Edgar the Ætheling
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| Edgar Ætheling (King Edgar II of England) | |
|---|---|
| King of England (more...) | |
| Reign | 15 October - 10 December 1066 |
| Predecessor | Harold II |
| Successor | William I |
| Father | Edward the Exile |
| Mother | Agatha |
| Born | c. 1051 Hungary |
| Died | c. 1126 (aged c. 75) unknown |
Edgar (the) Ætheling[1], also known as Edgar the Outlaw (c. 1051 – c. 1126) was the last male member of the West Saxon royal house of Cerdic. He was proclaimed, but never crowned, King of England.
Born in Hungary, Edgar was the only son of Edward the Exile, heir to the English throne, and was a grandson of King Edmund Ironside. (See House of Wessex family tree for his ancestry.) Upon his father's death in 1057, Edgar was nominated as heir apparent by his great-uncle King Edward the Confessor. However, he was too young at the time of the King's death in January 1066 to defend the country against the impending Norman invasion led by Duke William of Normandy, so a Witenagemot instead elected Harold Godwinson, King Edward's brother-in-law, as king. Following the death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings on Saturday, 14 October 1066, Edgar was proclaimed king by a Witenagemot in London. He was never crowned and submitted to William some six to eight weeks later, at the age of about fourteen or fifteen.
Following these events, Edgar lived a long and eventful life taking part in three further rebellions against sitting Norman kings in England as well as serving the Byzantine Emperor in the Varangian Guard at Constantinople and commanding forces during the First Crusade. He is thought to have died c. 1126 in Scotland.
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[edit] Early life
Edgar was the only son of Edward the Exile, heir to the English throne, and grandson of King Edmund Ironside. Upon his father's death in 1057, Edgar was nominated as heir apparent by his great-uncle King (and later, Saint) Edward the Confessor. Edgar was brought up at Edward's Court, together with his sisters, Margaret (later known as Saint Margaret of Scotland) and Cristina.
[edit] Proclamation as king
Edgar was too young at the time of the Edward's death in January 1066 to defend the country against its prospective invaders from both Normandy and Norway. The Witenagemot elected Edwards's brother-in-law, Harold Godwinson, to be king instead. Edgar was elected king after Harold's death, but the failure of his regime to mount any cohesive military response to the Normans brought his reign to a swift end. He was heavily dependent upon Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria. His position was a practically impossible one. Within a matter of weeks of the Witenagemot election, Edgar was brought to submit to William the Conqueror at Berkhamsted, either late in November or early in December 1066.
[edit] After the Norman Conquest
William treated Edgar well. Seeing political advantage, he kept him in his custody and eventually took him back to his Court in Normandy. However, Edgar joined in the rebellion of the Earls Edwin and Morcar in 1068 and when defeated fled to the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland. The next year Malcolm married Edgar's sister Margaret, and agreed to support Edgar in his attempt to reclaim the English Crown. Edgar now made common cause with Sweyn Estridson, the King of Denmark and nephew of Cnut the Great, who believed he was the rightful King of England.
Their combined forces invaded England in 1069, capturing York. William marched on the north, devastating the land as he went. He paid the Danes to leave, whilst Edgar fled back to Scotland. He remained in exile there until 1072 when William successfully forced a peace treaty on King Malcolm, the terms of which included the exile of Edgar. Edgar eventually made his peace with William in 1074 but he never fully gave up his dreams of regaining the Throne of England. After King William's death in 1087 he supported the eldest son Robert II, Duke of Normandy (Robert Curthose) against the second son King William II (William Rufus) in 1091 and again found himself seeking refuge in Scotland. He also supported his nephew, Edgar, in gaining the Scottish Throne, overthrowing the younger Edgar's paternal uncle King Donald III of Scotland in 1097.
According to historian Sir Steven Runciman, Edgar had come to live in exile in Constantinople sometime before 1098, perhaps serving in the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, which was by that time largely composed of exiled Saxon housecarls. Later that year he was given a fleet by Emperor Alexius I so he could help in the First Crusade, and Edgar brought reinforcements and siege equipment provided by the Emperor to the Crusaders at the Siege of Antioch, appearing for certain at the port of St Symeon on 4 March 1098. His further participation in the Crusades are not detailed. Back in Europe he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Tinchebrai in 1106 fighting for Duke Robert against the youngest of William the Conqueror's sons who was now King Henry I of England. He was taken back to England where King Henry pardoned him, and he retired to his country estate in Hertfordshire. His niece Edith (renamed Matilda) had married Henry I in 1100. Edgar is believed to have travelled to the Kingdom of Scotland late in life, perhaps around the year 1120, and was still alive in 1125, but may have died soon after, in his early seventies.
[edit] In popular culture
Edgar has been portrayed by Julian Sands in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990) and by Louis Aherne in an episode of the British educational TV series Historyonics entitled "1066" (2004), with Simon Kirk playing him as an old man.
[edit] Ancestry
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Anglo-Saxon term Aetheling or, as it was spelled during the Anglo-Saxon period, Æþeling, denotes a man of noble blood and was used more specifically in the later Anglo-Saxon period to refer to male members of the royal family
| Preceded by Harold II |
King of the English Proclaimed but not crowned 1066 |
Succeeded by End of title |
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