Edmund Ironside or Edmund II was King of England from 23 April to 18 October 1016 and of Wessex
from 23 April to 30 November 1016. His cognomen "Ironside" is not recorded until 1057, but
may have been contemporary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was given to him
"because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut the Great. He fought
five battles against the Danes, ending in defeat against Cnut on 18 October at the Battle
of Assandun, after which they agreed to divide the kingdom, Edmund taking Wessex and Cnut
the rest of the country. Edmund died shortly afterwards on 30 November, and Cnut became
the king of all England.
Life Edmund was a signatory to charters from 993.
He was the third of the six sons of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu,
who was probably the daughter of Earl Thored of Northumbria. His elder brothers were Æthelstan
and Egbert, and younger ones, Eadred, Eadwig and Edgar. He had four sisters, Eadgyth, Ælfgifu,
Wulfhilda, and the Abbess of Wherwell Abbey. His mother died around 1000, after which his
father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy, who had two sons, Edward the Confessor and
Alfred and a daughter Goda. Æthelstan probably did not approve of the
increasing influence of ealdorman Eadric Streona from 1007, and he seems to have formed a friendship
with Sigeferth and Morcar, two of the leading thegns of the Five Boroughs of the East Midlands.
Æthelstan and Edmund were close, and they probably felt threatened by Emma's ambitions
for her sons. The Life of Edward the Confessor, written fifty years later, claimed that when
Emma was pregnant with him, all Englishmen promised that if the child was a boy they
would accept him as king. When Sweyn Forkbeard seized the throne at
the end of 1013 and Æthelred fled to France, the brothers do not appear to have followed
him, but stayed in England. Æthelstan died in June 1014 and left his brother estates
and a sword which had belonged to king Offa of Mercia. His will also reflected the close
relationship between the brothers and the nobility of the east midlands.
Sweyn died in February 1014, and the Five Boroughs accepted his son Cnut, who married
a kinswoman of Sigeferth and Morcar, as king. However, Æthelred returned to England and
launched a surprise attack which defeated the Vikings and forced Cnut to flee England.
In 1015 Sigeferth and Morcar came to an assembly in Oxford, probably hoping for a royal pardon,
but they were murdered by Eadric Streona. King Æthelred then ordered that Sigeferth's
widow, Ealdgyth, be seized and brought to Malmesbury Abbey, but Edmund seized and married
her in defiance of his father, probably to consolidate his power base in the east midlands.
He then received the submission of the people of the Five Boroughs. At the same time, Cnut
launched a new invasion of England. In late 1015 Edmund raised an army, possibly assisted
by his wife's and mother's links with the midlands and the north, but the Mercians under
Eadric Streona joined the West Saxons in submitting to Cnut. In early 1016 the army assembled
by Edmund dispersed when Æthelred did not appear to lead it, probably due to illness.
Edmund then raised a new army and in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria ravaged Eadric
Streona's Mercian territories, but when Cnut occupied Northumbria Uhtred submitted to him,
only to be killed by Cnut. Edmund went to London.
Æthelred died on 23 April 1016, and the citizens and councillors in London chose Edmund as
king and probably crowned him. He then mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence
of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where the
people submitted to him and he gathered an army. He fought inconclusive battles against
the Danes and their English supporters at Penselwood in Somerset and Sherston in Wiltshire.
He then raised the siege of London and defeated the Danes near Brentford. They renewed the
siege while Edmund went to Wessex to raise further troops, returning to again relieve
London, defeat the Danes at Otford, and pursue Cnut into Kent. Eadric Streona now went over
to Edmund, but at the decisive Battle of Assandun on 18 October, Eadric and his men fled and
Cnut decisively defeated Edmund. There may have been one further battle in the Forest
of Dean, after which the two kings negotiated a peace dividing the country between them.
Edmund received Wessex while Cnut took Mercia and probably Northumbria.
Shortly afterwards, on 30 November 1016, King Edmund died, probably in London. Cnut was
now able to seize control as 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. The location of his body is unknown.
Heirs Edmund had two children by Ealdgyth, Edward
the Exile and Edmund. According to John of Worcester, Cnut sent them to the king of Sweden
where he probably hoped they would be murdered, but the Swedish king instead forwarded them,
together with his daughter, on to Kiev. It has more recently been alleged that the two
sons were sent to Poland and subsequently from there to Hungary. The two boys eventually
ended up in Hungary where Edmund died but Edward prospered. Edward "the Exile" returned
to England in 1057 only to die within a few days of his arrival. His son Edgar the Ætheling
was briefly proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but later submitted to
William the Conqueror. Edgar would live a long and eventful life; fighting in rebellion
against William the Conqueror from 1067-1075; fighting alongside the Conqueror's son Robert
of Normandy in campaigns in Sicily; and accompanying Robert on the First Crusade. He eventually
died in England in 1126. Reputation
In the view of M. K. Lawson, the intensity of Edmund's struggle against the Danes in
1016 is only matched by Alfred the Great's in 871, and contrasts with Æthelred's failure.
Edmund's success in raising one army after another suggests that there was little wrong
with the organs of government under competent leadership. He was "probably a highly determined,
skilled and indeed inspiring leader of men". Cnut visited his tomb on the anniversary of
his death and laid a cloak decorated with peacocks on it to assist in his salvation,
peacocks symbolising resurrection. In culture
Edmund Ironside is an Elizabethan play about him, which some critics believe to be a very
early work by William Shakespeare. Edmund is played by John Horn in the 1970
television movie The Ceremony of Innocence. Edmund is one of the main characters in Justin
Hill's novel Shieldwall, first in the Conquest Trilogy.
See also House of Wessex family tree
References
Sources Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Clemoes, Peter. The Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Bruce Dickins, 1959