Kings, Queens, Bones and Bastards E-Book

David Hilliam

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Who invented the 'House of Windsor' as a royal name? Who founded Westminster Abbey? Which king had twenty-one illegitimate children? David Halliam answers all these questions and more. Here is a continuous history of the English monarchy, showing how the nine dynasties rose and fell. The book describes the most memorable features of the life and times of each king or queen - from Egbert, crowned in 802 and considered the first king of England, to Queen Elizabeth II - as well as recording the extraordinary lives of their queens, consorts, mistresses and bastard children. It also tells the story of the Saxons, describes what has happened to the monarchs' mortal remains, and relates many lively incidents of royal history that rarely appear in the text books. Read of the saintly Edward the Confessor, who is believed to have refused to consummate his marriage; of the rumbustious Henry VIII, given to beheading those who displeased him; of the 'little gentleman in black velvet', who caused the death of William III; and of Queen Victoria's strange servant, the 'Munshi', Queen Emma, who endured a trial by ordeal; and Anne Boleyn, widely suspected of being a witch. A complete list of the monarchs' reigns and a genealogical table showing the royal descent down thirty-seven generations from Egbert to Elizabeth II adds to the volume's reference value.

Leseprobe

KINGS, QUEENS,BONES AND BASTARDS

Who’s Who in the English Monarchyfrom Egbert to Elizabeth II

D A V I D H I L L I A M

First published in 1998 bySutton Publishing Limited

Paperback edition first published 1999Reprinted in 2000 (twice), 2001 (three times), 2002, 2003

This new revised edition first published in 2004

The History PressThe Mill, Brimscombe PortStroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QGwww.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

© David Hilliam, 1998, 2008, 2011

The right of The Author, to be identified as the Author of this workhas been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs andPatents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied,reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publiclyperformed or used in any way except as specifically permittedin writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms andconditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted byapplicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights,and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 6905 8MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 6906 5

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Preface

1. The Distant Past: Romans to Saxons

2. Nine Dynasties of English Monarchy

3. Kings and Reigning Queens of England

4. Queens and Consorts

5. Royal Bones

6. Royal Mistresses and Bastards

Appendix:

     The Succession of the English Monarchy

Further Reading

PREFACE

This is an account of all the reigning kings and queens of England, including the ‘Protectors’, Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, from Saxon times to the present day. Many history books begin with the reign of William the Conqueror, but this chronicle starts with the Saxon King Egbert, who reigned from AD 802 to 839 and is considered to be the first ‘King of the English’ (Rex Anglorum). Indeed, although some of the details about these early kings are difficult to verify, even so the line of the English monarchy can be traced back with some certainty over more than 1,200 years to King Egbert (see Appendix, pp. 239–41).

The famous and not so famous strengths and successes of each of these monarchs are recounted, as well as their flaws and indiscretions, most of which are far more well known than any of their achievements. It picks over skeletons that have already been displayed for all the world to see, as well as unearthing a few that had been stashed at the back of the royal closet.

Also included is a chapter dedicated to queens and consorts, who are usually completely ignored unless they happen to have been beheaded, or have met with some other unseemly demise. The collection of short biographies shows that they deserve much more attention, for they were often remarkable personalities in their own right.

Bones and burial places hold a curious if macabre fascination. They remind us that even the greatest monarch will eventually crumble to dust and lose his power for ever. Here is an account of what has happened to the mortal remains of the men and women who once shaped the course of English history. Their bones have been venerated, lost, broken up, stolen, even boiled and a fair few flung into rivers and bogs. Fate has not always been kind to them.

Fate was also usually unkind, if not downright unpleasant, to the not so proper companions and offspring of kings. Most kings have had mistresses. And most mistresses have produced bastards. The extra-marital exploits of English kings (and some queens) provide an astonishing sub-plot to the more predictable history of battles and torture and death. Very few of our kings have been faithful to their wives; many have had illegitimate children; some have been homosexual; some have been almost compulsively promiscuous. One took a vow of chastity. In the final chapter here at least some of the facts are revealed.

