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- Edward the Elder //
Parents.
Draw Anc. Tree. Draw Desc. Tree.
- b. ABT 0872 Source
- d. 924 at Farndon Source
- Buried. at Winchester Source
- M.1.
, M.2.
, M.3.
Source
Source.Lettington. A Royal Heritage. p. 11.
Source.Fletcher. Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England. DA145.2.F55 1989. pp 148-153.
Nb. EDWARD THE ELDER (c.872-924) was the second child and eldest son of King Alfred whom
he succeeded as King of Wessex from 899 until 924. He was born about 872 and given a
good education There are indications that by the late 880's he was
regarded as his father's heir-apparent. (This was by no means a foregone conclusion:
succession was governed by no hard-and-fast roles, and there were other potential
claimants.) He first emerges clearly into the light of history in 893 when he
defeated a large army of Danish raiders at Farnham. His succession to the throne in
899 did not go uncontested. His cousin Ethelwold, the son of Alfred's elder brother
Ethelred I, rose in rebellion against him, entered into alliance with the
Danes of Northumbria and East Anglia, and invaded English Mercia and northern Wessex
in 902. In an indecisive battle Ethel wold was killed and his bid for the kingship was
over. While he lasted he had been extremely dangerous. Ethelwold's
revolt hints at the strains inside the West Saxon dynasty, about which our sources
usually maintain a discreet silence.
Nb. Edward's most striking achievement as king was his conquest of the Danelaw up as far
as the river Humber in a series of campaigns between 909 and 920. In these operations he
was assisted by his sister Ethelflaed, the 'Lady of the Mercians'.
His strategy focused upon the building of fortresses, or burhs, at key points on the
fringes of his territories. Their function was at once defensive and offensive: they
served both to discourage Danish raids into English land and to provide
bases from which further English advances could be laun ched. Between 910 and 924
no less than twenty-eight burhs were constructed by Edward and Ethelflaed, a very
considerable investment of resources.
Nb. Edward perceived that the Danes of Northumbria had to be neutralized before he could
concentrate his efforts against the southern Danes. A combined Mercian and West Saxon
campaign in Northumbria in 909 brought retaliation in 910. A
Northumbrian army struck into Mercia and was decisively defeated at Tettenhall in
Staffordshire. Danish Northumbria gave Edward no more trouble for the next few years.
In 911 he built a burh at Hertford and in 912 moved against the Danes of
Essex, receiving many submissions and constructing a burh at Witham. The eastern advance
was suspended in 913 and 914 as Edward beat off raiding-parties from the midlands and a
much more serious attack from Danes based in Brittany who
penetrated up the Bristol Channel into the lands bordering the lower Severn. After that
the King resumed activities in the east - his advance was marked by the building of
fortresses at Buckingham (914), Bedford (915) and Maldon (916). The year
917 was one of intense military activity, unusually well-documented in the contemporary
record of the AngIo-Saxon Chronicle. By the end of the year Edward was in control of
the whole of East Anglia together with Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire
and Northamptonshire fortresses had been built or restored at Towcester, Huntingdon,
Colchester and the unidentified Wigingamere (probably in Cambridgeshire). Ethelflaed,
meanwhile, had conquered Derby from the Danes. In 918 she went on to
occupy Leicester, while Edward moved up the eastern side of the country, absorbing
Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire (burhs at Stamford and Nottingham). His northern
frontiers were made more secure by fortresses at Thelwall, Manchester and
Bakewell in 919-20. West Saxon power had been carried as far as the river Humber.
In a famous passage the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that in 920 the rulers of
mainland Britain beyond the Humber - the Danish King of York, the Anglian lord of
Bamburgh, the King of the Britons of Strathclyde and the King of Scots -submitted to
King Edward and chose him as 'father and lord'. At the very least this constituted
an undertaking to live at peace with Edward, perhaps to pay tribute too, and
it would appear that the promises were honored for the remainder of his reign.
Nb. Edward had absorbed not merely the southern Danelaw but also English, i.e. western,
Mercia. On the death of Ealdorman Ethelred of Mercia in 911 Edward annexed London and
Oxford and 'all the lands which belonged to them' in the valley of the
Thames. Immediately after the death of his sister Ethelflaed in 918 he occupied Tamworth
'and all the nation in the land of the Mercians which had been subject to Ethelflaed
submitted to him.' Shortly afterwards Ethelflaed's daughter Elfwyn was
removed from Mercia to Wessex: nothing more is heard of her. The West Saxon takeover
of English Mercia may have been a less peaceable affair than our sources - exclusively
West Saxon -- permit us to see. Of one thing we can be certain: it was
followed up by a thoroughgoing reorganization of the administrative structure of Mercia.
