0 @IR1792@ INDI
1 SOUR @SIR1@
1 NAME Edward the Elder //
1 TITL King of Wessex
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE ABT 0872
2 SOUR @S9@
1 DEAT
2 DATE 924
2 PLAC Farndon
2 SOUR @S9@
1 BURI
2 PLAC Winchester
2 SOUR @S9@
1 NOTE EDWARD THE ELDER (c.872-924) was the second child and eldest son of King Alfred whom
2 CONC he succeeded as King of Wessex from 899 until 924. He was born about 872 and given a
2 CONC good education There are indications that by the late 880's he was
2 CONC regarded as his father's heir-apparent. (This was by no means a foregone conclusion:
2 CONC succession was governed by no hard-and-fast roles, and there were other potential
2 CONC claimants.) He first emerges clearly into the light of history in 893 when he
2 CONC defeated a large army of Danish raiders at Farnham. His succession to the throne in
2 CONC 899 did not go uncontested. His cousin Ethelwold, the son of Alfred's elder brother
2 CONC Ethelred I, rose in rebellion against him, entered into alliance with the
2 CONC Danes of Northumbria and East Anglia, and invaded English Mercia and northern Wessex
2 CONC in 902. In an indecisive battle Ethelwold was killed and his bid for the kingship was
2 CONC over. While he lasted he had been extremely dangerous. Ethelwold's
2 CONC revolt hints at the strains inside the West Saxon dynasty, about which our sources
2 CONC usually maintain a discreet silence.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE Edward's most striking achievement as king was his conquest of the Danelaw up as far
2 CONC as the river Humber in a series of campaigns between 909 and 920. In these operations he
2 CONC was assisted by his sister Ethelflaed, the 'Lady of the Mercians'.
2 CONC His strategy focused upon the building of fortresses, or burhs, at key points on the
2 CONC fringes of his territories. Their function was at once defensive and offensive: they
2 CONC served both to discourage Danish raids into English land and to provide
2 CONC bases from which further English advances could be launched. Between 910 and 924
2 CONC no less than twenty-eight burhs were constructed by Edward and Ethelflaed, a very
2 CONC considerable investment of resources.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE Edward perceived that the Danes of Northumbria had to be neutralized before he could
2 CONC concentrate his efforts against the southern Danes. A combined Mercian and West Saxon
2 CONC campaign in Northumbria in 909 brought retaliation in 910. A
2 CONC Northumbrian army struck into Mercia and was decisively defeated at Tettenhall in
2 CONC Staffordshire. Danish Northumbria gave Edward no more trouble for the next few years.
2 CONC In 911 he built a burh at Hertford and in 912 moved against the Danes of
2 CONC Essex, receiving many submissions and constructing a burh at Witham. The eastern advance
2 CONC was suspended in 913 and 914 as Edward beat off raiding-parties from the midlands and a
2 CONC much more serious attack from Danes based in Brittany who
2 CONC penetrated up the Bristol Channel into the lands bordering the lower Severn. After that
2 CONC the King resumed activities in the east - his advance was marked by the building of
2 CONC fortresses at Buckingham (914), Bedford (915) and Maldon (916). The year
2 CONC 917 was one of intense military activity, unusually well-documented in the contemporary
2 CONC record of the AngIo-Saxon Chronicle. By the end of the year Edward was in control of
2 CONC the whole of East Anglia together with Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire
2 CONC and Northamptonshire fortresses had been built or restored at Towcester, Huntingdon,
2 CONC Colchester and the unidentified Wigingamere (probably in Cambridgeshire). Ethelflaed,
2 CONC meanwhile, had conquered Derby from the Danes. In 918 she went on to
2 CONC occupy Leicester, while Edward moved up the eastern side of the country, absorbing
2 CONC Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire (burhs at Stamford and Nottingham). His northern
2 CONC frontiers were made more secure by fortresses at Thelwall, Manchester and
2 CONC Bakewell in 919-20. West Saxon power had been carried as far as the river Humber.
2 CONC In a famous passage the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that in 920 the rulers of
2 CONC mainland Britain beyond the Humber - the Danish King of York, the Anglian lord of
2 CONC Bamburgh, the King of the Britons of Strathclyde and the King of Scots -submitted to
2 CONC King Edward and chose him as 'father and lord'. At the very least this constituted
2 CONC an undertaking to live at peace with Edward, perhaps to pay tribute too, and
2 CONC it would appear that the promises were honored for the remainder of his reign.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE Edward had absorbed not merely the southern Danelaw but also English, i.e. western,
