2010 at 19:12.
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Eduard der Ältere
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Eduard
Eduard der Ältere (* um 871; † 17. Juli 924) war König von Wessex von 899 bis 924.
Leben [Bearbeiten]
Er war der zweitälteste Sohn und Nachfolger seines Vaters Alfred des Großen, da sein älterer Bruder Edmund vor 899 gestorben war.
Unmittelbar nach seinem Regierungsantritt (899) wurde er von seinem Vetter Æthelwold bedroht, der seinerseits den Thron von Wessex beanspruchte und von den Dänen im Norden unterstützt wurde. Im Jahre 904 besiegte Eduard diesen Feind in einer Schlacht endgültig.
Über die Regierungszeit Eduards ist nicht viel bekannt, weil zu wenig Quellen überliefert sind. So fehlen beispielsweise alle königlichen Urkunden der Jahre 909 bis 921. Zwischen 907 und 920 organisierten Eduard und seine Schwester Æthelflæd den Kampf gegen die Dänen im Norden Englands. 910 brachte er den Dänen in der Schlacht bei Tettenhall eine schwere Niederlage bei, konnte mit dem Ausbau seines Herrschaftsgebietes beginnen und schließlich die angelsächsischen Königtümer im Süden Humbriens der dänischen Herrschaft entreißen. Durch den Bau von Burgen drängte er die Dänen bis 918 hinter den Fluss Humber zurück.
Zwar kontrollierte Eduard bis 920 Wessex, Mercia und auch den Norden bis zum Humber, doch König von ganz England, wie es sein Vater war, wurde Eduard niemals offiziell.
Familie [Bearbeiten]
In erster Ehe war er mit Egwina († 901/2), der Tochter eines Adeligen aus Wessex verheiratet. Mit ihr hatte er folgende Kinder:
* Æthelstan (König von England)
* Alfred († sehr jung)
* St. Edith (* um 900; † nach 927 in Tamworth) ∞ 30. Januar 925/926, Sihtric Caoch, König von Northumbria († 927); seit 927 Äbtissin von Tamworth.
In zweiter Ehe heiratete er 901/902 Elfleda († 920), die Tochter des Grafen Ethelhelm. Mit ihr hatte er folgende Kinder:
* Edwin († 933), Unterkönig von Kent
* Elfweard († 1. August 924 in Oxford ), König von England (17. Juli - 1. August 924)
* Edfleda, Nonne in Winchester
* Edgiva (Eadgifu, Ogive; * um 905; † 953) ∞ 1) 918/919, König Karl III. von Westfranken (* 879; † 929); ∞ 2) 951, Heribert Graf von Meaux und Troyes (* um 910; † 980/984).
* Edhilda (* etwa 907/910´; † 26. Januar 937) ∞ 926/927, Hugo der Große, Herzog von Franzien und Graf von Paris (* um 895; † 956).
* Editha (* um 910/913; † 946/947) ∞ 930, Otto I., König des Ostfrankenreichs (* 912; † 973)
* Elgiva († 1005) ∞ Herzog Boleslav II. von Böhmen († 999)
* Ethelfleda, Äbtissin von Romsey Abbey
* Ethelhilda, Nonne in Romsey Abbey
In dritter Ehe heiratete er um 920 Edgiva (* um 905; † 25. August 968), die Tochter des Grafen Sigehelm von Kent. Mit ihr hatte er folgende Kinder:
* Edmund I. (König von England)
* Eadred (König von England)
* St. Edburga (* um 922; † 15. Juni 960), Nonne in Nunnaminster
* Edgiva (* um 923) ∞ entweder Ludwig III., König von Provence (* etwa 880; † 5. Juni 928) oder Ebehard, Graf auf dem Nordgau († etwa 960)
Eduard hatte zudem min
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Edward I "the Elder", king of The Anglo-Saxons's Timeline
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871
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Wessex England
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| 874 |
874
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Wantage, Berkshire, Anglo-Saxon Kingdom
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875
Age 1
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This is the dob that Ancestral Roots gives.
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893
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Kingdom of Wessex, England
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| 897 |
897
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Wessex, England (United Kingdom)
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October 26, 899
- July 17, 924
Age 25
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October 26, 899
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Age 25
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October 26, 899
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Age 25
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899
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Age 25
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King of England
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