The system of local government based on shires administered by royal officials, whose
origins we can dimly discern in the Wessex of king Ine two centuries
before Edward's day, was extended to Mercia in the tenth century. The shires of English
Mercia from Cheshire in the north to Bedfordshire in the south were artificial creations
whose boundaries cut across ancient tribal units. It was an
assertion of ordered power by an imperialistic West Saxon government riding roughshod
over local sentiment and tradition. Exactly when the reorganization was carried through
we cannot be certain, but it is likely that it should he attributed to
Edward's initiative. Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire may have been in existence in 906;
perhaps Oxfordshire originated in 911; the west midlands might have been carved up into
shires between 918 and 924. In the southern DaneIaw, by contrast,
Edward was more respectful of earlier arrangements. Essex is the ancient kingdom of the
East Saxons, and the 'North-folk' and South-folk' of the East Anglian kingdom were
perpetuated as the shires of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the east midlands it
seems that the Danes had themselves established administrative units which cut across
earlier divisions, and Edward preserved these. Thus, for example, the territories of
the Danish 'army of Northampton' became the English Northamptonshire.
Nb. Edward 'the Elder' was the ablest strategist ever produced by the Anglo-Saxons. His
campaigns displayed qualities of tenacity and imagination ; their follow-up testified
to a remarkable ability to organize. Our sources concentrate attention
upon his military achievements. But there were others too. The fortresses of Edward's
reign were not just military in function. They were intended from the first to be
civilian settlements as well as military strongpoints; in a word, towns.
Like the burhs of Alfred's reign they were in some cases quite big: Stamford was
about twenty-eight acres, Stafford about thirty-eight, Warwick about fifty-six.
Archaeologists have shown that several of then had planned street-systems. As towns
they would have had to be sustained at least to some degree by trade and industry.
That this hope was realized is suggested by the history of the coinage. During the
reign of Edward's son Athelstan Anglo-Saxon coins started to bear the names of
the towns where they were struck. Of the Edwardian burhs Chester, Derby, Gloucester,
Here ford, Maldon, Nottingham, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Stafford and Tamworth possessed
mints in Athelstan's reign. It is likely that several towns in this list
were striking coin in Edward's day. Further evidence which suggests a lively,
developing economy is furnished by Edward's legislation. Of his two legal ordinances
the first addressed itself particularly to issues connected with the buying and
selling of livestock; .and it is significant that the king wished to channel such
transactions into the towns.
Nb. Edward continued his parents' development and embellishment of Winchester. Early in
his reign he founded a religious community there, the New Minster, so-called to
distinguish it from the cathed ral or Old Minster next door to it: its church
was dedicated in 903. He was probably responsible for completing his mother's
foundation for women at Winchester, the so-called Nunnaminster, after her death
in 902. His daughter Eadburga (d.c. 951) became a nun there and was later regarded as
a saint. Edward's religious patronage brought him into contact with foreign churchmen.
New Minster was provided with relics of Sr. Judoc, a Breton saint of the seventh century.
We hear casually, in a letter from the prior of Dol in Brittany to
King Athelstan written in about 926, that Edward had been linked by confraternity to
the canons of Dol. Since Athelstan acquired relics from this source it is possible
that Edward got Judoc's relics from Dol. There may have been more contacts
of this type arid it is extremely likely that books arid works of art also passed
to England by such means.
Nb. There were in addition diplomatic contacts with foreign rulers. His sister Elfthryth
had been married to the Count of Flanders between 893 and 899: Anglo-Flemish contacts
remained close throughout the tenth century. Between 917 and 919 Edward
married his daughter Eadgifu to Charles, King of the West Frankish kingdom (i.e. France).
When Charles was deposed in 922 Eadgifu came hack to England as a refugee with her
young son Louis. The boy was brought up in England until lie was
recalled to the throne of France in 936. Louis was not the only political exile in
England. There were members of the Breton aristocracy, driven out by Viking invasions
of Brittany in 919. Edward's court also attracted foreign churchmen.
Theodred, Bishop of London from c. 926 to c. 951, was probably a German: he was promoted
to an important bishopric so soon after Edward's death that it is likely that his rise
to prominence occurred during the king's reign. 0da, later to be
Archbishop of Canterbury, was another foreigner who made his mark under Edward.
Nb. Our knowledge of these doings and persons is fragmentary, inferences to be drawn
from them hazardous. Such as it is, the evidence suggests that Edward was more than
just an exceptionally talented soldier. In historical reputation lie has
always been somewhat overshadowed by his father and his son. It was his misfortune
to have had no Asser to transmit an image of him to posterity. If any such work were
composed, which is possible, it has not survived. Yet his achievements were
on a par with those of Alfred and Athelstan.
Nb. In 924 the people of Chester rebelled. Edward went north and suppressed the revolt,
and died shortly afterwards at Farndon, a little to the south of Chester, on 17 July.
He was buried in the New Minster at Winchester.
- Elfleda //
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- Alfflaed //
- M.1.
Source
SourceChildren
- Ethelwerd //
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- Aethelweard //
- d. 924
Source
Source.George. Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History. Table I.
- Edwin //
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- Eadwine //
- d. 0933
Source
Source.George. Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History. Table I.
- Elfleda //
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Source
- Edgiva //
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- Eadgifu //
- d. 0951
- M.1.
Source
Nb. Edgiva, probably granddaughter of Alfred the Great.
- Ethelhilda //
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Source
- Edhilda //
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- M.1.
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- Eadgyth (Edith) //
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- d. 26 JAN 0946
- M.1.
Source
- Elgiva //
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- M.1.
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