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Edward the Elder (870s? – 17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith.When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin Æthelwold, who had a strong claim to the throne as the son of Alfred's elder brother and predecessor, Æthelred I.
Died in 890 at the age of 55. [28] 890 [27] to 902. [9] Eohric: Killed in battle (along with Æthelwold) in December 902. 902 [9] Æthelwold: Underking of the Danes; killed in battle in December 902. [29] 902 [9] to 918. Guthrum II: East Anglian Danes accepted Edward the Elder's overlordship; killed in battle in 918. [30]
[a] He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the "greatest Anglo-Saxon kings". [6] He never married and had no children; he was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I. When Edward died in July 924, Æthelstan was accepted by the Mercians as king.
There is some evidence that Ælfweard of Wessex may have been king in 924, between his father Edward the Elder and his half brother Æthelstan, although he was not crowned. A 12th-century list of kings gives him a reign length of four weeks, though one manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says he died only 16 days after his father. [ 7 ]
The House of Wessex then briefly regained power under Æthelred's son Edward the Confessor, but lost it after the Confessor's reign, with the Norman Conquest in 1066. All kings of England since William II have been descended from the House of Wessex through William the Conqueror 's wife Matilda of Flanders , who was a descendant of Alfred the ...
Edwin (died 933) was the younger son of King Edward the Elder and Ælfflæd, his second wife. He drowned at sea in circumstances which are unclear. Edward the Elder died in 924, leaving five sons by three marriages. Of these, Edmund and Eadred were infants and thus excluded from the succession.
Edmund I, the future king who was a son of Edward's third wife, Eadgifu, was born in 920 or 921, so Ælfflæd's marriage must have ended in the late 910s. According to William of Malmesbury , Edward put aside Ælfflæd in order to marry Eadgifu, a claim which Sean Miller viewed sceptically, [ 8 ] but it is accepted by other historians. [ 9 ]
After Alfred's death in 899, Æthelwold disputed the throne with Alfred's son, Edward the Elder. As senior ætheling (prince of the royal dynasty eligible for kingship), Æthelwold had a strong claim to the throne.