Edmund Ironside

Edmund Ironside
King of the English
Matthew Paris's (early 13th-century) impression of the Battle of Assandun, depicting Edmund Ironside (left) and Cnut (right)
Reign	23 April 1016 – 30 November 1016
Predecessor	Æthelred the Unready
Successor	Cnut the Great
Spouse	Ealdgyth
Issue
Edward the Exile Edmund
Father	Æthelred the Unready
Mother	Ælfgifu of York
Born	989 Wessex, England
Died	30 November 1016(1016-11-30) (aged 27) Oxford or London, England
Burial	Glastonbury Abbey

Edmund Ironside (or Edmund II) (Old English: Eadmund) (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Viking invasion led by Cnut the Great. His authority was thereafter limited to Wessex, or the area south of the River Thames. The north was controlled by Cnut, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death.

Family

Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred the Unready (also known as Æthelred II) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. He had three brothers, the elder Æthelstan, and the younger two Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy.

Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow Ealdgyth from Malmesbury Abbey, where she had been imprisoned, and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Cnut the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Cnut, Edmund was reconciled with his father.

Royal and military history

Arms of Edmund Ironside, as imagined by Matthew Paris in the first half of the 13th century

Æthelred, who had earlier taken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him, he fought them to a standstill. He raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Cnut. But, on 18 October, Cnut decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle, the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Cnut held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should die, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.^[1]

Death

On 30 November 1016, King Edmund died in Oxford or London. His territories were ceded to Cnut, who then became king of England. The cause of Edmund's death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes,^[2] while others suggest that he was assassinated by being stabbed 'up the bottom' with a dagger by a viking.^[3] Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed. The location of his body is unknown.

Heirs

Edmund had two children by Ealdgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund. Cnut the Great ordered them both sent to Sweden, to be murdered, but they were sent on to Kiev and ended up in Hungary.

Shakespearean play?

18th-century portrait of Edmund

Edmund Ironside is the name of an anonymous play in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, which has been attributed to Shakespeare on stylistic grounds.^[4] Plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha are not generally accepted as Shakespearean.^[5]

See also

• House of Wessex family tree

Sources

• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• Clemoes, Peter. The Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Bruce Dickins, 1959
• The History Channel - England history to 1485

References