BA020 Early Kings of England

The Early English Kings

A Black Arrow resource The Early English Kings

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A Black Arrow resource

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Monarch

Born

Reign

Married

Egbert

circa 780 son of Ealhmund of Kent

827-839

Redburga

Ethelwulf

son of Egbert and Redburga 839-856

(1) Osburga (2) Judith of Flanders

Ethelbald

circa 831 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

856-860

Judith of Flanders

Ethelbert

circa 831 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

860-865

Ethelred I

circa 837 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

865-871

Wulfrida

Alfred the Great

circa 849 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

871–899

Eahlswith

Edward the Elder circa 871-877 899-924

son of Alfred the Great and Ealhswith

Ælfweard

904 son of Edward the Elder and Elfleda

924

Athelstan

895 son of Edward the Elder and Ecgwynn

924-939

Edmund I

circa 921 939–946 son of Edward the Elder and Edgiva of Kent

Edred

circa 923 son of Edward the Elder and Edgiva of Kent

946–955

Edwy the Fair

circa 940 son of Edmund I and Elgiva

955–959

Edgar the Peaceful circa 943 959–975

son of Edmund I and Elgiva

Edward the Martyr

circa 962 son of Edgar the Peaceful and Ethelflaed

(1) Ecgwynn (2) Aelffaed (3) Edgiva of Kent

(1) Elgiva (2) Æthelflæd

Elgiva (1) Ethelflaed (2) Wulfthryh (3) Ælfthryth

975–978

Ethelred II the Redeless circa968 978–1016

son of Edgar the Peaceful and Ælfthryth

(1) Ælflaed of Northumbria (2) Aelgifu (3) Emma of Normandy

Sweyn Forkbeard

(1) Gunild of Poland (2) Sigrid, ‘the Haughty’

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circa 960 1013 son of Harald Bluetooth

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Edmund II Ironside

circa 993 1016 son of Ethelred II and Ælflaed of Northumbria

Edith of East Anglia

Canute

Harald I Harefoot

circa 994 1016-1035 son of Sweyn Forkbeard and Gunhilda of Poland circa 1012 1037-40 illegitimate son of Canute

(i)Elgiva (ii)Emma of Normandy

Hardicanute

circa 1096 son of Canute and Emma of Normandy

1040-42

Edward the Confessor

circa1005 son of Ethelred II and Emma of Normandy

1042-1066

Edith Godwineson

Harold Godwineson

circa1020 son of Godwine, Earl of Wessex and Gytha Thorkelsdótti

1066

Elgiva

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Egbert 827-839

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gbert, in Old English Ecgbehrt, the first King of all England, was born around 770-780. He was the son of Ealhmund, King of Kent, who is mentioned in a charter of 784.

Ealhmund was himself the son of Eafa, King of Wessex, by a Kentish princess. The House of Wessex boasted of a descent from no less a personage than the great Woden himself. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the descent of Egbert from Cerdic, a Saxon invader who landed on the south coast in 495.

Following the murder of King Cynewulf, Egbert’s kinsman, Beothric was elected to the vacant throne of Wessex in 786, but Egbert, who considered himself to have a better claim, contested his right.

Egbert was forced to take refuge at the court of the powerful Offa, King of the tribal kingdom of Mercia. Beothric responded by proposing an alliance between himself and Offa, which was to be cemented by his marriage to Offa’s daughter Eadburgha.

He further requested that Offa deliver the rebel Egbert to him. Offa accepted Beorthric’s offer for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but instead of handing over Egbert to his enemy and certain death, he merely banished him from England.

Egbert was forced to flee to France, then ruled by the Emperor Charlemagne and is said to have served in his army. He remained safely in France for the rest of Beothric’s reign in Wessex. He contracted a marriage to Redburga, a Frankish princess, said by some authorities to have been the sister of Charlemagne, although she remains a shadowy figure about whom very little is known. The marriage of Egbert and Redburga produced two sons and a daughter.

On the death of Beothric, Egbert returned to his native England to claim the vacant throne of Wessex in 800 and was accepted although the Mercians opposed his rule. Wessex was attacked by the Hwicce, under ealdorman Ethelmund (the Hwicce had originally formed a separate tribal kingdom, but by that time formed part of Mercia). Weohstan, a Wessex ealdorman and said by one source to be Egbert’s brother-inlaw, met him with men from Wiltshire. The Hwicce were defeated, and Weohstan and Ethelmund slain.

Inspired by Frankish military and imperial ideas, Egbert made rigorous efforts to bring the native Britons, or Celts, into subjection, eventually, all of what is now Wales was subject to his authority. Egbert defeated the rival king Beornwulf of Mercia in battle at Ellandune, near Swindon and marched an The Early English Kings

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army into Kent, at that time under Mercian rule. Baldred, the Mercian under-king of Kent, fled and the Kentish men declared for Egbert. Surrey, Sussex and Essex followed suit. Egbert’s elder son, Ethelwulf was made sub-king of these regions.

The East Anglians, who were also subjects of the Mercian king, rebelled. Beornwulf, King of Mercia was intent on re-asserting his authority in the province. The East Anglians placed themselves under the protection of Egbert of Wessex, who came to their aid and Beornwulf himself was killed in the ensuing conflict. Wiglaf was elected to succeed him in 829. Allowing Wiglaf no time for preparation, Egbert hastily advanced into Mercia and expelled him from the kingdom, making himself ruler of all of England south of the Humber.

Egbert then turned his attention to the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria, which also fell to him. He now controlled all of England. He had triumphed, he was Bretwalda.

The Vikings, Danish and Norwegian raiders, had first ravaged the shores of England in 793, recorded in a dramatic entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : ‘In this year dire portents appeared over Northumbria and sorely frightened the people. They consisted of immense whirlwinds and flashes of lightening and fiery dragons were seen flyimg in the air. A great famine immediately followed these signs, and a little after that in the same year, on 8 June, the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter.’

Further terrifying Viking attacks followed and began to grow in strength in the last years of Egbert’s reign. They came from over the sea from Denmark and Norway in their dragon prows, or longships. In 835, the Vikings raided the Isle of Sheppey, Egbert lead an army against them at Carhampton on the North Devon coast. The Celts of Cornwall and Devon, known to the Saxons as Wilisc men (i.e. foreigners) allied themselves with the Danes. Egbert defeated them but by the time of his death in 839 the Viking raids had become annual occurences and Mercia had regained its independence.

Egbert was was succeeded on the throne of Wessex by his eldest son Ethelwulf, and was buried at Winchester. Following the Norman conquest, Winchester Cathedral was erected on the Saxon site of the Old Minster. The Royal remains, including King Egbert’s bones, were exhumed and placed around St. Swithin’s Shrine in the new building. However in the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, the bones, after being used by Cromwell’s soldiers as missiles to

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shatter stained glass windows, were scattered and mixed in various mortuary chests along with those of other Saxon kings and bishops and the Norman King William Rufus. The chests remain today, seated upon a decorative screen surrounding the presbytery of the Cathedral.

Egbert’s descendants were generally accepted as Kings of the English. He was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf, who had previously been sub-king in Kent. Kent was then assigned in turn to Ethelwulf’s eldest son, Athelstan.

Ethelwulf 839-856

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thelwulf, the name means noble wolf, is described by chroniclers as being a heavily built man, who was inclined to be sluggish and indolent. Of a gentle and pious nature, he had expressed a desire to be a priest when he was young, his warlike father was said to have found his pacific eldest son a disappointment. He was aided in government by St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, at the time a senior statesman but now chiefly remembered as the patron saint of rainy weather.

The new King was crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames in 839. He consolidated the power of Wessex and re-asserted the supremacy over Mercia. An alliance was formed by marrying his daughter to the Mercian King, which was to prove of lasting value to the House of Wessex.

Much of Ethelwulf’s reign was spent combating the invading Vikings, whom he struggled to contain. They sailed repeatedly up the Thames and pillaged London and the towns of Rochester and Canterbury. A congress was held at Kingsbury in Oxfordshire, to encourage co-operation with the Mercians in repelling the mutual enemy, to which Ethelwulf sent his father-in-law, Osric, as his ambassador. King Burghred of Mercia advanced courageously against the Vikings but was defeated. Ethelwulf, along with his son, Ethelbald, met and defeated them in battle in 851 at Achleah, possibly Oakley in Surrey, where according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle he inflicted ‘the greatest slaughter of a heathen army that was ever heard of to this present day’, thereby Ethelwulf obtained temporary security for his kingdom.

Ethelwulf was married firstly to Osburh, the daughter of Oslac of Hampshire, a Jute, originating from the Isle of Wight, purported to have been able to trace his line back to Jarl Hengist, one of the leaders of the first Saxon armies to invade England. As well as being learned, she held the reputation of being a highly pious woman and was much respected by the

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people. The couple had much in common, their children were to be brought up with a deep reverence for religion. Osburh produced five sons, four of whom were to reign in turn, after their father. She died around 850.

The highly religious Ethelwulf undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, acompanied by his youngest and best loved son, Alfred.

On the way back he formed an alliance with Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, taking in marriage his daughter Judith, who was descended from Charlemagne. The pair were married at Verberie sur Oise on 1 October, 856 and the new Queen of Wessex was solemnly crowned by the Bishop of Rheims.

In Ethelwulf’s absence, his eldest surviving son Ethelbald, who strongly suspected that his father wished to make his favourite son, Alfred, heir to Wessex, had taken advantage of the discontent of his subjects and usurped the throne.

The practice of recognising the successor as co-king was an established practice among Germanic tribes. Although he retained some support, to avoid bloodshed and civil dissension, Ethelwulf nobly accepted the status quo and reverted to his former position as sub-king of Kent.

During the remaining two years of his life, he did much to alleviate the sufferings of the poor in Kent. His care continued after his death, for he left provisions in his will for his successors to provide food, drink and lodging for one poor man per tenth hide of cultivated land in the kingdom. King Ethelwulf died in 858, much mourned by his people, few monarchs have had such an epitaph. He was buried at Steyning, but his body was later moved to Winchester Cathedral.

Ethelbald 856-860

E

thelbald, the eldest surviving son of King Ethelwulf and his first wife, Osburh, was born around 831-834.

Ethelbald’s father, King Ethelwulf, embarked on a lengthy pilgrimage to Rome, taking with him his youngest and favourite son, Alfred, whom he hoped to name as his heir. During the King’s absence, Wessex had been governed by a council of ministers under the joint leadership of Ethelbald, St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester and Bishop Ealstan of Sherborne. In a pre-emptive move Ethelbald was crowned King of Wessex at Kingston-upon-Thames before his father’s return.

Ethelbald was the very antithesis of his pious and mildmannered father, he was a tough and hardened warrior like his grandfather, Egbert, many were sorry that the ageing Ethelwulf, never an inspiring figure, had returned at all, much A Black Arrow resource

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preferring the rule of his warlike son. Ethelwulf prevented the looming prospect of civil war by his acceptance of the situation and abdication.

