Edmund I

When Edmund’s half-brother and predecessor King Æthelstan died in 939 without immediate successors, Edmund became king and was the first to start his rule with a united England.

During his six year reign, Edmund did his best to maintain the territorial, diplomatic and administrative legacy left behind by Æthelstan. On Æthelstan’s death, Olaf Guthfrithson, the Norse king of Dublin, and other Norwegian kings occupied Northumbria and raided the Midlands.

Edmund successfully suppressed the rebellions by the Vikings and recaptured areas of northern England. He succeeded in regaining control of Mercia and extended his rule as far as southern Scotland, securing peaceful relations with Scotland by entrusting Strathclyde to Malcolm I, King of Scots. As well as reuniting England, he bolstered his authority by allowing St Dunstan to reform the Benedictine order.

Edmund was married twice. With his first wife, St. Aelfgith, he had two children who became King Eadwig All-Fair and King Edgar the Peaceful. After she died in 944 Edmund married Ethelflaed of Damerham. They did not have children.

Edmund I was murdered at a feast in his own hall at his royal villa of Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire, at the age of 25 in 946 after only seven years on the throne. He was killed fighting an exiled thief named Liofa who would not leave the feast and stabbed the King to death. Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey, an abbey which he had entrusted in 943 to the famous Dunstan.

Although Edmund died with two sons as heirs to the throne, they were too young to rule. Edmund was instead succeeded by his brother Eadred, who was in turn succeeded by Edmund’s two sons Eadwig and Edgar.