Edmund Ironside

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
For other uses, see Edmund Ironside (disambiguation).
Edmund "Ironside"
King of England
Fictional 18th century portrait
Fictional 18th century portrait
Reign April 23, 1016 - November 30, 1016
Predecessor Ethelred the Unready
Successor Canute the Great
Spouse Edith
Issue
Edward the Exile
Edmund
Father Ethelred II
Mother Ælfgifu
Born 989
Wessex, England
Died November 30, 1016
Glastonbury, England
Burial Glastonbury Abbey

Edmund Ironside or Eadmund (c. 988/993 – November 30, 1016), surnamed "Ironside" for his efforts to fend off the Danish invasion led by King Canute, was King of England from April 23 to November 30, 1016.

Contents

[edit] Family

Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred II (also known as Ethelred the Unready) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of Northumbria. He had three brothers, the elder being Æthelstan, and the younger two being Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy.

Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power-struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow, Ældgyth, from the nunnery where she had been imprisoned and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Canute the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Canute, Edmund was reconciled with his father.

[edit] Royal and military history

Æthelred II, who had earlier been stricken ill, died on April 23, 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him he fought them to a standstill. He then raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Canute. However, on October 18 Canute decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Canute held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should perish, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.

[edit] Death

On November 30, 1016, King Edmund II died in Oxford or London, either of illness or when he was stabbed by a soldier hiding inside a latrine[citation needed], and his territories were ceded to Canute who then became king of England. Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed and the location of his body is unknown.

[edit] Heirs

Edmund had two children by Ældgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund, who both were sent by Canute the Great to Sweden, in order to be murdered but were sent from there to Kiev, ending up in Hungary.

[edit] Shakespearean play?

Edmund Ironside is also the name of an anonymous play in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, which has been attributed to Shakespeare on stylistic grounds.[1] Plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha are not generally accepted as Shakespearean.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
  • Clemoes, Peter. The Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Bruce Dickins, 1959

[edit] References

  1. ^ Eric Sams. (1986). Shakespeare's "Edmund Ironside": The Lost Play. Wildwood Ho. ISBN 0-7045-0547-9
  2. ^ Two Tough Nuts to Crack: Did Shakespeare Write the Shakespeare Portions of Sir Thomas More and Edward III? By Ward E. Y. Elliott and Robert J. Valenza, Claremont McKenna College.
Preceded by
Ethelred II		 King of England
1016		 Succeeded by
Canute
v • d • e
English Monarchs
Overlords (or Bretwaldas)
of the English
Monarchs (pre-Conquest)
of England
Monarchs (post-Conquest)
of England
William I the Conqueror · William II Rufus · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda · Henry II · Richard I the Lionheart · John† · Henry III† · Edward I† · Edward II† · Edward III† · Richard II† · Henry IV Bolingbroke† · Henry V† · Henry VI† · Edward IV† · Edward V† · Richard III† · Henry VII† · Henry VIII† · Edward VI† · Jane† · Mary I† · Elizabeth I† · James I‡ · Charles I‡ · Commonwealth · Charles II‡ · James II‡ · William III‡ with Mary II‡ · William III‡ · Anne‡
Also King/Overlord of Great Britain. † Also Lord/Monarch of Ireland. ‡ Also Monarch of Scotland and Ireland.