After the death of his father two years later, Ethelbald foolishly made himself highly unpopular with the church by scandalously marrying his sixteen year old step-mother, Judith of France.

The relationship was deemed incestuous and in direct contravention of church law. Her outraged father, Charles the Bald, King of France, intervened and forced his errant daughter into a nunnery. The much married Judith later eloped with Baldwin, Count of Flanders, making her the ancestress of another Queen of England, Matilda of Flanders, the consort of England’s first Norman King, William the Conqueror.

Despite the scandal with his step-mother, Ethelbald made a popular king. He died at Sherbourne in Dorset on 20 December, 860, aged around 35, after a four year reign. He seems to have been greatly mourned by his people, although Bishop Asser describes him as being “headstrong and arbitrary” It should be remembered, however, that he evoked the censure of the church through his uncanonical marriage, making Asser’s opinion of the King a highly biased one.

Ethelbert 860-865

E

thelbert, the third son of Ethelwulf and Osburh, a Jutish princess, was born circa 835. The grandson of Egbert, first King of the English, he succeeded his brother Ethelbald on 20th December, 860.

Ethelbert had previously been sub-king of Kent, the traditional title given to the early heirs to the throne of Wessex. He was crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey. Almost immediately, the savage Viking invasions on Wessex were renewed.

Ethelbert died, unmarried and childless, in 866 at around the age of thirty-five. He had reigned for only five years. His body was interred at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset.

Ethelred I 865-871

E

thelred I was born around 834 and like his father Ethelwulf, was a man of great piety, who had been brought up very religiously by his mother, Queen Osburh.

Ethelred succeeded his brother Ethelbert in 866 to a land that was being ravaged mercilessly by the full fury of savage Viking onslaughts. The Danes were beginning to settle in England The Early English Kings

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and in 870 siezed control of York. Ethelred took up the struggle against them with renewed vigour.

The dynastic ties which allied the House of Wessex to that of Mercia were strengthened. Burghred, King of Mercia had married Ethelswitha, the daughter of Ethelwulf of Wessex.

Ethelred’s younger brother, Alfred, renewed the bond of alliance when he took his first cousin, Elswitha of Mercia, to be his wife. Ethelred himself married Wulfrida around two years after his accession to the throne of Wessex, they produced two sons Ethelwald, who was born around 868 and Ethelhelm, whose date of birth is unknown.

In the year prior to Ethelred’s accession, a large Viking army had landed in East Anglia, under the leadership of Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless. After a few months it marched up to Northumbria, taking the city of York, the Vikings exacted a terrible vengeance on Aelle, the Northumbrian leader, who suffered a horrific death at their hands, as revenge for his issuing the order to throw the Viking chieftain, Ragnar Lothbrok into a pit of adders some twenty years previously.

Ragnar’s sons, Halfdane and Hingwar, subjected Aelle to the Viking form of execution known as the spreadeagle, or bloodeagle, whereby the victim was pinned face down on the ground and his ribs separated from his spine. The ribs were then forced outwards, forming a pair of wings.

The Danes set up their own ruler in Northumbria, before crossing the border into Mercia, advancing into the province and taking the town of Nottingham. King Burghred of Mercia requested aid from his kinsmen, Ethelred and Alfred. They responded with alacrity, marching into Mercia at the head of an army, but the Danes retained possession of the town.

In 869 the seemingly unstoppable Viking army advanced into East Anglia. The sub-king of the province, Edmund, opposed them valiantly but the East Anglians were defeated and their King taken prisoner whilst fleeing to the town of Hoxne, in Suffolk. Chained and manacled, Edmund was murdered in a ferocious and barbarous fashion, believed to have been sacrificed to the Viking god, Odin.

He met his end with dignity and courage and was later canonized for remaining steadfast in his Catholic faith.

Monasteries were raised to the ground, monks slaughtered and plundering took place on a massive scale.

By 870, the Vikings, spurred on by their success in Northumbria, prepared to attack the kingdom of Wessex. They

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were met by a force of Saxons under Ethelred and Alfred, their army blocking the ancient road across the Berkshire downs by an Iron Age hill fort on Whitehorse Hill, at a spot known to the Saxons as Nachededorne or the naked thorn. The AngloSaxon Chronicle, our chief source of information on the period, refers to the spot as Ashdown. Ethelred finally won victory over the Vikings in a bitter and bloody pitched battle which lasted until nightfall, leaving many of the bodies of the Danish leaders littering the battlefield.

For many centuries it was thought that the 325 feet long White Horse was cut in the hillside to commemorate Ethelred’s great victory, but it is now known to be much older.

This victory brought no permanent advantage, however, and the conflict continued.

The Viking invaders descended again, skirmishing continued and an inconclusive battle was fought at Basing. Ethelred, supported loyally by his brother Alfred, refused to surrender.

The raven banner of the Vikings and the dragon of Wessex were hoisted again at Meredune, which is believed to have been either Marden, near Devizes or Martin in Hampshire.

In the furious conflict that ensued, the Danes emerged the victors. Ethelred died shortly after at Wimborne, from wounds sustained in the battle, according to one account he died in agony. He was no older than thirty at his death and was buried at nearby Wimborne Minster.

Ethelred was posthumously refuted as a saint. Although he left two sons he was succeeded by his youngest brother, Alfred known to history as the Great.

Alfred the Great 871–899

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o other ruler in England’s long and varied history has been honoured with the title the Great. Alfred once declared it his intention “To live worthily as long as I live and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in good works.” Few of our monarchs have succeeded as spectacularly in their aims as he did.

Alfred (Old English-Aelfred) was the fifth and youngest son of Ethelwulf of Wessex and his Jutish first wife, Osburh. He was born at Wantage between 847 and 849, his birthplace was a palace or vill which lay at the foot of the Berkshire Downs, which has now vanished. Ill health is reported to have marred Alfred’s childhood.

One of the few stories that survive from Alfred’s early life relates that his mother, Osburh, showed her sons a beautifully

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illuminated volume of Saxon poetry and promised to make a gift of it to the first of them who was able to read it. Alfred quickly learned to read it aloud, and was made a gift of the book when he was only six years old. His youngest son appears to have been Ethelwulf’s favourite, his father took Alfred on pilgrimage to Rome, to receive the blessing of his godfather, Pope Leo IV. It was rumoured that King Ethelwulf wished to make Alfred his successor.

On Ethelwulf’s return to England he found his eldest son, Ethelbald, had usurped his throne in his absence. Nobly accepting the status quo in the hope that civil war and the consequent loss of life could be avoided, Ethelwulf retired to Kent, where he reigned as sub-king until his death in 858.

Alfred was around eleven when his father died. He was studious as a child and grew to be a man of determination, intelligence and resolution, despite suffering from ill health for much of his life.

Alfred’s three elder brother’s reigned in turn before him.

During the reign of the youngest of these, Ethelred I , Alfred emerges from the mists of obscurity to fight loyally by his side in the struggle against the Danish incursions into Wessex. At the Battle of Ashdown, in the Vale of the White Horse, the pious Ethelred remained so long in his tent praying for victory that Alfred became impatient and lead his men in a furious charge at the enemy without waiting for his brother to finish his prayers.

The Witangemot, or Saxon council of wise men, met after Ethelred’s death from wounds sustained in battle and elected the twenty-one year old Alfred, who had already demonstrated himself a confident leader of men, as King. His brothers between them, had lasted barely a decade. In electing Alfred king the Witan passed over the two young sons of Ethelred.

The law of primogeniture was not then established in Saxon England and it was normal practice for the King to be elected in this manner. The practice of crowning a successor as royal prince and military commander is well-known among Germanic tribes.

The depressing series of defeats at the hands of the Vikings continued unabated and Alfred was forced into a strategy of buying them off. As a result they ceased their attacks and for a period of five years, peace reigned in Wessex. This peace was not likely to last for any considerable length of time and was at best a temporary measure. The Viking army, after taking Mercia, divided. One part, under Halfdan, marched north to Yorkshire where they settled permanently. The other, under Guthrum, launched another attack on Wessex in 875. They A Black Arrow resource

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withdrew again in 877 and began to colonise Mercia.

Wessex was savagely attacked for the third time in 878 and Alfred was driven into hiding at Athelney in the Somerset marshes, he remained there with his ally, Athelnoth, Ealdorman of Somerset and others of his thegns, and biding his time, legend has it that in his preoccupation with the defence of his kingdom, he famously burnt the cakes and was set upon by an angry housewife.

Bishop Asser informs us that Alfred had a great love of jewelled ornaments. His crown, which unfortunately no longer survives, is listed in an inventory of jewels melted down by Oliver Cromwell at the establishment of the Protectorate, it is described as being studded with emeralds.

The Alfred Jewel In 1693, a remarkable discovery of a Saxon jewel was made near Athelney, now known as the Alfred Jewel and housed in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. As the Jewel contains no fastening, it is not thought to be a brooch or a clasp. It is probable that it formed the crown of a writing instrument.

The Alfred jewel made of gold and enamel, bears the Anglo - Saxon inscription ‘Aelfred mec heht gewyrgan’ (Alfred had me made).

IN 886, Alfred garnered his resources and managed to retake the city of London, but Viking raids continued. At the battle of Ethendun in 878, Saxon forces soundly defeated the Vikings lead by Guthrum and peace was concluded by the terms of the Treaty of Wedmore. Guthrum converted to Christianity with Alfred standing as godfather to his erstwhile enemy. Alfred accepted the Danish colonisation of much of England. A line was drawn which ran north-westwards from London to Chester, defining an area north of this line which was termed the Danelaw.

Alfred improved his army, making provision for it to be always availiable at short notice to defend Wessex. Part of the army was always kept in reserve in case of emergency. The navy was similarly improved, building ships which were bigger and better than those possessed by the Vikings.

King Alfred built up defences and fortified townships to ensure the safety of his people. He established defended settlements, or burhs (from which derives the modern borough) These settlements were recorded in detail in the Burghal Hidage.

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A network of burhs was established to ensure that no part of Wessex was further than 20 miles from these strongholds. By 897 he had successfully halted the advance of the Vikings, a remarkable achievement.

Peacetime Achievements The King turned his attention to the deterioration of learning in England. Due to the continued pillage of monasteries by the Vikings, which essentially formed a network of rudimentary education at the time, educational standards had diminished.

Alfred founded a court school to educate the nobles and encouraged the great scholars of his day to take up residence in England. “It is most needful for men to know” he is recorded as stating “and to bring it to pass, if we have peace, that all the youth now in England-may be devoted to learning.” The royal court was to become a magnet for scholars.

On the insistence of the King, English became the official written language. Alfred personally translated into English ‘The History of the Venerable Bede’, ‘Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy’, ‘Dialogues of Gregory the Great’, Gregory’s ‘Pastoral Care’. and Orosius’ Soliloquies of St. Augustine’.

