Edward the Elder

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(924-07-17) 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 Viking ruled 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]

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]

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.

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.

Genealogy

For a more complete genealogy including ancestors and descendants, see House of Wessex family tree.

Diagram based on the information found on Wikipedia

Ancestry

References

Sources

• anglo-saxons.net
• "England: Anglo-Saxon Consecrations: 871-1066". http://www.archontology.org/nations/england/anglosaxon/01_coron.php#edward_elder. 
• "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. 

External links

• The Laws of King Edward the Elder
• Edward the Elder Coinage Regulations
• Find A Grave: Edward the Elder