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The House Of Wessex |
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Edmund II Ironside
APRIL - NOVEMBER 1016
On the death of the ineffectual Ethelred II the Redeless, the banner of Anglo-Saxon resistance against the invading Danes was taken up by Edmund Ironside, the eldest son of Ethelred II, and Ethelflead, daughter of Thored, Ealdorman of Northumbria. Edmund had three brothers, Athelstan, the eldest of Ethelred's sons who died in 1014 leaving Edmund as his father's heir, and Edred and Egbbert, as well as his half-brothers Edward and Alfred from his father's second marriage to Emma of Normandy. Now the head of the House of Wessex, Edmund was an altogether different character to his weak and indecisive father.
Edmund had entered into a power struggle with his father Ethelred toward the end of the latter's reign. Ethelred II had executed two of his son's followers, Sigeferth and Morcar. Defying his father's wishes, Edmund then married Sigeferth's widow, Edith, abducting her from a nunnery. He acquired the nick-name Ironside on account of his legendary great strength.
On his father's
death in 1016, the Witan elected Sweyn as King, but the Londoners proclaimed for
Edmund and he was crowned King of England at St. Paul's Cathedral on 14th April 1016.
Edmund put up an heroic and valiant stand against the Viking invaders. Soliciting aid from the Londoners, he raised the siege of the city. He met Canute in battle at Assingdune, but due to the treachery of Edric Streona, the Danes were victorious. The two armies faced each other again, in Gloucestershire, when Edmund invited Canute to fight him in single combat, in attempt to limit the loss of life to decide the issue. The Danish King, arguing that Edmund's great size and strength made it an unfair competition, declined and suggested instead that they should partition the kingdom. Edmund retained Wessex, Essex, East Anglia and London. This agreement would remain in force until the death of one of the participants to the treaty, at which time all lands would revert to the survivor.
Only a month later Edmund Ironside died in suspicious circumstances. According to one account, he was fatally wounded by an assassin in the employ of Edric Streona. Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey and was succeeded by Canute. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII all remains of a monument or crypt at Glastonbury were destroyed.
The descendants of Edmund Ironside
Edred, the brother of Edmund Ironside, who was popular among the English people, was outlawed by Canute, he was later killed on the advice of Edric Streona.
Edmund left two young sons, Edward and Edmund, whom Canute consigned to the safe keeping of his half-brother and ally, Olof King of Sweden. They were secretly sent to Kiev, where Olof's daughter Ingigerd was the Queen. They were then sent to Hungary, probably in the retinue of Ingigerd's son-in-law, King András. The two children were placed under the care of the King of Hungary. The younger son, Edmund, died without issue. The elder brother, Edward, referred to as the Atheling ( Anglo-Saxon, meaning Prince or of noble birth), married Agatha, according ro some sources, possibly a niece of Henry III, Emperor of Germany, by whom he had three children. A son, Edgar and two daughters, Margaret and Christina.
Edward and his children were invited back to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Edward died shortly after and the Confessor took his nephew's grieving widow and children into his care and protection. After the Norman Conquest, the claims of the royal Saxon House devolved upon Edgar Atheling, but then aged about 13 or 14, he submitted to the formidable William the Conqueror.
In 1068, Edgar joined in rebellion with the northern Earls Edwin and Morcar against William's rule and shortly after fled to Scotland. Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots, married Edgar's eldest sister Margaret, and agreed to give him his support in his bid to reclaim the throne of England.
Edgar allied himself with Sweyn Estridson, King of Denmark, the nephew of King Canute and invaded England in 1069, where he captured York. William advanced north to meet them and paid Edgar's Danish allies to leave, whilst Edgar himself fled back to the refuge of Scotland. There he remained in exile until 1072 when the terms of a peace treaty between England and Scotland included the exile of Edgar, who eventually made peace with William in 1074.
In the reign of the Conqueror's son, William Rufus, Edgar supported his elder brother Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy in a failed rebellion and was again forced to flee to Scotland. He also threw his support behind his nephew, Edgar, in gaining the Scottish crown, overthrowing his paternal uncle King Donald III of Scotland in 1097.
Edgar Atheling travelled to Constantinople in around 1098 and from there joined the First Crusade, where he participated in the siege of Antioch. He fought in the Battle of Tinchebrai, in support of the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert, Duke of Normandy against his brother, King Henry I of England, where he was taken prisoner. Later pardoned by Henry I, who was married to his niece, Edith, he retired to his estates in Hertfordshire. Edgar, the last of the House of Wessex, left no issue. He died in his seventies shortly after 1125.
Edward the Exile's younger daughter, Christina, became Abbess of Romsey, while his eldest daughter, St. Margaret, married Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots, who was said to have been besotted by her. Edith of Scotland, the daughter of Malcolm and Margaret, became the wife of Henry I of England. As a result of this marriage, all succeeding kings of England and Scotland could claim descent from the House of Wessex.