THE DISTANT PAST: ROMANS TO SAXONS

JUST AFTER THE ROMANS LEFT BRITAIN

The history of Britain immediately after the Romans departed is rather shadowy and confusing. When the last Roman ship left these shores about AD 410 there was an awkward power-vacuum. Total chaos prevailed, and various petty chieftains squabbled among themselves for tiny kingdoms. About forty years later one of these rulers, Vortigern, was so desperate to beat off some northern tribesmen who were troubling him that he imported allies from the continent to help. This was the beginning, for not only did they come but they stayed – boatload after boatload of eager immigrants: Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Franks. The Anglo-Saxon invasion had begun.

The native Britons, or Celts, were pushed further and further into the fringes of the British Isles – into Cornwall, Wales, Scotland. Meanwhile there was a frantic free-for-all as the marauding Saxons seized whatever bits of land they could. Naturally, there was opposition from the Celts, and the almost legendary King Arthur was one of those who led them in trying to beat off the advancing Saxons. However, nothing could stop them arriving and settling.

After a century or so, in about AD 550, there were probably as many as a thousand little Saxon ‘kingdoms’, some only a few square miles in area. There’s very little to see nowadays as a reminder of those years, but we do have some clues about the local chieftains of that time in the place-names which still survive.

INGS BEFORE KINGS

Look on a map of England and see what a large number of towns and villages have names ending in –ING, or –INGHAM, or –INGTON. The word ingas meant ‘family’ or ‘followers’, so a chief’s name (say, Tota, Wocca, Haefer, or Padda) would be perpetuated in the name of the spot where his boat landed or where he carved out his little kingdom, and this would be followed by –ING to show that Tota’s family or Wocca’s followers had settled there with him. Tooting, Woking, Havering and Paddington are typical examples.

A ham meant ‘home’ or ‘homestead’, and a tun was ‘enclosure’ and later came to mean ‘village’ or ‘town’. So a village with a name such as Washington would suggest that it was the ‘town where Wassa’s people live’. Old Wassa would have been amazed if he had known how world famous his name would become many centuries later!

Gradually, these tiny settlements grouped into larger units and eventually, in the sixth century, seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms emerged. And then, in the year 825, these seven kingdoms at last became united under the dominant King Egbert of Wessex, who is therefore regarded as the very first king of a more or less united England. But first, let’s look at those seven Saxon kingdoms.

THE SEVEN SAXON KINGDOMS

The seven Saxon kingdoms each lasted for about three hundred years, until finally King Egbert of Wessex was hailed as ‘Bretwalda’ or ‘sole ruler of Britain’ round about the year AD 825. For this reason, Egbert is generally recognised as the first English king, and it is possible to trace a line of descent from him right down to our present Queen Elizabeth II. The seven Saxon kingdoms were: Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex, Mercia, Northumberland and Wessex. The ‘sex’ part of these names is simply a shortened form of ‘Saxon’, so that ‘Essex’ means ‘East Saxons’, ‘Sussex’ means ‘South Saxons’, and ‘Wessex’, of course, means ‘West Saxons’.

KENT is considered to have been the first Saxon kingdom, founded shortly after Vortigern’s invitation to the continental communities to come to his aid. The first Kentish kings were the brothers Hengist and Horsa. Unfortunately Horsa was killed in battle, but Hengist ruled Kent from about AD 455 to 488. Thereafter, a line of seventeen Kentish kings ruled this part of England until it acknowledged King Egbert in 825.

EAST ANGLIA had a series of sixteen kings, called ‘Wuffings’, after their first king, Wuffa. The last king of East Anglia was St Edmund, after whom the city of Bury St Edmunds is named.

ESSEX had a line of fifteen kings before acknowledging Egbert in 825.

SUSSEX had a line of nine kings, but the records are incomplete.

MERCIA’s line of kings is also incomplete, but fifteen kings are recorded before Egbert was acknowledged. One of the Mercian kings was the famous and influential King Offa, who constructed a 120-mile long earthwork to protect his kingdom from the Welsh.

NORTHUMBRIA had a line of twenty-five kings until its King Eanred did homage to Egbert in 827.

Finally, WESSEX had its own line of nineteen kings, the last of whom was Egbert himself, who can therefore be seen as the nineteenth king of Wessex as well as the first king of England. Relatively little is known about some of these kings of Wessex, but some of them were great men, who ruled valiantly in difficult times. For your interest, and for the sake of completeness, here is the line of Wessex kings, stretching from the first, Cerdic, to Egbert. (‘His’ refers to the immediate predecessor.)