Prior to this, all books had been written in Latin.

Alfred is also noted for beginning the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 890’s and had many copies made. The chronicle was written in Anglo-Saxon, rather than the usual Latin. Alfred decreed that these copies be placed in monasteries and churches and frequently updated. The chronicle was updated until the twelfth century, some of the original copies still survive to the present day. It remains one of the few literary sources we possess for English history from the departure of the Romans to the Norman conquest.

Alfred established a legal code, forming a body of Saxon law, based on the laws of Offa of Mercia, which limited the practice of blood feuding and imposed heavy penalties on those in breech of sworn oath.

“I ... collected these together and ordered to be written many of them which our forefathers observed, those which I liked; and many of those which I did not like I rejected with the advice of my councillors ... For I dared not presume to set in writing at all many of my own, because it was unknown to me what would please those who should come after us ... Then I ... showed those to all my councillors, and they then said that they were all pleased to observe them” (Laws of Alfred, c.885-99).

Throughout his life, Alfred had suffered from a mysterious

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illness, about which little is known with certainty, but which left him incapacitated for long periods. This is one of the most puzzling and often discussed areas of Alfred’s life. Bishop Asser informs us that Alfred suffered bouts of depression after each attack. The first attack apparently occured at his wedding.

It has been suggested that Alfred may have suffered from epilepsy, although there is no concrete proof as to what the illness he laboured under for a large part of his life actually was.

Ethelwald reacted by seizing the crown estates at Wimborne and Christchurch. Edward was quick to respond to the threat, but his cousin escaped and sought refuge with the Vikings of Northumbria. He returned in 905 at the head of an army, battle ensued at Holme in Essex, during the course of which Ethelwald himself was killed, but the Danes eventually emerged the victors. Edward escaped the battlefield unhurt and later negotiated a treaty with his enemies.

Alfred died at Wantage in 899 at the age of fifty-three. He remains the only English sovereign ever to be given the epithet the Great, which was bestowed on him in the seventeenth century. King Alfred was buried in the Old Minster at Winchester but a few years later, on the completion of the New Minster, which Alfred had founded, his body was translated there, it was soon to be named Hyde Abbey.

The treaty was broken on the arrival of Reginald, son of Guthred, in Northumbria, who quickly captured the city of York and occupied the northern kingdom of Bernica. At the same time, Mercia was yet again invaded, the Danes advancing as far as the Severn. Edward, leading a joint force from Wessex and Mercia, again encountered them in battle at Tettenhall in Staffordshire and on this occasion won a decisive victory.

On the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Hyde Abbey, in common with other religious houses was despoiled and in an act of historical vandalism, the tombs of the Saxon kings were destroyed. Some of the bones from the tombs, although mixed up, were collected into caskets and placed above the chancel in Winchester Cathedral. Alfred’s remains are believed to be amongst these.

Along with his sister Ethelfleda, the widow of King Ethelred of Mercia, who was known as the Lady of Mercia, Edward spent most of the early part of his reign engaged in the intermittent conflict with the Vikings. Ethelfleda embarked on a policy of fortifying towns against the Danes. A true daughter of Alfred the Great, she defeated them in battle in Wales, from where they had threatened Mercia’s western border. Edward slowly gained ground against the Danes, eventually pushing the boundaries of Wessex and Mercia northwards.

The fame and reputation of King Alfred, one of the ablest of England’s Kings, were never to diminish. Florence of Worcester, writing in the thirteenth century, has left us with a fitting statement on Alfred: “Alfred the King of the Anglo-Saxons, the son of the most pious King Ethelwulf, the famous, the warlike, the victorious, the careful provider for the widow, the helpless, the orphan and the poor, the most skilled of Saxon poets, most dear to his own nation, courteous to all, most liberal, endowed with prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance; most patient in the infirmity from which he continually suffered; the most discerning investigator in executing justice, most watchful and devout in the service of God.” Many of our Kings could not wish for a finer epitaph.

Edward the Elder 899-924 During the reign of his father Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder had taken an active role in his campaigns against the Vikings. On the great Alfred’s death the succession was disputed between Edward or Eadweard and Ethelwald, the son of Alfred’s elder brother Ethelred I . The Witan elected Edward as King.

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Following his sister’s example, the King secured his reconquests by building strong fortifications to defend them.

London and Oxford were turned into strong garrisons to support King Edward’s campaign against the Danes.

The British princes, including Howel the Good, Prince of Wales, or Wealas (Anglo-Saxon for foreigner) and Cledauc accepted Edward the Elder as their overlord. In the year 920, the Kings of the North, including Sigtrygg Caech (the squinty), Constantine II, King of Scots and Donald Mac Aedh, King of Strathclyde, met King Edward at Bakewell in Derbyshire, fully recognising his overlordship.

Edward also reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton.

The first mention of Edward’s eponym the Elder occurs in the tenth century, when it was used in Wulfstan’s Life of St Æthelwold, to distinguish him from the later King of the same name, Edward the Martyr.

Unusual for a member of the House of Wessex, Edward does not seem to have been a particularly devout son of the church.

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On the contrary, the church in Wessex appears to have been neglected in his reign, leading the Pope to deliver a reprimand to the king.

His sister Ethelfleda died in 920 and her daughter and heiress, Elfwina, suceeded to the province, she became known by the title her mother formerly had held, the Lady of Mercia. Elfwina in turn recognised her uncle, Edward, as her overlord. Although Mercia and Wessex remained two separate territories, they were now united under the same ruler.

Edward the Elder died while leading an army to combat a Cambro-Mercian rebellion, on 17 July 924 at Farndon-onDee, Mercia, his body was buried at the the New Minster at Winchester, which Edward himself had established. Following the Norman conquest, the minster was replaced by Hyde Abbey and King Edward’s body was transferred there. His grave is currently marked by a cross-inscribed stone slab within the outline of the old abbey marked out in a public park.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, Athelstan whom he had named as his heir.

Athelstan 924-939 Athelstan, who was the eldest son of King Edward the Elder and and Ecgwynn was born in 895 during the latter years of the reign of his grandfather, King Alfred the Great. Very little is known about Athelstan’s mother. Some sources describe her as a “common law wife”. There are reasons to suspect that she was of low social status for a prince’s wife. The marriage or relationship of Edward and Ecgwynn appears to have come to end before Edward became king.

Athelstan is recorded as being a tall and handsome youth with light flaxen hair. As a youth he had been ennobled by his grandfather, of whom he was said to be a great favourite. To mark the occasion King Alfred endowed his grandson with a mantle of royal purple, a girdle set with precious stones and a Saxon seax (sword) in a golden scabbard.

As a child, Athelstan had been brought up in the care of his aunt, Ethelfleda, known as the Lady of Mercia. He was thirty years old at the time of his father’s death. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Edward the Elder was suceeded by his second son Ælfweard (904-924) on 17th July 924, while Athelstan inherited the sub kingdom of Mercia. Ælfweard, who was probably never crowned, died on 2nd August, 924 at Oxford, possibly on the orders of Athelstan, who then suceeded to the throne of all England. William of Malmesbury describes The Early English Kings

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Athelstan as being fair haired, slender and of middle height.

Conspiracies against the new king’s rule formed in the early months of Athelstan’s reign, lead by one Alfred, who was probably a member of the Saxon Royal House. The Kings brother, Edwin, was in 933 accused of being party to this conspiracy, despite his strong protestations to the contrary.

Athelstan was crowned with much splendour at Kingstonupon -Thames on 4 September, 925. Kingston was the traditional site of the coronation of the Saxon Kings, seven of which where crowned there. In accordance with an ancient custom, they took possession of their throne standing upon a large rock.

The stone still exists, standing outside the Guildhall at Kingston-upon-Thames, with a silver penny from the reign of each Saxon king set into its plinth.

Athelstan strongly suspected his brother of complicity and became resolved to be rid of him. To spare the King the neccessity of having him executed, the unfortunate Edwin was sent to sea in a leaking old boat without a sail and with neither water or provisions. Dreading the prospect of drifting and starving to death, Edwin threw himself into the sea and drowned. Athelstan was said to later regret his conduct in the matter and did pennance for this action.

The complete supremacy of the House of Wessex was firmly established under Athelstan and he could correctly be described as the first true King of all England. Athelstan used the title Basilius, the Greek term for king.

Much of his reign was occupied, as were his forefather’s, with the ongoing struggle with the Viking invaders. Athelstan concluded a treaty with them at Tamworth, by the terms of which he married his sister, Edith, to the Danish leader Sithric, King of York. Sithric died the following year and Athelstan siezed the opportunity to take Northumbria. His kingdom thereby became roughly equivelant in size to modern England.

The Celtic Princes of Wales paid homage to him at Bamburgh in the early part of his reign, along with Hywel, King of Cornwall, Constantine II, King of Scots and Owen of Gwent. Athelstan succeeded in expelling the Cornish from Exeter and established the border with Cornwall as the River Tamar.

In the year 937, Constantine II of Scotland in alliance with Eógan of Strathclyde and Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin, invaded England. The King marched a n army north to meet

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them, gaining a glorious victory at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, against a combined invasion force of Vikings and Scots.

The Annals of Ulster record the battle as: ‘ a great battle, lamentable and terrible was cruelly fought...in which fell uncounted thousands of the Northmen. ... And on the other side, a multitude of Saxons fell; but Æthelstan, the king of the Saxons, obtained a great victory’ Brunaburh is thought to have been one of the bloodiest of the period. Five English kings and seven earls lost their lives in the carnage. The kings cousins Alfric and Athelwin and a prominent Saxon bishop were also among the casualties. The events of the battle are unclear, but according to some sources the West Saxons mounted a cavalry charge on the enemy, directly contradicting the popular belief that the early English fought on foot. Cavalry in the Saxon force were most likely to be mercenaries, however, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle itself makes no such mention of a cavalry charge and it is believed that the mention of the Saxons using cavalry has arisen through a mistranslation the Anglo-Saxon ‘eorodcistum,’ which means troop not cavalry.

Constantine of Scotland fled the battlefield after his son was killed in the fighting. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the King’s resounding victory in the form of a jubilant poem in celebration of the event: ‘The hoary man of war had no cause to exult in the clash of blades; he was shorn of his kinsmen, deprived of friends, on the meeting place of peoples, cut off in strife, and left his son on the place of slaughter, mangled by wounds, young in battle. The grey-haired warrior, old crafty one, had no cause to boast’ Despite its fame, the site of the battle remains uncertain and theories have been debated linking it to several sites including Burnswark in southwest Scotland, Tinsley Wood near Sheffield, Yorkshire and Axminster in Devon, however Bromborough on the Wirral Peninsula remains the most likely candidate. This battle remains one of great importance in British history since Athelstan’s utter and crushing defeat of the combined Norse-Celtic force ranged against him irrevocably confirmed England as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, forcing the Celtic kingdoms to consolidate in the positions they have occupied top the present day.

