King Edgar
943 – 975 · Generation IV · King of the English (r. 959–975) · House of Wessex
Edgar the Peaceful (943–975). King of the English (r. 959–975). Married Æthelflæd Eneda in 957. Married Ælfthryth of Devon in 964. Few events of his rule were written down — the chroniclers were churchmen with churchmen’s interests — but its character is clear. He threw royal weight behind the English Benedictine Reform, which under his patronage came to shape religion and society at large, with a flowering of art and letters around Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester; with his help the monasteries amassed estates so aggressively that they stored up trouble for his successors. His great administrative act was to replace a patchwork of regional coinages with a single standard issue in the early 970s, and his law codes worked chiefly at better enforcement. No Viking raid troubled England in his time, and later writers remembered the reign as a golden age; modern historians rank it as the high point of Anglo-Saxon culture, though some suspect the disorder after his death was the rebound from so controlling a king.
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 Edgar.
Parents
- King Edmund (921 – 946)
- Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury (922 – 944)
Siblings
- King Edwy (Eadwig) (940 – 959)
Partners
- Married Æthelflæd Eneda (945 – 960) in 957 — one child together
- Married Ælfthryth of Devon (945 – 1000) in 964 — one child together
Children
- King Edward The Martyr (962 – 978)
- King Aethelred II The Unready (966 – 1016)
Life
- 943 — Born
- 957 — Married Æthelflæd Eneda
- 959 — Edgar King of Mercia and Northumbria becomes King of all England.
- 964 — Married Ælfthryth of Devon
- 973 — Northern Kings submit to Edgar at Chester
- 975 — Died
- 975 — Edgar dies at Winchester