THE KINGS OF WESSEX WERE:

MonarchReignedCerdic (first king of Wessex)519–534Cynric (his son)534–560Ceawlin (his son)560–591Ceol591–597Ceolwulf (his brother)597–611Cynegils611–643Cenwalh (his son)643–672Seaxburgh (his wife)c. 672–674Cenfus (grandson of Ceolwulf)674Aescwine (his son)674–676Centwine (brother of Cenwalh)676–685Cadwalla (desc. from Ceawlin)685–688Ine688–726Ethelheard726–740Cuthred740–756Sigeberht756–757Cynewulf757–786Beohrtric786–802Egbert802–839

Including these early Wessex rulers, then, the line of succession of English monarchs stretches from Cerdic to the House of Windsor. This is a timespan of almost fifteen centuries.

NINE DYNASTIES OF ENGLISH MONARCHY

To get an overall picture of the long line of English kings and queens, perhaps it’s convenient to think in terms of nine dynasties. Each has its own special quality. The word ‘dynasty’ itself is rarely used today, but a visitor to Britain will surely come across references to the following names of royal families. To begin with, then, we’ll list the dynasties and their monarchs, and this will give you a useful basic check-list of British royalty. The dates given are the years during which the monarchs actually reigned. (‘His’ and ‘her’ refer back to the immediate predecessor.)

1. SAXON KINGS OF ENGLAND

As has been explained, King Egbert was the first king to be considered as the ruler of all England. Including Egbert, there were seventeen Saxon kings of England before William the Conqueror. After fifteen of these, the line was temporarily broken by four Danish kings. Then the Saxon kings were restored. Strictly speaking, these Saxon kings do not constitute a ‘dynasty’ as they did not always follow as a hereditary blood-relationship. However, they do constitute an easily understood line of rulers.

THE SAXON KINGS WERE:

MonarchReignedEgbert802–839Ethelwulf (his son)839–858Ethelbald (his son)858–860Ethelbert (his brother)860–865Ethelred I (his brother)866–871Alfred the Great (his brother)871–899MonarchReignedEdward the Elder (his son)899–924Athelstan (his son)924–939Edmund I (his half-brother)939–946Edred (his brother)946–955Edwy (his nephew)955–959Edgar (his brother)959–975Edward (Martyr and Saint; his son)975–978Ethelred II (the Unready; his half-brother)978–1016Edmund II (Ironside; his son)1016

2. DANISH KINGS OF ENGLAND

The Vikings (Danes and Norwegians) had begun their raids into England in the eighth century, and had conquered and settled in the north and east. At the end of the ninth century they renewed their pressure, and after Ethelred II had fled, Sweyn Forkbeard was acknowledged as king in 1013. He reigned for only a few weeks, and his son, Canute, seized power in 1016 and was crowned in 1018.

THE DANISH KINGS WERE:

MonarchReignedSweyn Forkbeard1013–1014Canute (nowadays often spelt Cnut)1016–1035Harold I (Harefoot; his son)1035–1040Hardecanute (his half-brother)1040–1042

(1.) SAXON KINGS OF ENGLAND RESTORED

On the death of Hardecanute, his half-brother Edward (the Confessor) returned from his exile in Normandy, and so the Saxon line was restored.

Edward the Confessor (Saint)1042–1066Harold II (killed at the Battle of Hastings)1066

3. NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND

The Battle of Hastings, on 14 October 1066, was the most important single event in the history of England. On that day Harold, the last Saxon king, was killed and William of Normandy seized power. It is generally believed that William had been promised the throne by his uncle, Edward the Confessor. Harold II had also promised to support William’s claim, having been tricked and pressurised to do so when he had been shipwrecked in Normandy a few years earlier. Thus William the Conqueror felt that he had a right to the kingdom, as well as proving his authority by overwhelming might. (Note that, at the end of the line, Matilda reigned for a few months in 1141, during her civil war with Stephen.)

THE NORMAN KINGS WERE:

MonarchReignedWilliam I (the Conqueror)1066–1087William II (Rufus; his son)1087–1100Henry I (his brother)1100–1135Stephen (his nephew)1135–1154Matilda; daughter of Henry I1141

4. PLANTAGENET KINGS OF ENGLAND

The Plantagenet dynasty was the longest line in English history, lasting 341 years with fourteen kings. It began with Henry II, who was the son of Count Geoffrey V of Anjou and his wife Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conqueror.