Political alliances were arranged through the marriages of the King’s sisters. He married one of his many sisters to

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Sithric Cáech (meaning the ‘Squinty’), the Viking King of Yorvik (York) the marriage took place at Tamworth and resulted in Sithric acknowledging Athelstan as over-king and converting to Christianity. His sister Edith was married to the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I and another sister, Edgifu became Queen of France through her marriage to Charles the Simple. He also married one of his sisters to the Viking Egil Skallagrimson, the subject of an Icelandic saga and a further sister’s marriage forged a political alliance with Alan II of Brittany.

Athelstan was an able administrator and made many good laws, which combated theft, oppression and fraud and mitigated severity to young offenders. He was charitable and popular and like his great-grandfather Ethelwulf, made provisions for his poorer subjects. Athelstan directed that each of the manors owned by the crown should be subject to an annual charge, which should be used to relieve the poor and the destitute.

The Annals of Ulster refer to him as ‘a pillar of dignity in the western world’.

King Athelstan died on 27th October, 940, at Gloucester, aged forty-four, after a sixteen year reign and chose to be buried at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, a favourite of his, in preference to his family mausoleum at Winchester. Although his tomb still survives, his body was lost decades after his death.

William of Malmesbury wrote of him two hundred years later ‘ The firm opinion is still current among the English that no one more just or learned administered the state.’

Edmund I the Elder 940-946 Edmund I, known as ‘the Elder’ or the Magnificent, was born circa 921, a son of Edward the Elder and his third wife Edgiva. As a sixteen year old, he had fought with distinction beside his elder half-brother, King Athelstan, at the Battle of Brunnanburgh against a combined force of Scots and Vikings.

Edmund was around eighteen when he succeeded Athelstan on England’s throne in 940.

A page from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from which much of our information on the House of Wessex is derived.

The Danish leader, Olaf Guthrithson, took York, supported by the infamous renegade Wulfstan, Archishop of York. Edmund besieged Olaf and Wulfstan at Leicester in 943. The King, supported by Odo, the Danish Archbishop of Canterbury, forced Olaf to accept his overlordship and agreement was A Black Arrow resource

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eventually reached between the two opposing parties that Edmund was to rule the south and Olaf was to retain possession of all the area north of Watling Street. On the death of either, the survivor would inherit the whole country.

Fortunately for Edmund, Olaf died the following year and the English King invaded Northumbria in 944. He marched a combined army of English and Welsh into Strathclyde, whose ruler, the renegade Donald or Dunmail had supported Olaf.

Edmund conquered the province, which in 946 he ceded to Malcolm I, King of Scots on agreement that the latter should become his vassal. A peace treaty was signed between the two nations, ensuring mutual military support and the Celtic kingdom of Cumbria became a fiefdom of the recognised heir to the Scottish throne.

Edmund married firstly to Elgiva and the couple produced three children, a daughter and two sons, Edwy and Edgar.

After her death in around 944, Elgiva was canonized by the church. Edmund married for a second time in 946 to Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfgar, Ealdorman of Wiltshire, but the marriage produced no children, after the death of her husband she took the veil and became a nun at Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset.

Edmund’s promising reign was cut violently short after only six years. On the Feast of St. Augustine, 26th May, 946, a great festival among the Anglo-Saxon peoples. During the course of revelries to celebrate the event at Pucklechurch, in Gloucester, Edmund, being none the better for the large amount of wine he had consumed, became angered at the presence of one Liofa, an outlaw whom he had expelled from the kingdom a few years previously.

Angered beyond endurance at what he saw as an outrage against his authority, the King flung Liofa to the ground in fury and in the ensuing struggle the Edmund was fatally stabbed by the outlaw.

Edmund the Elder was twenty-five years old when he was killed and was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset.

Edred 946-955 Edred or Eadred, was the son of Edward the Elder by his third wife, Edgiva, daughter of Sieghelm, Ealdorman of Kent.

On the death of King Edmund the Elder, the late king’s two sons were passed over by the Witan due to their youth, in favour of his brother Edred, who was around twenty-one at the time of his accession to England’s throne.

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Edred was reported to be a small and slightly built man, who suffered from ill-health for most of his life, in the form of a wasting disease which sometimes rendered him unable even to eat. Nevertheless he was a man of considerable courage and resolution.

The new King received the submission of the sub-kings of England and the Northumbrian ealdormen at Tanshief, near Pontefract in Yorkshire at the beginning of his reign.

The Northumbrian contingent at this meeting was lead by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York.

The Viking leader in the north, Harold Fairhair, died and was succeeded as King of Yorvik, or York, by his son, Eric Bloodaxe. Due to a family conflict, Eric was replaced by his brother Haakon but was later invited to be King of Northumbria. The Northumbrian’s and the treacherous Archbishop Wulfstan of York incensed Edred and reneged on their pledges to him, hastening to offer their alliegience to Eric.

In response to this threat Edred reacted swiftly, he marched north with an army and ravaged the province, burning Ripon and causing Eric to flee. His rearguard was attacked at Castleford and the incensed Edred turned his army round and ravaged and pillaged Northumbria again. This produced the desired effect of persuading the Northumbrians to abandon the cause of Eric Bloodaxe.

The fountainhead of disaffection in the north appears to have been the wily Archbishop Wulfstan of York, Edred captured the troublesome Archbishop in 952 and imprisoned him at his castle of Judanburh. After a brief respite, Eric Bloodaxe re-established himself as King of York, but was successfully expelled, he was to be the last of the Viking Kings of York.

Edred had succeeded in firmly establishing his power in the north of England. The Northumbrian coinage bore his name, clearly declaring his power in the region and he was to be the last of the great warrior Kings of Wessex.

The King came under the beneficial influence of St. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, whom he personally liked. Dunstan was later to become one of the greatest of the Archbishops of Canterbury. On his advice he tried to mediate with the Vikings and did much to encourage learning by supporting Dunstan in the revival of Monasticism.

Over the years, the wasting disease that Edred suffered from caused severe deterioration of his health, he died on 23rd November, 955, only in his thirties, at his palace at Frome in Somerset. As he had never married, he left no direct heir and was

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succeeded by his nephew, Edwy. Edred was buried amongst his ancestors of the House of Wessex at Winchester Cathedral.

Edwy to accept his brother, Edgar as King of all the area north of the Thames.

Edwy the Fair 955-959

Edwy was possibly murdered, on 1st October, 959 after only a four year reign, he was never particularly popular was not greatly mourned by his subjects.

The fifteen year old Edwy, or Edwig, the eldest son of the former King Edmund the Elder and St. Elgiva, succeeded his uncle Edred to the throne of England in the year 955.

Edwy was reputed to be an extremely good-looking youth and is remembered for preferring the charms of the fair lady Elgifu’s bedroom to his seat in the council chamber. St. Dunstan, angered by the King’s neglect of duty, dragged him back.

Edwy was never to forgive this assault on his royal dignity and thereafter detested Dunstan.

Edwy later married Elfgifu, but it seems that his attraction for the lady only lead him into more trouble, she was said to be the daughter of his former mistress and step-mother, Ethelgiva.

The marriage was considered uncanonical by the church and he was made to banish her from the court by Archbishop Odo who imposed this separation on the couple on the grounds that they were too closely related.

The fires of the King’s active dislike for Dunstan were fuelled by the vindictive Elgifu. Dunstan retired to his cloister, but the monk’s abbey was plundered by the King’s forces. Dunstan fled for his life, though hotly pursued, he managed to reach the continent where he took up residence at a monastery at Ghent, wisely remaining there for the rest of Edwy’s short reign. This naturally did not endear Edwy to the church.

Edwy, never a particularly pleasant character, was rash and profligate. The King shamefully stripped his grandmother, Edgiva, (the widow of King Edward the Elder ) of all her possessions and seems to have made himself further unpopular by enforcing unpopular high taxes and displaying a preference for Wessex over the other provinces he ruled.

Judging from the large number of charters granted in his reign, Edwy appears to have been lavish in the granting of privileges.

The Mercians and Northumbrians, frustrated at Edwy’s policies, rose in rebellion. The rebels were lead by his brother Edgar and Archbishop Odo of Canterbury, to whom the King had displayed an active dislike. Edwy met them at Gloucester but was defeated and forced to flee. Elgiva was branded and tortured, badly scaring her face, she died shortly after. A meeting was arranged by the men of Kent and Wessex, to sue for peace. In the ensueing negotiations, the Witan forced

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Edgar the Peaceful 959-975 Edgar of Wessex was born circa 942, the second son of Edmund the Elder and was sixteen when he ascended the throne on the death of his elder brother, Edwy.

In common with his brother and others of his predecessors in the House of Wessex, Edwy, Edgar was a very small man, recorded as being less than five feet tall, although possessing great personal magnetism. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes him as being handsome and speaks highly of his achievements.

Edgar had been educated by Ethelwald, Abbot of Abingdon, a friend of St. Dunstan’s. His coronation, which took place at Bath in 973, was the first to be described in detail in the annals of English history and on this ceremony, all future coronations of English Kings, up to the present day, have been based. King Edgar maintained the peace established by earlier kings of the House of Wessex.

In a popular move, Edgar recalled St Dunstan from exile, who returned in triumph and was appointed Bishop of Worcester, in 959 he became Bishop of London, before Edgar finally made him Archbishop of Canterbury in 961.

Dunstan managed to exert some control over the King’s policies. Acting on the advice of Dunstan, Edgar raised his companion Oswald to be Bishop of Worcester. Another friend of Dunstan’s, Edgar’s former tutor, Ethelwald of Abingdon, was made Bishop of Winchester. This trio were to dominate the English church for the remainder of the King’s reign.

Following his coronation, Edgar travelled north to Chester, where he met with eight sub-Kings of Britain whom he had summoned. Among them was Kenneth, King of Scots and his son Malcolm, King of the Cumbrians along with six others, including the Princes of Wales.

In a demonstration of the power of Wessex, Edgar was rowed up the River Dee to the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, by all eight sub-Kings, attended by a great concourse of nobles. The entire occasion represented an assertion of Saxon supremacy over the Celts of England, Scotland and Wales.

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Edgar the Peaceful married twice, his first wife, Elfleda was divorced to enable him to marry Elfrida, then his mistress and widow of Ethelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia and a woman of notorious reputation. She was said to have been the King’s lover before the death of her first husband. Edgar had Elfrida crowned Queen at Bath Abbey on 11th May, 975. The first instance of a consort being referred to as Queen since Judith of France, widow of Ethelwulf and his son Ethelbald.

Edgar had many mistresses, one of these was the beautiful Wulfrida, whom he carried off from Wilton Abbey, it is unsure if she had actually taken her vows as a nun. For this the King was forced to do pennance for seven years, purportedly having to fast twice a week.

