Everything about Edmund Ii totally explained
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.
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'd 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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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. Plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha are not generally accepted as Shakespearean.
Further Information
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