Edward son of Alfred

Also known as: Edward / King Edward · Family: West-Saxons · Role: king · First appears: A.D. 449–556

After Alfred’s death, in 901 Edward took the government. In the same year his cousin Prince Ethelwald rode against Winburn and Twineham without the king’s leave. In 910 Edward took possession of London, Oxford, and the lands that owed them obedience; in 911 his forces defeated an enemy army and killed its leaders, including Eowils, Healfden, Ohter and Anlaf the Swarthy.

In 918 Earl Thurkytel sought Edward as his lord, and Edward released Camlac, captured at Archenfield, for forty pounds. He conquered Bedford in 919. In 921 Earl Thurferth and the army of Northampton sought him as “their lord and protector”; people across the country submitted, and the armies of East-Anglia and Cambridge made agreements with him. In 922 the kings of North-Wales, including Howel, Cledauc and Jothwel, sought him as their lord, and the population of Mercia turned to him after having been subject to Ethelfleda.

In 924 the King of Scotland, Reynold, Eadulf of Bamburgh, and people of Northumbria and Strathclyde chose Edward as father and lord. Edward died among the Mercians at Farndon that year. His children included Athelstan, Elward and Edmund son of Edward; his sister Ethelfleda had died in 922.