William of Malmesbury, reporting on Edgar’s slightness of height and build, records that at a banquet that followed the meeting at Chester, Kenneth, King of Scots, commented jokingly that it seemed extraordinary to him how so many provinces should be held by “such a sorry little fellow.”

Under Edgar, the union of England under one dynasty was firmly established. Highly conscious of the importance of seapower, the king had built up a navy of 3,600 ships by the time of his death, which were used to guard England’s shores from the incursions of the Danes.

King Edgar kept peace in the Danelaw largely by a policy of non-interference and displayed his neutrality by ravaging the Saxons of Thanet for alleged ill-treatment of York merchants.

The years of peace enjoyed by Edgar made it possible for him to make changes in England’s administrative structure and it was Edgar who divided England into shires, each of which were divided into hundreds. His laws were much respected by future generations, he greatly encouraged trade and protected the currency. He was severe on those that withheld church dues and a great believer of monastic reform.

King Edgar the Peaceful, or the Pacific as he is sometimes referred to, died at the summit of his power, at Winchester, the ancient capital of Wessex, on 8th July, 975, at the age of only thirty-three and was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset.

Edward the Martyr 975-978 At his death, King Edgar the Peaceful had left two sons, the elder of these, Edward, was the child of his first marriage to Elfleda, the daughter of Ealdorman Ordmaer.

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Elfleda had been divorced in around 964 to enable Edgar to marry his second wife, Elfrida, a notorious character and widow of Ethelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia, who was said to have had an adulterous affair with the King prior to her first husband’s death. This second marriage produced two further sons, Edmund and Ethelred , but the elder of these had predeceased his father.

Elfrida was crowned Queen on 11th May, 973, at Bath Abbey, which was the first instance of a coronation of a Saxon Queen of England. She was the first consort to be termed Queen since the infamous Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, in the previous century.

His father’s will named his elder son, Edward, (or Eadweard in Old English) as his heir and he had the support of the influential but now aged St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. Many of the nobility of the realm, including the powerful Alfere, Ealdorman of Mercia were in favour of the seven year old Ethelred succeeding, as they themselves had much to gain from the crown being subjected to a long minority government. The nation was divided over the issue of which of his sons should suceed King Edgar. A meeting of the witan was arranged at Calne, in Wiltshire were the matter was debated at length. Eventually, the influence of Dunstan prevailed and accordingly Edward was elected King Edward was crowned by St. Dunstan at Kingston upon Thames in 975, at the age of thirteen. Despite what had passed, the two brothers themselves seem to have remained attached to each other. Queen Elfrida, however, thoroughly detested her step-son. At her instigation, a plot was hatched to murder the young King.

Edward visit his brother Ethelred at Corfe, in Dorset, at the invitation of his step-mother. Elfrida met him at the door with a kiss of welcome. He was then offered the traditional drink to refresh him. As the young King heartily refreshed his thirst after the dusty journey, one of the Queen’s attendants treacherously stabbed the sixteen year old in the back. Though severely wounded, he managed to spur his horse and escaped, making an attempt to re-join his companions, but died on the road. His bloody corpse, dragged in the stirrups by the terrified animal, revealed his fate to his attendants.

Edward was buried at Wareham and his murder went unpunished. Said to deeply repent this deed, Queen Elfrida became a nun at Wherwell Abbey in Hampshire. She died in 1002.

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The Cult of Edward the Martyr The King’s body was later translated to Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset. A cult dedicated to the martyred King sprang up, bringing pilgrims flocking to Shaftesbury to seek miracles at his shrine. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Edward’s relics were hidden by the monks to escape desecration.

During the course of an excavation of the Abbey in 1931, they were unearthed by a Mr. Wilson-Claridge. An examination of the relics took place in 1970, which confirmed they were those of a young man who had been stabbed in the back. They were later donated to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which had Edward’s remains reburied at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey.

Ethelred II the Redeless 978-1016 Ethelred II, the son of Edgar the Peaceable by his second marriage to Elfrida, succeeded to England’s throne at ten years old and was crowned with due ceremony on 14th April, 978.

Queen Elfrida, his mother, was said to have been instrumental in the treacherous murder of Ethelred’s half-brother, Edward the Martyr to enable her own son to inherit England’s throne.

Ethelred grew to manhood with an uneasy and guilty feeling that he should not have been King. Over twenty years later Ethelred was to pay tribute to his murdered half brother, in the grant of a charter to Bradford-on-Avon, which states that the gift is made to “ Christ and his saint, that is my half-brother Edward, who though he weltered in his own blood, yet the Lord himself has shown by the multiple signs of his virtues that he is worthy to work miracles in our times.”

Ethelred II acquired the epithet the Redeless or Unraed because of his repeated failure to follow wise counsel. This may have been a pun on the name of Ethelred, which in Anglo-Saxon meant noble counsel. He proved to be a weak and self-indulgent King and followed the ill advice of Edric Streona. The now familiar tale of predatory Viking raids were resumed in 981 and the terror ridden Ethelred foolishly embarked on a policy of paying them large sums of money to go away, this invariably only fed their greed and they repeatedly came back for more.

The King’s marriage to Emma of Normandy was to have disastrous long term effects for the House of Wessex. Emma arrived in England with an attendant train of Normans.

Disliked by the English as foreigners, they succeeded in adding to the King’s already waning popularity. Behaving with his

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customary arrogance, Ethelred succeeded in alienating his new brother-in-law and made an unsuccessful attempt to invade Normandy.

Many of the Saxons struggled valorously and unaided by their King against the fierce Danish incursions. The men of Essex, lead by their Ealdorman, Brithnoth, made a valiant stand against the invaders in 991, but were all slain at the battle of Maldon. Their courage and loyalty were immortalized in AngloSaxon verse.

On St. Brice’s Day, (18th November) 1002, Ethelred foolishly ordered a great massacre of Danes throughout England in a single day and rivers of blood were shed. One of the victims of this outrage was Gunhilda, the sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark. Danish poetry recorded that Sweyn swore on the bragging cup to be avenged on the cowardly Ethelred.

Making good his threat, England was invaded and conquered

by Sweyn in 1013. The ineffectual Ethelred fled to Normandy with his wife, Emma, to seek sanctuary with her relations. Sweyn, whilst engaged in threatening Bury St. Edmunds, died suddenly of an apoplexy. The Witan hastily but erroneously recalled Ethelred, causing Canute, the son of Sweyn, to flee. Ethelred was “received with joy”. A further year of his disastrous rule taught his long suffering subjects and the Witan to repent their hasty gesture and Canute returned.

King Ethelred died in London in 1016, while Canute literally hammered at it’s gates. He was buried at the old Cathedral of St. Paul’s, which was destroyed during the Great Fire of London.

His widow was later to marry his Danish rival, Canute, finally dying on 6 March, 1052.

Sweyn Forkbeard 1013 Sweyn, known as Tiugeskaeg, or Forkbeard due to his long, cleft beard, was the son of Harald Bluetooth and was born around 960. Harald Bluetooth (Danish Harald Blåtand) was King of Denmark between 940 and 985 AD The identity of his mother is not known with certainty, he may have been Harald’s illegitimate son by Aesa, (according to the Jomsvikinga Saga) though more probably his mother was Queen Gunild. Sweyn succeeded his father as King of Denmark in 986.

He was married twice, firstly to Gunhilda, the daughter of A Black Arrow resource

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Mjeczislas, Duke of Poland and secondly to Sigrid the Haughty, the widow of Eric VI, King of Sweden.

The young Sweyn’s first military expedition, in which he was allied to the famous Viking, Palnatoke, was against his father, Harald Bluetooth, who was killed in the conflict. He later lead a large Viking fleet to English shores, which failed in its intended attempt to capture London. Eric Sersel, King of Sweden took avantage of Sweyn’s absence in England and occupied Denmark. Sweyn recovered Denmark on the death of Eric in in 994.

At the battle of Svolder in 1000. Sweyn in alliance with the Swedes, defeated and killed King Olaf I Trygvessön of Norway and divided his kingdom. Sweyn repudiated his first wife Gunild, daughter of Duke Mieszko of Poland, by whom he had two sons and married King Eric’s widow, Sigrid, known as the Haughty. The marriage produced five daughters.

Sigrid had previously received a proposal from Olaf Trygvasson, King of Norway , which she refused as it would have required that she convert to Christianity. She proudly told him “I will not part from the faith which my forefathers have kept before me.” Olaf is reported to have angrily struck her in the face, whereupon Sigrid responded “This may some day be thy death.” After her marriage to Sweyn, she was instrumental in creating a coalition of his enemies to bring about his downfall.

After his first expedition to England, Sweyn was resorted to extracting payment by blackmail as opposed to ravaging English shores. King Ethelred II the Redeless, the weak and ineffectual King of England, had ordered a general massacre of Danes in England on St. Brices Day, 1002, which included men, women and children, none were spared from the savage slaughter. Sweyn swore on the bragging cup to be avenged on Ethelred and landed in England in 1003, ravaging much of the south of the country. He usurped England’s throne in the Autumn of 1013.

Ethelred fled to the Isle of Wight and later joined his wife and children in Normandy, where they had taken refuge with her nephew, Duke Richard. Sweyn was declared King on Christmas Day, 1013. Some of the English provinces refused to pay homage to the Dane, who had no dynastic right and claimed the throne by right of conquest. He was never crowned.

England’s first Danish King died suddenly of an apoplexy, on 3rd February, 1014, while threatening the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund’s. He had reigned for less than a year. Ethelred was The Early English Kings

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re-called by the Witan, causing Sweyn’s son, Canute to flee.

Sweyn was buried in England, but his body was later removed to Roeskild Cathedral in Denmark. He was succeeded as King of Denmark by his older son, Harold II.

Edmund II Ironside April - November 1016 On the death of the ineffectual Ethelred II the Redeless, the banner of Anglo-Saxon resistance against the invading Danes was taken up by Edmund Ironside, the eldest son of Ethelred II, and Ethelflead, daughter of Thored, Ealdorman of Northumbria. Edmund had three brothers, Athelstan, the eldest of Ethelred’s sons who died in 1014 leaving Edmund as his father’s heir, and Edred and Egbbert, as well as his half-brothers Edward and Alfred from his father’s second marriage to Emma of Normandy. Now the head of the House of Wessex, Edmund was an altogether different character to his weak and indecisive father.

Edmund had entered into a power struggle with his father Ethelred toward the end of the latter’s reign. Ethelred II had executed two of his son’s followers, Sigeferth and Morcar.

Defying his father’s wishes, Edmund then married Sigeferth’s widow, Edith, abducting her from a nunnery. He acquired the nick-name Ironside on account of his legendary great strength.

On his father’s death in 1016, the Witan elected Sweyn as King, but the Londoners proclaimed for Edmund and he was crowned King of England at St. Paul’s Cathedral on 14th April 1016.

Edmund put up an heroic and valiant stand against the Viking invaders. Soliciting aid from the Londoners, he raised the siege of the city. He met Canute in battle at Assingdune, but due to the treachery of Edric Streona, the Danes were victorious.