2 CONC Mercia. On the death of Ealdorman Ethelred of Mercia in 911 Edward annexed London and
2 CONC Oxford and 'all the lands which belonged to them' in the valley of the
2 CONC Thames. Immediately after the death of his sister Ethelflaed in 918 he occupied Tamworth
2 CONC 'and all the nation in the land of the Mercians which had been subject to Ethelflaed
2 CONC submitted to him.' Shortly afterwards Ethelflaed's daughter Elfwyn was
2 CONC removed from Mercia to Wessex: nothing more is heard of her. The West Saxon takeover
2 CONC of English Mercia may have been a less peaceable affair than our sources - exclusively
2 CONC West Saxon -- permit us to see. Of one thing we can be certain: it was
2 CONC followed up by a thoroughgoing reorganization of the administrative structure of Mercia.
2 CONC The system of local government based on shires administered by royal officials, whose
2 CONC origins we can dimly discern in the Wessex of king Ine two centuries
2 CONC before Edward's day, was extended to Mercia in the tenth century. The shires of English
2 CONC Mercia from Cheshire in the north to Bedfordshire in the south were artificial creations
2 CONC whose boundaries cut across ancient tribal units. It was an
2 CONC assertion of ordered power by an imperialistic West Saxon government riding roughshod
2 CONC over local sentiment and tradition. Exactly when the reorganization was carried through
2 CONC we cannot be certain, but it is likely that it should he attributed to
2 CONC Edward's initiative. Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire may have been in existence in 906;
2 CONC perhaps Oxfordshire originated in 911; the west midlands might have been carved up into
2 CONC shires between 918 and 924. In the southern DaneIaw, by contrast,
2 CONC Edward was more respectful of earlier arrangements. Essex is the ancient kingdom of the
2 CONC East Saxons, and the 'North-folk' and South-folk' of the East Anglian kingdom were
2 CONC perpetuated as the shires of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the east midlands it
2 CONC seems that the Danes had themselves established administrative units which cut across
2 CONC earlier divisions, and Edward preserved these. Thus, for example, the territories of
2 CONC the Danish 'army of Northampton' became the English Northamptonshire.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE Edward 'the Elder' was the ablest strategist ever produced by the Anglo-Saxons. His
2 CONC campaigns displayed qualities of tenacity and imagination ; their follow-up testified
2 CONC to a remarkable ability to organize. Our sources concentrate attention
2 CONC upon his military achievements. But there were others too. The fortresses of Edward's
2 CONC reign were not just military in function. They were intended from the first to be
2 CONC civilian settlements as well as military strongpoints; in a word, towns.
2 CONC Like the burhs of Alfred's reign they were in some cases quite big: Stamford was
2 CONC about twenty-eight acres, Stafford about thirty-eight, Warwick about fifty-six.
2 CONC Archaeologists have shown that several of then had planned street-systems. As towns
2 CONC they would have had to be sustained at least to some degree by trade and industry.
2 CONC That this hope was realized is suggested by the history of the coinage. During the
2 CONC reign of Edward's son Athelstan Anglo-Saxon coins started to bear the names of
2 CONC the towns where they were struck. Of the Edwardian burhs Chester, Derby, Gloucester,
2 CONC Hereford, Maldon, Nottingham, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Stafford and Tamworth possessed
2 CONC mints in Athelstan's reign. It is likely that several towns in this list
2 CONC were striking coin in Edward's day. Further evidence which suggests a lively,
2 CONC developing economy is furnished by Edward's legislation. Of his two legal ordinances
2 CONC the first addressed itself particularly to issues connected with the buying and
2 CONC selling of livestock; .and it is significant that the king wished to channel such
2 CONC transactions into the towns.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE Edward continued his parents' development and embellishment of Winchester. Early in
2 CONC his reign he founded a religious community there, the New Minster, so-called to
2 CONC distinguish it from the cathedral or Old Minster next door to it: its church
2 CONC was dedicated in 903. He was probably responsible for completing his mother's
2 CONC foundation for women at Winchester, the so-called Nunnaminster, after her death
2 CONC in 902. His daughter Eadburga (d.c. 951) became a nun there and was later regarded as
2 CONC a saint. Edward's religious patronage brought him into contact with foreign churchmen.
2 CONC New Minster was provided with relics of Sr. Judoc, a Breton saint of the seventh century.
2 CONC We hear casually, in a letter from the prior of Dol in Brittany to
2 CONC King Athelstan written in about 926, that Edward had been linked by confraternity to
2 CONC the canons of Dol. Since Athelstan acquired relics from this source it is possible
2 CONC that Edward got Judoc's relics from Dol. There may have been more contacts
2 CONC of this type arid it is extremely likely that books arid works of art also passed
2 CONC to England by such means.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE There were in addition diplomatic contacts with foreign rulers. His sister Elfthryth
2 CONC had been married to the Count of Flanders between 893 and 899: Anglo-Flemish contacts
2 CONC remained close throughout the tenth century. Between 917 and 919 Edward
2 CONC married his daughter Eadgifu to Charles, King of the West Frankish kingdom (i.e. France).
2 CONC When Charles was deposed in 922 Eadgifu came hack to England as a refugee with her
2 CONC young son Louis. The boy was brought up in England until lie was
2 CONC recalled to the throne of France in 936. Louis was not the only political exile in
2 CONC England. There were members of the Breton aristocracy, driven out by Viking invasions
2 CONC of Brittany in 919. Edward's court also attracted foreign churchmen.
2 CONC Theodred, Bishop of London from c. 926 to c. 951, was probably a German: he was promoted
2 CONC to an important bishopric so soon after Edward's death that it is likely that his rise
2 CONC to prominence occurred during the king's reign. 0da, later to be
2 CONC Archbishop of Canterbury, was another foreigner who made his mark under Edward.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE Our knowledge of these doings and persons is fragmentary, inferences to be drawn
2 CONC from them hazardous. Such as it is, the evidence suggests that Edward was more than
2 CONC just an exceptionally talented soldier. In historical reputation lie has
2 CONC always been somewhat overshadowed by his father and his son. It was his misfortune
2 CONC to have had no Asser to transmit an image of him to posterity. If any such work were
2 CONC composed, which is possible, it has not survived. Yet his achievements were
2 CONC on a par with those of Alfred and Athelstan.
1 NOTE
1 NOTE In 924 the people of Chester rebelled. Edward went north and suppressed the revolt,
2 CONC and died shortly afterwards at Farndon, a little to the south of Chester, on 17 July.
2 CONC He was buried in the New Minster at Winchester.
1 SOUR Weis. 1-16.
1 SOUR Lettington. A Royal Heritage. p. 11.
1 SOUR Fletcher. Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England. DA145.2.F55 1989. pp 148-153.
1 FAMS @FR720@
1 FAMS @FR722@
1 FAMS @FR718@
1 FAMC @FR834@

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