King Edwy (Eadwig)
940 – 959 · Generation IV · King of the English (r. 955–959) · House of Wessex
Eadwig of England (940–959). King of the English (r. 955–959). Crowned at about fifteen, he began with a quarrel, clashing with Dunstan, the powerful abbot of Glastonbury, and driving him into exile in Flanders. In 956 he gave away land on an extraordinary scale — over sixty grants in a single year, a pace without parallel in Europe before the 1100s — read variously as the price of support or as largesse to favourites over the heads of the previous reign’s establishment. In 957 the kingdom was split along the Thames, his brother Edgar taking the north; whether by prior design or successful revolt remains disputed. The next year Archbishop Oda parted him from his wife Ælfgifu as too close a kinswoman. Monastic writers painted him as a reckless failure, a verdict historians long accepted but have lately questioned or set aside as resting on conflicting evidence.
One of 21 people of House of Wessex (until 1093) in this archive. Alfred’s line: kings of Wessex who became the first kings of all England.
Line of descent: King Alfred the Great → King Edward The Elder → King Edmund → King Edwy (Eadwig).
Parents
- King Edmund (921 – 946)
- Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury (922 – 944)
Siblings
- King Edgar (943 – 975)
Life
- 940 — Born
- 955 — Edwy crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames
- 956 — Dunstan sent into exile by Edwy
- 957 — Mercians and Northumbrians rebel against Edwy
- 959 — Died
- 959 — Edwy dies in Gloucester