The two armies faced each other again, in Gloucestershire, when Edmund invited Canute to fight him in single combat, in attempt to limit the loss of life to decide the issue. The Danish King, arguing that Edmund’s great size and strength made it an unfair competition, declined and suggested instead that they should partition the kingdom. Edmund retained Wessex, Essex, East Anglia and London. This agreement would remain in force until the death of one of the participants to the treaty, at which time all lands would revert to the survivor.

Only a month later Edmund Ironside died in suspicious circumstances. According to one account, he was fatally wounded by an assassin in the employ of Edric Streona.

Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey and was succeeded

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by Canute. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII all remains of a monument or crypt at Glastonbury were destroyed.

King Canute 1016-1035 Canute the Great was born around 994, the son of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark and the Slavic princess Gunhilda of Poland. Gunhilda was the daughter of Mieszko I of Poland.

He was to become the ruler of an empire which, at its height, included England, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden.

Canute was praised in Norse poetry as a formidable Viking warrior. He is described in the Knýtlinga saga as being ‘exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high set, and rather hooked.

He had a fair complexion none the less, and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, both the more handsome and the keener of their sight’.

He had supported his father against the Saxon King Ethelred the Redeless . Sweyn established himself on England’s throne and Ethelred was forced to flee to Normandy, where he sought refuge with his wife’s relatives. On the death of Sveyn Forkbeard the following year, Ethelred returned to England and Canute was forced to withdraw to Denmark. There, he gathered his forces, returning to England in 1015 when he managed to gain control of virtually the whole country, except for the city of London.

On the death of the ineffectual Ethelred II in 1016, the Londoners chose his son Edmund Ironside as king, but the Witan opted for Canute. Following a series of engagements with Edmund, Canute defeated him at Ashington, Essex. A treaty was drawn up, partitioning the country which would remain in force until the death of one of the participants to the treaty, at which time all lands would revert to the survivor.

Edmund II died a month later in November of 1016.

Canute was proclaimed King of England on 3rd February, 1014. His brother, Harald became King of Denmark. The English succeeded in expelling Canute from the country but he returned in 1015 and ravaged Wessex. On the death of Ethelred’s son, Edmund Ironside, in November, 1016, Canute became the acknowledged King of England. He suceeded in Denmark on the death of his brother in 1018.

In what was considered a conciliatory gesture at the time, he repudiated his wife, Elgiva and married Ethelred’s widow, Emma of Normandy. He became King of Denmark in

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1019 and of Norway 1028, making him ruler of an Empire surrounding the North Sea. Following his conversion to Christianity, Canute became an avid protector of the church.

He patronised abbeys, promoted leaders of the English church and was acknowledged by the Pope as the first Viking to become a Christian King. He embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027, displaying great reverence and humility. On his return to England he swore to his Saxon subjects that he would govern with mercy and justice.

Canute divided England into four distinct areas for administrative purposes. Wessex remained the seat of government and was ruled directly by himself. East Anglia was placed under a deputy, Earl Thurkill. The fickle and treacherous Edric Streona was rewarded for his services by being appointed Earl of Mercia. His kinsman, Eric became virtual viceroy of Northumbria.

Edric Streona was not to enjoy his new exalted position for long, considering himself to have not been amply rewarded by Canute, he quarreled with the King. In a rage, Streona claimed that it was entirely due to his timely desertion of Edmund Ironside that Canute had acquired the throne. The wary Canute replied that a man who betrayed one master was likely to do the same to another. As Streona argued with the King, Eric of Northumbria stepped forward and struck him with his battle-axe. His body was slung into the Thames and his head placed on a spike on London Bridge.

In the early part of his reign Canute resorted to harsh measures to maintain his position, he had some of his prominent English rivals outlawed or killed, and engineered the death of Edmund Ironside’s brother, he pursued Edmund’s children forcing them to flee England for the safety of Hungary. But within a few years, when his position became safer, he adopted a fairer policy, and allowed more Saxons into positions of power.

The famous story that he was so vain he allowed himself to be convinced by flattering courtiers that he could hold back the tide is one of the chief events of the reign for which he appears to be remembered. In fact the old story of Canute and the waves is apocryphal and is first recorded by Henry of Huntingdon in his twelfth century Chronicle of the History of England.

His insistence that the kingdom should continue to be ruled by the laws laid down by Edgar the Peaceful lead to a growth in his popularity and he made his own additions to these, forbidding heathen practices. After initial raids, Malcolm A Black Arrow resource

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Canmore, King of Scots, recognised the overlordship of Canute. Peace with Scotland was established for the remainder the reign.

King Canute died in 1035 at Shaftsbury in Dorset, aged around 40 and was buried at Winchester Cathedral. On his death, his illegitimate son Harold I, seized the throne of England.

Following the Norman conquest, Winchester Cathedral was erected on the Saxon site of the Old Minster. The Royal remains, including King Canute’s bones, along with those of his spouse, Emma of Normandy, were exhumed and placed in mortuary chests around St. Swithin’s Shrine in the new building. However in the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, the bones, after being used by Cromwell’s soldiers as missiles to shatter stained glass windows, were scattered and mixed in various chests along with those of some of the Saxon kings, including Egbert of Wessex, Saxon bishops and the Norman King William Rufus. The chests remain today, seated upon a decorative screen surrounding the presbytery of the Cathedral.

Harold I Harefoot 1037-1040 Although King Canute left England to Hardicanute, his son

by Emma of Normandy, the throne was seized by his halfbrother Harold Harefoot, Canute’s son by either his mistress or his first wife (It is not clear which), Elgifu of Northampton.

Harold had been born around 1012. He was said to have acquired the name Harefoot for his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship.

Harold apparently had an illegitimate son, Elfwine, who was later to become a monk.

Canute had intended to divide his dominions between his three sons. He left Norway to his eldest son, Sweyn, and Denmark to Harold. On Canute’s death, Harold promptly took possession of his father’s treasure and received the support of Earl Leofric of Mercia and the majority of the Danes. The great council, or Witangemot, meeting at Oxford, confirmed Harold as King, but Ethelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to crown him.

Queen Emma of Normandy, who had the support of the nobles of Wessex and particularly Earl Godwine, an extremely powerful nobleman who was married to Canute’s sister, managed to retain control of Wessex, where Emma acted as regent in the absence of Hardicanute, who himself remained in The Early English Kings

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Denmark. Emma made vigorous attempts to unseat Harold in favour of her son.

On hearing the news of Canute’s death, the sons of Ethelred the Redeless, Edward and Alfred, in exile in Normandy, gathered a fleet and sailed for England. On approaching Southampton, the elder of these, Edward, found the town up in arms against him, unwilling to accept any son of the weak and hated Ethelred. Edward had little choice but to return to Normandy.

Harold’s reign was short and brutish. Godwine, accepting the situation, switched sides and deserted Emma of Normandy.

Alfred the Atheling, while on a visit to his mother in England, was conducted to Guildford by Earl Godwine and his followers dispersed. There he was seized and brutally blinded on the orders of Harold. The trauma of his injuries lead to an agonizing death.

Emma was forced into exile, taking refuge in Flanders and was joined there by Hardicanute. Together they began to make plans for an invasion of England, having gathered a fleet of sixty warships. The early death of Harold on 17th March, 1040 at Oxford, made it possible for his half-brother Hardicanute to enter England peacefully.

Harald Harefoot was buried at Westminster, but his body was subsequently exhumed by his half-brother, Hardicanute, and treated with much indignity, it was beheaded and thrown into a fen bordering the Thames. It was later recovered by fishermen and reburied in the churchyard of St Clement Danes.

Hardicanute 1040-1042 Hardicanute, King of Denmark, the son of King Canute and Emma of Normandy spent his childhood in Denmark, where he was sent by his father.

He succeeded his detested half-brother Harold I to the throne of England in 1040. He had succeeded to the throne of Denmark in 1035, where he reigned as Canute III , but his involvement in a war against King Magnus I of Norway resulted in his not being able to secure his claim to the throne of England. Consequently his illegitimate half-brother Harold Harefoot was appointed regent there. Harald promptly betrayed his brother and took the throne for himself.

Hardicanute eventually came to an agreement with Magnus, through a treaty of either 1038 or 1039, tby the terms of which if either he or Magnus were to die without an heir,

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his opponent should become his successor. Harald’s death on on 17th March, 1040 while Hardicanute was planning an invasion, made it possible for him to peacefully ascend the English throne. Hardicanute landed at Sandwich on 17 June, 1040, seven days before Midsummer, with a fleet of 62 warships.

His was an even less appealing character than his brother’s.

Those who expected a return to the just rule of Canute were to be sadly disappointed. His first act on arriving in his new kingdom was to have his half-brother’s body disinterred, beheaded and slung into a marsh, causing outrage amongst churchmen. Hardicanute could be brutal and savagely revengeful.

He was said to have hated his paternal half-brother, Harold, for the murder of his other, maternal half-brother, Alfred, at which he had felt great sorrow. Determined to thoroughly avenge this deed Hardicanute had Earl Godwine put on trial, Godwine managed to extricate himself , was acquitted and managed to retain his extensive estates. Extremely wealthy, he bought the friendship of the new King with expensive gift of a magnificently adorned ship. The King invited his other half-brother, Edward, back to England, whom he treated with much kindness and named as his heir.

Hardicanute proceeded to make himself thoroughly unpopular by exacting high taxes. The citizens of Worcester rose against the crushing level of taxation, and in savage retribution, he burned their city to the ground. He further sullied his reputation by resorting to having the northern Jarl Edwulf murdered. A contemporary stated that he never did anything worthy of a King throughout his entire reign.

Hardicanute never married and had no children. After a two year reign, he died during a riotous drinking bout at Clapham, in celebration of the marriage of the daughter of one of his thanes, Osgod Clapa. In the midst of the revelries, Hardicanute suffered a seizure and fell to the ground. He died a few days later on 8th June, 1042. He was succeeded by his Saxon half-brother, Edward, later to become known as Edward the Confessor and the old Saxon line was restored.

Hardicanute was buried at Winchester Cathedral.

St. Edward the Confessor 1042-1065 Edward the Confessor, the son of Ethelred the Redeless and Emma of Normandy, was born at Islip in 1004. He was of medium height and was said by some chroniclers to be an

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albino. He is described as “most comely” and was of a medium stature, his hair distinguished by a milky whiteness.

Edward had accompanied his father into exile in Normandy in 1016. Brought up in Normandy from the age of twelve, he had acquired the tastes and outlook of a Norman and was extremely fond of his Norman relations including his cousin William, the future Conqueror. His Danish half-brother, Hardicanute, the son of his mother’s second marriage to King Canute, invited Edward to England and made him welcome at his court.