The throne had been promised originally to Matilda, Henry I’s daughter, but when Henry died, Matilda’s cousin Stephen seized power. Matilda fought fiercely and lengthily to claim what she knew was rightfully hers. For a few months she was actually declared to be ‘Lady of the English’, but luck was against her, and she reluctantly gave up the struggle. However, a compromise was reached when Stephen’s own son died: the crown was to pass to her son, Henry. Accordingly, when Stephen died in 1154, a new dynasty was begun – the Plantagenets. The name ‘Plantagenet’ comes from the fact that Count Geoffrey used to wear a sprig of yellow broom flower on his helmet as an identifying emblem. The Latin name for broom is planta genista.

The Plantagenet family finally lost control of the throne at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, when the Welshman Henry Tudor overthrew the ‘hunchback’ Richard III.

THE PLANTAGENET KINGS WERE:

MonarchReignedHenry II (son of Matilda)1154–1189Richard I (Lion-Heart; his son)1189–1199John (his brother)1199–1216Henry III (his son)1216–1272Edward I (his son)1272–1307Edward II (his son)1307–1327Edward III (his son)1327–1377Richard II1377–1399    (his grandson and son of the Black Prince)Henry IV (grandson of Edward III)1399–1413Henry V (his son)1413–1422Henry VI (his son)1422–1461 and1470–1471Edward IV (his distant cousin)1461–1470 and1471–1483Edward V    (his son; never crowned; king briefly in 1483)Richard III (his uncle; brother of Edward IV)1483–1485

5. TUDOR MONARCHS OF ENGLAND

The reign of the Tudor monarchs coincided with the conclusion of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern world. Theirs was the age of discovering new lands, the age of new thinking, the Reformation and the Renaissance. The setting-up of the printing press in England by Caxton came only just a few years before Henry Tudor’s triumph at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

Richard III became increasingly unpopular. He had been ‘Protector’ or regent of England at the death of his brother, Edward IV, as the latter’s rightful heir, Edward V, was only thirteen years of age at the time. However, Richard quickly had himself crowned king, and the boy-king Edward and his younger brother mysteriously ‘disappeared’ in the Tower of London, almost certainly murdered on the orders of Richard.

Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, spearheaded the nobles’ dissatisfaction with Richard’s rule. He had no real claim to the throne, although his grandmother had been Queen Catherine, widow of King Henry V. However, he ruled wisely and brought much-needed peace and order to the country.

Included in the Tudor monarchy is the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey. Never really a queen, for she was not crowned, Lady Jane was wrongly pushed into prominence in 1553 by her father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland.

THE TUDOR MONARCHS WERE:

MonarchReignedHenry VII1485–1509Henry VIII (his son)1509–1547Edward VI (his son)1547–1553Lady Jane Grey1553Mary I (Edward’s half-sister)1553–1558Elizabeth I (her half-sister)1558–1603

6. STUART MONARCHS OF ENGLAND

Elizabeth I died a virgin. It was not until she was lying on her deathbed that she whispered, almost incoherently, whom she wished to succeed her. It was to be King James VI of Scotland. He was the son of Queen Elizabeth’s Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Accordingly, James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England in 1603, and he was king of both countries.

The Stuarts were perhaps the unluckiest dynasty, and Charles I was driven from power by the Parliamentarians in the Civil War. Ultimately, he was beheaded, and the country was ruled by Parliament and the ‘Protector’, Oliver Cromwell, who was succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell, in 1658. Richard Cromwell was not strong enough to cope with the task, and the intolerable chaotic situation called for the ‘Restoration’ of the monarchy.

THE STUART MONARCHS WERE:

MonarchReignedJames I1603–1625Charles I (his son; executed in 1649)1625–1649Parliament1649–1653(Oliver Cromwell1653–1658)(Richard Cromwell (his son)1658–1659)Charles II (son of Charles I)1660–1685James II (his brother)1685–1689William III and Mary II (jointly)1689–1694    (Mary was James II’s daughter)William (alone, after Mary’s death)1694–1702Anne (Mary’s sister)1702–1714

7. HANOVERIAN MONARCHS OF ENGLAND

Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, tried desperately to produce an heir, but all of her eighteen children were either stillborn or died shortly afterwards. When Queen Anne herself died there was no immediately obvious successor. An Act of Parliament prevented (and still prevents) any Catholic or even anyone married to a Catholic from becoming sovereign of England. Strictly speaking, from the hereditary point of view, the throne should have been offered to the Catholic descendants of James II, but the fact that they were Catholics made this impossible.

