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- Edmund
King of the English
Tenure 27 October 939 – 26 May 946
Coronation c. 29 November 939 probably at Kingston upon Thames[1]
Predecessor Æthelstan
Successor Eadred
Born 921 Wessex, England
Died 26 May 946 (aged 24–25) Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, England
Burial Glastonbury Abbey
Spouse Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
Æthelflæd of Damerham
Issue Eadwig, King of England
Edgar, King of England
House Wessex
Father Edward, King of Wessex
Mother Eadgifu of Kent
Religion Roman Catholic
Edmund I
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edmund I (Old English: Ēadmund, pronounced [æːɑdmund]; 921 – 26 May
946), called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent, was King
of the English from 939 until his death. He was a son of Edward the Elder
and half-brother of Æthelstan. Æthelstan died on 27 October 939, and
Edmund succeeded him as king.
Contents
1 Early life and Military threats
2 Louis IV of France
3 Death and succession
4 Ancestry
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Early life and Military threats
Edmund came to the throne as the son of Edward the Elder,[2] and therefore
the grandson of Alfred the Great, great-grandson of Æthelwulf of Wessex
and great-great grandson of Egbert of Wessex, who was the first of the house
of Wessex to start dominating the Anglo Saxon realms. However, being born
when his father was already a middle aged man, Edward lost his father when
he was a toddler, in 924, which saw his 30 year old half brother Athelstan
come to the throne. Edmund would grow up in the reign of Athelstan, even
participating in the Battle of Brunanburgh in his adolescence in 937
Athelstan died in the year 939, which saw young Edmund come to the
throne. Shortly after his proclamation as king, he had to face several military
threats. King Olaf III Guthfrithson conquered Northumbria and invaded the
Midlands; when Olaf died in 942, Edmund reconquered the Midlands.[2] In
943, Edmund became the god-father of King Olaf of York. In 944, Edmund
was successful in reconquering Northumbria.[3] In the same year, his ally
Olaf of York lost his throne and left for Dublin in Ireland. Olaf became the
king of Dublin as Amlaíb Cuarán and continued to be allied to his godfather.
In 945, Edmund conquered Strathclyde but ceded the territory to
King Malcolm I of Scotland in exchange for a treaty of mutual military
support.[3] Edmund thus established a policy of safe borders and peaceful
relationships with Scotland. During his reign, the revival of monasteries in
England began.
Louis IV of France
One of Edmund's last political movements of which there is some knowledge is his role in the restoration of Louis IV of
France to the throne. Louis, son of Charles the Simple and Edmund's half-sister Eadgifu, had resided at the West-Saxon court
for some time until 936, when he returned to be crowned King of France. In the summer of 945, he was captured by the
Norsemen of Rouen and subsequently released to Duke Hugh the Great, who held him in custody. The chronicler Richerus
claims that Eadgifu wrote letters both to Edmund and to Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor in which she requested support for her
son. Edmund responded to her plea by sending angry threats to Hugh.[4] Flodoard's Annales, one of Richerus' sources, report:
Silver penny of Edmund I
Coin of King Edmund
Edmund, king of the English, sent messengers to Duke Hugh about the
restoration of King Louis, and the duke accordingly made a public
agreement with his nephews and other leading men of his kingdom. [...]
Hugh, duke of the Franks, allying himself with Hugh the Black, son of
Richard, and the other leading men of the kingdom, restored to the
kingdom King Louis.[5][6]
Death and succession
On 26 May 946, Edmund was murdered by Leofa, an exiled thief, while attending St
Augustine's Day mass in Pucklechurch (South Gloucestershire).[7] John of Worcester
and William of Malmesbury add some lively detail by suggesting that Edmund had
been feasting with his nobles, when he spotted Leofa in the crowd. He attacked
the intruder in person, but in the event, Leofa killed him. Leofa was killed on the
spot by those present.[8] A recent article re-examines Edmund's death and
dismisses the later chronicle accounts as fiction. It suggests the king was the
victim of a political assassination.[9]
Edmund's sister Eadgyth, the wife of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, died earlier
the same year, as Flodoard's Annales for 946 report.[10]
Edmund was succeeded as king by his brother Eadred, king from 946 until 955.
Edmund's sons later ruled England as:
Eadwig, King of England from 955 until 957, king of only Wessex and Kent from 957 until his death on 1 October 959.
