King Edmund
921 – 946 · Generation III · King of the English (r. 939–946) · House of Wessex
Edmund I of England (921–946). King of the English (r. 939–946). Married Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury in 940. Stabbed at a feast at Pucklechurch aged about twenty-five. His reign opened with the West Saxon line’s first serious reverse since Alfred: Anlaf Guthfrithson was accepted as king in York and extended Viking rule over the Five Boroughs of north-east Mercia. After Anlaf’s death Edmund recovered his ground, taking back the Five Boroughs in 942 and expelling York’s Viking kings in 944 to rule the whole of England again. In 945 he ravaged Strathclyde and ceded it to Malcolm I of Scotland. An active lawmaker — three of his codes survive, among them measures to rein in the blood-feud and to protect the king’s person — he also set the Benedictine reform on its way by making Dunstan abbot of Glastonbury, while keeping up his brother’s friendships with continental rulers married to his half-sisters.
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.
Parents
- King Edward The Elder (874 – 924)
- Eadgifu of Kent (903 – 966)
Siblings
- King Athelstan (Aethelstan) (894 – 939) (half)
- King Edred (923 – 955)
Partners
- Married Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury (922 – 944) in 940 — 2 children together
Children
- King Edwy (Eadwig) (940 – 959)
- King Edgar (943 – 975)
Life
- 921 — Born
- 939 — Edmund becomes King. Scandinavian forces from Northumbria overrun the East Midlands.
- 940 — Married Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
- 942 — Edmund re-establishes control over Northumbria and rules a united England.
- 943 — Edmund extends his rule into southern Scotland,
- 945 — Edmund conquers Strathclyde, but Cumbria is annexed by the Scots.
- 946 — Died
- 946 — Edmund murdered at a party in Pucklechurch