Edward succeeded to the English throne in 1042, on the death of Hardicanute. He appointed a Norman, Robert of Jumieges as Archbishop of Canterbury, an action which was unpopular with the Saxon people. His mother, Emma, returned to England, but found her son’s attitude to her cold and reserved . Edward resented her second marriage to his father’s rival, King Canute, and Emma’s preference for her children by Canute over himself and his brother, Alfred widened the family rift to a gaping gulf. Queen Emma died on 6 March, 1052.

He married Edith, the daughter of Earl Godwine, whom he found all powerful on his accession to the throne. He was said to have secretly detested Godwine for his part in the murder of his brother Alfred. The new King was extremely pious and devout and had longings for a monastic life.

Edward’s sister, Goda, was the wife of a powerful Norman nobleman, Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who visited his brother-in-law in England. While staying at Dover, Eustace and his retainers greatly offended the citizens of the town by taking free lodgings. A scuffle developed, in which an Englishman was wounded, he, acting in self defence, killed one of the Normans. His house was promptly surrounded by Eustace and his men and the Saxon was murdered along with several other inhabitants of the town. The men of Dover then drove the Norman intruders out of the town.

Eustace complained to King Edward about the affair, who believed his version of the tale against that of his own subjects and instructed Earl Godwine to punish the town. Godwine refused to obey the order, a popular decision with the people.

Godwine and his sons Harold and Sweyn gathered an army and demanded that Eustace and his Norman retainers be surrendered to their vengeance. The northern Earls supported the King, along with the half-Norman Ralph the Timid, Earl of Worcester (Edward’s nephew through Goda’s first marriage) A Black Arrow resource

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A truce was negotiated by the opposing sides in the quarrel.

At a subsequent meeting of the Witan, Godwine’s unruly son, Sweyn, was outlawed and Godwine and Harold summoned to appear before the assembly. They refused without first obtaining a promise of safe conduct, which was denied to them. Sentence of banishment was passed against Godwine and Harold.

Edward then seized the opportunity to be rid of his Queen, Godwine’s daughter, Edith, whom he deprived of all her jewellery and consigned to a convent.

Godwine and Harold returned in force and gained much support, they demanded the King restore their confiscated estates, after initial prevarication, Edward, eager to prevent civil war, agreed to a compromise, all the Normans were outlawed and Edward was obliged to restore the estates of Godwine and his sons and take back his ill used Queen.

Edward’s resentment of Earl Godwine remained very strong and a burning sense of the injustice of his brother Alfred’s death smouldered within him. During a banquet at Windsor, Edward ventured the opinion that he was convinced that Godwine was guilty of being involved in the murder. Godwine protested his innocence and swore that if he was guilty “May this morsel of bread be my last,” whereupon, we are told, he choked on the bread. Whatever the cause, it could possibly have been a stroke, Godwine died on 15th April, 1053 and his eldest son Harold succeeded to his estates and influence, which, already considerable, steadily increased.

King Edward recalled his nephew, Edward the Exile, the son of his half-brother Edmund Ironside, to England, intending to name him his heir. Edward returned with his family from Hungary, his recall was a popular move among the Saxons, but shortly after his return to England, Edward died and was buried at old St. Paul’s Cathedral.

In November, 1065, King Edward fell sick of what was described at the time as “a malady of the brain”, which was possibly a stroke or a brain haemorrhage. He seemed at first to be making a recovery, but on Christmas Eve suffered another seizure. He was far too ill even to attend the consecration of Westminster Abbey on 28th December, the conclusion of his life’s work, although Queen Edith was present. The King drifted into a coma, which was interrupted by periods of delirium. He was said to have recommended his kingdom to the protection of Harold. Edward the Confessor died on the stormy night of 4th -5th January, in the momentous year of 1066.

The tomb of Edward the Confessor The King was buried at the newly completed Westminster Abbey and his posthumous reputation came to be revered. His remains were not, however, allowed to rest in peace and were exhumed many times in the proceeding centuries. Henry I and his halfSaxon Queen, Edith or Matilda, had her great uncle, the Confessor’s tomb opened in 1098.

The corpse, was duly reported to be uncorrupted, at the time considered to be sure evidence of saintliness. Bishop Gundulf, who was present at the time, was said to have plucked a hair from Edward’s long white beard, for which he received a severe reprimand from the Abbot of Westminster.

Being unlikely to produce children of his own, King Edward is purported to have then made a promise to his cousin, William, Duke of Normandy, that he should succeed him, during a visit of the latter to England.

Edward’s coffin was once again opened by Henry II, during this second exhumation, the King’s burial robes were removed and the pilgrim’s ring he was found to be wearing was appropriated by Henry II. Edward was canonized in 1161.

When his fervent admirer, Henry III, rebuilt the Abbey in the thirteenth century, the Confessor’s body was translated to a magnificent shrine which became the centerpiece of the new building. Henry III himself helped to carry the coffin to its splendid new resting place.

Edward is most famous for having founded the Abbey of St. Peter on Thorney Island, named due to the brambles that then covered the area, in the misty low lying marshes that then edged the River Thames, otherwise known as the West Minster, to distinguish it from the other Cathedral within the city, St. Paul’s. Several churches, dedicated to St. Peter had previously been built on the spot. Edward delighted in the project and considered its creation to be his greatest achievement.

It was to become a popular place of pilgrimage throughout the middle ages. The shrine was desecrated by Henry VIII at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but restored in the reign of his devout Catholic daughter, Mary I. The last disturbance of the King’s rest occurred in 1685, where workmen were engaged in the removal of scaffolding used in the coronation of James II. A rafter fell, crashing into Edward’s coffin. A crucifix and chain were discovered under his shoulder bones and were given to

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James II. During James’ hasty flight from England in 1688 they were stolen by fishermen.

Harold II 1066 On the death of Edward the Confessor without a direct heir, the Witan elected his brother-in-law, the powerful Harold Godwineson, Earl of Wessex, as King.

Harold had been elected from a number of candidates, including the Atheling, Edgar, who although he had the superior hereditary right, being Edward’s great-nephew, was considered too young at the time to make an effective ruler. It was claimed that Edward had willed his throne to his brotherin-law, Harold, on his deathbed, ignoring his previous promise to his enraged cousin William of Normandy.

The future Harold II had been born around 1020-22, half Saxon and half Dane, he was the eldest son of Godwine, Earl of Wessex and Kent and Gytha, the daughter of Harold Bluetooth, King of Denmark. Making him the first cousin of King Canute. On his father’s side he was descended from a cadet line of the House of Wessex, Godwine’s father, Wulfnoth Cild, was the fourth great-grandson of Ethelred I. Edward the Confessor had banished Earl Godwine and his family in 1051, Edward bore a deep resentment to Godwine, who he believed to be implicated in the murder of his brother, Alfred, when on a visit to England during the reign of Harold I. Earl Harold sailed to Ireland, where he gathered troops, on returning to England, he met up with his father’s forces and they jointly advanced on London. Edward the Confesssor was forced to restore them to power. Godwine died in 1053, whilst feasting with the king during Easter at Winchester, reportedly of an apoplexy.

Harold had lead campaigns as Edward’s lieutenant in Wales and defeated Gruffydd ab Llywellyn, whose widow, Aldgyth, he took for his wife. In 1065 a revolt arose in Northumbria against the rule of Harold’s tempestuous and unruly brother Tostig. The Northumbrians, weary of Tostig’s unjust rule, elected Morkere as their Earl. Harold granted the rebels requests and Tostig was exiled. Tostig thereafter harboured a deep and burning resentment of the brother he felt had betrayed him.

King Harold II was hastily crowned at the newly consecrated Westminster Abbey on 6th January, 1066. Shortly afterwards, on 18th April, a portentous star was seen in the night sky, moving across the heavens with a trail of fire in its wake, it was seen all over England for seven nights thereafter.

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Harold and the witan saw it, who are recorded as being assembled on Thorney Island for the feast of Easter. Many saw it as an omen of doom, symbolising the wrath of God toward the foresworn Harold, who had previously sworn on holy relics to support William of Normandy’s claim to the throne. It has now been identified as Halley’s Comet.

Harold’s enbittered brother Tostig, bent on revenge, had allied himself with Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, and invaded England with a formidable Norwegian fleet which landed at Riccall, near York. On hearing of the news, Harold gathered an army and marched to meet them at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire.

The new King attempted compromise with his brother and sent a message offering to restore his Earldom, to which Tostig responded by asking what Harold was prepared to give Hardrada, “Seven feet of land for a grave” was Harold’s defiant reply. Tostig refused to abandon his ally.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge commenced when the Saxons attacked the Norwegian shield wall, which despite repeated attempts, they failed to penetrate. The Saxons fell back and the Norwegians, believing them to be in retreat, broke ranks and pursued them, at which the Saxons wheeled round and attacked. Harold Hardrada was killed by an arrow in his neck, his fallen banner, Land-Ravager was seized by Tostig, who assumed command of the Norwegian army. He fell in the frantic conflict shortly after, the Norwegians fought with determination and courage until dusk but victory went to the Saxons. The following day, Olav, the son of Hardrada gave himself up to the English, along with the Earl of Orkney.

In a merciful gesture, Harold allowed him to return home, with all the survivors, on a promise they would never invade England again.

During the jubilant celebrations of a victory feast after the battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold received the ominous news that William of Normandy had at last landed at Bulverhythe on the south coast and hastily marched his army, which was in dire need of rest, the 240 miles to confront him. At the resulting Battle of Hastings on 14th October, 1066, England’s last Saxon King was killed. Harold’s body was buried on the battlefield, but William later had his remains moved by to Waltham Abbey.

The discovery of a Saxon coffin in the church at Bosham in the 1950s led to much speculation that King Harold was buried here. An exhumation had shown it to be the grave of A Black Arrow resource

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a middle-aged man who had lost a leg. A recent attempt at exhumumation of the grave was refused in December 2004, on the reasons that that the chances of establishing the identity of the body as Harold II were unlikely and therefore did not justify disturbing a burial place.

William the Conqueror 1066-1087 England’s first Norman king, William I, was born in 1028, at Falaise Castle, the illegitimate son of Robert the Devil or the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy and Herleve, (sometimes called Arlette) the daughter of Fullbert, a tanner of Falaise. Before history renamed him the Conqueror he was more commonly known to his contemporaries as William the Bastard. Herleve was reported to have attracted Duke Robert with her dancing, in some accounts, he is said to have first caught sight of her while she was washing her linen in the castle moat.

The Norman dynasty had been founded by Robert’s ancestor Rollo or Hrolf the Ganger, a Viking raider chief, who was granted the duchy by Charles the Simple, King of France, in 911, at the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, in exchange for feudal alliegiance and conversion to Christianity at which he took the baptismal name of Robert.

William’s mother, Herleve, also had a daughter, Adelaide, to Duke Robert. Although they had a long relationship, the gap in their social standing rendered marriage out of the question and Herleve was married off to one of Robert’s vassals, Herluin, a knight. From this marriage, Herleve produced two further sons, Robert, who later became Count of Mortain and Odo, destined to become Bishop of Bayeux and also to play a part in England’s history.