Edgar the Peaceful, king of Mercia and Northumbria from 957 until his brother's death in 959, then king of England
from 959 until 975.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Edmund I of England
16. Egbert of Wessex
8. Æthelwulf of Wessex
17. Redburga
4. Alfred the Great
18. Oslac
9. Osburga
2. Edward the Elder
10. Æthelred Mucil
5. Ealhswith
11. Eadburh
1. Edmund I of England
6. Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent
3. Eadgifu of Kent
Diagram based on the information found on Wikipedia
See also
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
Burial places of British royalty
Edmund the Just, fictional king of Narnia
Notes
1. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 514
2. Edmund I (king of England)," Edmund-I" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/179333/ )Encyclopædia Britannica
3. David Nash Ford, Edmund the Magnificent, King of the English (AD 921-946, )Early British Kingdoms (http://www.earlybritishkingdom
s.com/adversaries/bios/edmundmag.html.)
4. Richerus, Historiae, Book 2, chapters 49–50. See MGH online (http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/bsb00000607/images/index.html?id=000006
07&fip=62.251.15.35&no=20&seite=139.)
5. Dorothy Whitelock (tr.), English Historical Documents c. 500–1042. 2nd ed. London, 1979. p. 345.
6. Edmundus, Anglorum rex, legatos ad Hugonem principem pro restitutione Ludowici regis dirigit: et idem princeps proinde conventus
publicos eumnepotibus suis aliisque regni primatibus agit. [...] Hugo, dux Francorum, ascito secum Hugo Nneigro, filio Richardi,
ceterisque regni primatibus Ludowicum regem, [...] in regnum restituit. (FlodoardA,n nales 946.)
Wikisource has original
works written by or about:
Edmund I of England
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Edmund I
of England.
7. "Here King Edmund died on St Augustines’ Day [26 May]. It was widely known how he edned his days, that Liofa stabbed him at
Pucklechurch. And Æthelflæd of Damerham, daughter of Ealdorman Ælfg,a wr as then his queen." Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS D, tr.
Michael Swanton.
8. John of Worcester, Chronicon AD 946; William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, book 2, chapter 144. The description of the circumstances
remained a popular feature in medieval chronicles, such aHs igden's Polychronicon: "But William, libro ij° de Regibus, seyth (says) that
this kyng kepyng a feste at Pulkirchirche, in the feste of seynte Austyn, and seyng a thefe, Leof by name, sytte [th]er amonge hys gestes,
whom he hade made blynde afore for his trespasses –(q uem rex prios propter scelera eliminavera,t whom the King previously due to his
crimes did excile) – , arysede (arrested) from the table, and takenge that man by the heire of the hedde, caste him unto the grownde.
Whiche kynge was sleyn – (sed nebulonis arcano evisceratus est) – with a lyttle knyfe the [th]e man hade in his honde [hand]; and also he
hurte mony men soore with the same knyfe; neverthelesse he was kytte (cut) at the laste into smalle partes by men longyng to the kynge."
Polychronicon, 1527. See Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=2lQJAAAAQAAJ&q=HIGDEN)
9. K. Halloran, A Murder at Pucklechurch: The Death of King Edmund, 26 May 946. Midland Histo, rVyolume 40, Issue 1 (Spring 2015),
pp. 120-129.
10. Edmundus rex Transmarinus defungitur, uxor quoque regis Othonis, soror ipsius Edmundi, decessit. "Edmund, king across the sea, died,
and the wife of King Otto, sister of the same Edmund, died also." (.t rDorothy Whitelock, English Historical Documents c. 500–1042. 2nd
ed. London, 1979. p. 345).
References
Flodoard, Annales, ed. Philippe Lauer, Les Annales de Flodoard. Collection des textes pour servir à l'étude et à
l'enseignement de l'histoire 39. Paris: Picard, 1905.
External links
Edmund 14 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Æthelstan
King of the
English
939–946
Succeeded by
Eadred
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edmund_I&oldid=786351603"
Categories: 921 births 946 deaths Anglo-Saxon monarchs Burials at Glastonbury Abbey
10th-century murdered monarchs 10th-century English monarchs English murder victims Christian monarchs
House of Wessex Monarchs of England before 1066
This page was last edited on 18 June 2017, at 22:34.
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921 - 962 (41 years)
[1] 