Duke Robert decided to expiate his sins, which were many, by going on pilgrimage in 1034. Since he had no legitimate heir to succeed him, he persuaded his unruly barons to accept the illegitimate William as future Duke of Normandy. On his return journey from the Holy Land Robert died suddenly and the young William succeeded to the Dukedom by his father’s will.

The barons exhibited no loyalty to the “base born” child and thereafter William grew up in the school of adversity. He had to learn, very early, how to survive. The barons constantly rebelled and anarchy reigned in Normandy during the years of William’s minority. William’s guardians were murdered in succession. Osbern was killed whilst guarding his door. His maternal uncle, Walter, at one point resorted to hiding the child with some poor people. William was formed and moulded The Early English Kings

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by this savage and insecure childhood into the stark and often ruthless ruler he was later to become.

In 1047, he asserted his authority and crushed the rebels at Val-es-Dunes after which he began to restore order in his Dukedom. At Alencon, the burghers insulted his birth by hanging “hides for the tanner” over the walls. On taking the town he exacted a terrible revenge and had both their hands and feet amputated. One of lifes great survivors, William finally emerged as undisputed Duke of Normandy.

William matured into a tall, thick set man with dark hair, which receeded from his forehead early. His voice was rasping and guttural. William undoubtedly possessed considerable powers of leadership and courage. He was devout and inspired loyalty in his followers, but could also be ruthless and cruel.

William of Malmesbury provides us with a detailed description of the king in his Historia Anglorum: ‘He was of just stature, ordinary corplulence, fierce countenance; his forehead was bare of hair; of such great strength of arm that it was often a matter of surprise, that no one was able to draw his bow, which himself could bend when his horse was in full gallop; he was majestic whether sitting or standing, although the protuberance of his belly deformed his royal person; of excellent health so that he was never confined with any dangerous disorder, except at the last; so given to the pleasures of the chase, that as I have before said, ejecting the inhabitants, he let a space of many miles grow desolate that, when at liberty from other avocations, he might there pursue his pleasures.

His anxiety for money is the only thing on which he can deservedly be blamed. This he sought all opportunities of scraping together, he cared not how; he would say and do some things and indeed almost anything, unbecoming to such great majesty, where the hope of money allured him. I have here no excuse whatever to offer, unless it be, as one has said, that of necessity he must fear many, whom many fear.’

William negotiated a marriage in 1049 to Matilda, a descendant of the old Saxon House of Wessex and daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Adela, daughter of Robert II, King of France. They were an ill-assorted pair, he strongly built and five feet ten inches tall and she (as it emerged when her skeleton was exhumed) just over four feet tall, almost a dwarf. It proved however, to be a highly successful union and produced a large family.

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The Conquest of England The Duke of Normandy visited his English cousin, Edward the Confessor, in 1051. Edward and his brother Alfred had spent much of their childhood in exile at the Norman Court, their mother, Emma, had been a daughter of the House of Normandy.

During this visit, Edward is purported to have promised his Norman cousin the crown of England, should he die without issue. The real heir was Edgar the Atheling, Edward’s greatnephew, the grandson of his elder brother Edmund Ironside, but he was still a child and knew little of England, having spent much of his life in exile in Hungary. Others also coveted the English throne, the chief candidate amongst these was Harold, son of the powerful Godwine, Earl of Wessex.

Harold was unfortunately shipwrecked on the coast of Normandy, where he found himself the unwilling guest of Duke William. The Confessor was now unlikely to survive long and Harold was anxious to return to England to forward his ambitions there. However, before he would allow his guest to leave, William required him to swear an oath to support his claim to the crown upon Edward’s death. Under duress, Harold finally consented and swore the oath on holy relics.

Edward the Confessor finally breathed his last in January, 1066, and was buried in his foundation of St.Peter, Westminster, which had been consecrated but ten days previously. It was reported that on his deathbed he had nominated Harold as his successor who was duly accepted as King by the Saxon Witangemot or council of elders, which traditionally elected the next English King.

Back in Normandy, on reciept of this ominous news, the formidable Duke William flew into a rage. He began to build an invasion fleet to take by force what he considered to be his by right. The Pope himself, due to Harold’s foresworn oath on holy relics, supported William’s enterprise. After Harold was crowned by Archbishop Stigand, a portentous star was seen in the skies, this has now been identified as Halley’s comet, many in that superstitious age saw it as an omen of the wrath of God on the perjured King Harold and his followers.

Harold assembled the fyrdd, the Saxon militia of freemen, in preparation for William’s imminent landing, whilst the Duke prepared his fleet and waited for good weather to set sail for England. In mid September, Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, invaded England, accompanied by Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, Harold’s unruly and discontented brother, who had earlier been banished and his earldom confiscated.

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Harold marched his army north in haste to meet the invaders at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, where he won a decisive victory over the Viking army. At this time, the winds William had been pensively awaiting turned favourable and he set sail with his massive invasion fleet. News of his landing at Bulverhythe was conveyed to Harold, who responded by hurrying south to meet him, giving his exhausted army no respite. Had Harold rested and reorganized his army, the outcome of the impending battle and English history could have been very different.

On 14th October, the Saxon and Norman forces clashed in the fateful Battle of Hastings. Harold took up a defensive position on Senlac Ridge. The Norman army was thus forced to attack uphill, placing them at a disadvantage.

The Saxon army formed a shield wall along the edge of the hill which rebuffed repeated Norman attacks. A rumour arose in the Norman ranks that Duke William was dead, causing panic and flight. Many of the Saxon fyrdd pursued the fleeing Normans down the hill. William put heart into his army by loudly announcing he still lived. The Normans rallied, Harold’s brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were both slain on the battlefield.

The battle continued for most of the day, Harold and his Saxons fought with steely determination for possession of their country. As dusk began to fall over Hastings, William ordered his archers to fire high into the air and one of these arrows is said to have hit Harold in the eye, blinding him, although this point is disputed by some sources. Whether this was the case or not, Harold fell mortally wounded under the dragon standard of Wessex.

The Saxon army, seeing that the day was lost, began to flee the field. The houscarls, Harold’s trained professional militia, loyally and valiantly defended the body of their King to the last, but they too finally fell and Harold’s body was mutilated by the Normans, a vindictive act, which William punished. The battle was lost and Anglo-Saxon England died with Harold on the battlefield that day.

Harold’s deeply distressed mistress, Edith Swan-neck came to William pleading for her lover’s body and offering him its weight in gold in exchange, but William coldly refused her distraught request. He had Harold buried in a secret location.

William proceeded to London, where he was crowned King of England at Edward the Confessor’s foundation of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

He accepted the surrender of the Saxon Earls Edwine and A Black Arrow resource

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Morkere along with that of the child claimant, Edgar Atheling and defeated the heroic Hereward the Wake at Ely. On the whole the south of England submitted to Norman rule, whereas in the north resistance was more prolonged. William responded by subjecting the English to a reign of terror.

Determined to punish and crush rebellion to his rule and strike abject fear into English hearts, he laid waste vast tracts of Yorkshire, which suffered under a great famine for nine years after as a result. He rewarded his Norman and French followers by distributing the confiscated lands of the English to them.

William was a savage and formidable ruler, by modern standards an exceedingly cruel one, but his methods produced the desired results and extinguished the fires of opposition. Many castles and keeps were built across the country to enforce his rule, originally wooden towers or earthen mottes, in all over 80 castles were established during the reign, including the White Tower, the first building in the Tower of London complex. The dominating shadow of the White Tower loomed menacingly over medieval London, a visible expression of Norman power.

The new King’s half brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, commissioned a tapestry to commemorate his brother’s victory in 1078. It depicts a series of scenes leading up to and during the conquest. William’s conversion of the New Forest into a royal hunting ground saw the introduction of harsh and severe forest laws, which caused great resentment amongst the Anglo-Saxons. William changed England’s laws and inflicted harsh punishments for offenders. Murder became an officially punishable crime in England and slavery was abolished.

Anglo-Saxon England was radically altered by the Norman conquest, it changed the entire way of life then established in the country. Its laws, aristocracy and church were altered and it introduced the French feudal system. The Anglo-Saxon language was replaced by Norman French as the language of the upper classes, modern English is the natural outgrowth of both. The role of the conquerors and the conquered can still be detected in many English words, the Saxon cow, tended by the lowly Saxon villein became the Norman beef when it appeared on the lord’s table. The Saxon swine became Norman gammon.

There are countless other examples in modern English which amply illlustrate the role of Saxon servant and Norman master.

The Norman Feudal System, which William introduced into England, was a complicated heirarchial structure at whose apex sat the king. That lords held their lands under the king in exchange for homage and military assistance rendered to him in times of need.

The Early English Kings

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In December, 1085, William decided to commision an enquiry into the extent of his dominions. It is thought that this was done to either maximise taxation or provide written proof of land onwership. This unique survey was known to history as the Domesday Book. The Domesday Book still survives today in the Public Record Office, London and is an extraordinary document for its time.

The last year of William’s life was spent fighting in Normandy, in battle for the Vexin, a much disputed territory, which lay between Normandy and France. Amongst those opposing him was his rebellious eldest son, Robert, nicknamed Curthose by his father, due to his short legs.

On 9th September, 1087, whilst riding through the smouldering ruins of the sacked town of Mantes, in what must have appeared to him as like an act of divine retribution, William was thrown from his horse when it trod on burning ashes and sustained severe abdominal injuries.

The King, now aged fifty nine and mortally injured, was carried to the convent of St. Gervais in Rouen, the Norman capital.

There he summoned his younger sons, William and Henry, to his deathbed. Robert Curthose remained at the court of France.

England was bequeathed to his second surviving and favourite son, William Rufus and despite his bitter differences with Robert Curthose, he left Normandy to him. To Henry, the youngest son, later destined to inherit all his dominions, he left 5,000 silver pounds. He is reported to have ruminated on and repented of his many sins, transgressions and cruelties at the end. He tried to salve his conscience, before preparing to meet his maker and fearing for his immortal soul, he ordered all the treasure he possessed in Rouen to be given to the church and the poor and forgave his enemies. William the Conqueror died on 9th September, 1087, having ruled England for 21 years.

William was buried in the monastery of St.Stephen at Caen in Normandy, an abbey he had previously founded as an act of repentence for his consanguineous marriage to Matilda of Flanders. The body was broken as it was lowered into the sepulchre, made too short by the stonemasons and the ceremony was interrupted by a dispossessed knight. A stone slab with a Latin inscription, in the abbey church of Caen today marks the burial place of the first Norman King of England.

His grave has since been desecrated twice, in the course of the French Wars of Religion his bones were scattered across Caen, and during the tumultuous events of the French Revolution, the Conqueror’s tomb was again despoiled.

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The Early English Kings

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A Black Arrow resource

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