The nearest Protestant claimant, therefore, was found to be George, son of Sophia, wife of the Elector of Hanover and granddaughter of James I. Accordingly, George was invited to come to England in 1714 to become its king.

THE HANOVERIAN MONARCHS WERE:

MonarchReignedGeorge I (great-grandson of James I)1714–1727George II (his son)1727–1760George III (his grandson)1760–1820George IV (his son)1820–1830William IV (his brother)1830–1837Victoria (his niece and granddaughter of George III)1837–1901

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, so the next two kings briefly constituted a new line.

8. SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA MONARCHS OF ENGLAND

MonarchReignedEdward VII (Victoria’s son)1901–1910George V (his son)1910–1936

9. THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR

During the First World War the dislike of all things connected with Germany became so intense in England that George V felt it was necessary to abandon all his German titles. Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, had given his family name, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to the royal house, but this was no longer regarded as appropriate for an English king. Therefore, in July 1917 King George V announced that henceforth he and his family would adopt ‘House of Windsor’ as their new dynastic name. It is acknowledged that it was the king’s private secretary, Lord Stamfordham, who first suggested ‘Windsor’ as a royal surname.

MONARCHS OF THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR:

MonarchReignedGeorge V1910–1936    (adopting a new name in 1917)Edward VIII   (his son; not crowned but reigned Jan.–Dec. 1936)George VI (his brother)1936–1952Elizabeth II (his daughter)1952–

KINGS AND REIGNING QUEENS OF ENGLAND

The early kings are remembered for their deeds and battles, but hardly for their personalities. Many were crowned at Kingston upon Thames, where today the stone upon which this crowning ceremony took place can still be seen in the centre of the town. It is an intriguing link with the earliest emergence of the royal succession.

EGBERT

c. 770–839 REIGNED 802–839

Son of Ealhmund of Kent

Egbert was king of the West Saxons who gradually forced his dominance over the other Saxon kingdoms. He defeated the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandune (near Swindon) in 825 and was acknowledged as ‘Bretwalda’ or ‘King of Britain’ by the other Saxon kingdoms south of the Humber at that important date. Various kings of some of these Saxon kingdoms continued to exist, so the dominance was not entirely clear-cut; nevertheless, Egbert is considered to be the first overall king of the English. His bones lie in a chest near the altar in Winchester Cathedral.

ETHELWULF

c. 800–858 REIGNED 839–858

Son of Egbert and Redburga

Crowned at Kingston upon Thames, Ethelwulf had been ‘sub-king’ of Kent and was Bishop of Winchester for a while. He fought successfully against the Danes, winning a victory at Oakley in Surrey; he also won another battle at sea. He took his son, the future Alfred the Great, on a pilgrimage to Rome and on the way back, aged about fifty-six himself, he married the Emperor Charlemagne’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter Judith (his second marriage; his first was to Osburga, daughter of Oslac of Hampshire). When he got back to England he found his son Ethelbald in open revolt, and under pressure he found himself obliged to share the throne with him. He lived for only a further two years.

ETHELBALD

c. 834–860 REIGNED 858–860

Son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

Like his father, Ethelbald was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. He married his father’s widow Judith (she was still only fifteen), which shocked his contemporaries, who regarded the marriage as incestuous. His reign and marriage lasted only two and a half years before he died. Ethelbald was buried at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset.

ETHELBERT

c. 836–865 REIGNED 860–865

Son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

Ethelbald’s younger brother and sub-king of Kent and Essex, Ethelbert was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. During his reign the Danes were creating havoc in the south-east and destroyed Winchester in 860. Like his predecessor brother, he died young and was buried at Sherborne Abbey.

ETHELRED I

c. 840–871 REIGNED 865–871

Son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

Ethelbert’s younger brother was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. Although the name of his wife is not recorded, Ethelred had two children – Ethelhelm and Ethelward. He fought no fewer than eight battles against the Danes, and died of wounds after the Battle of Merton in Oxfordshire.

Perhaps surprisingly, Ethelred I was venerated as a saint, and was held in great esteem because of his piety. The story is told that before the crucial Battle of Ashdown, despite the urgency of the situation he refused to rise from his knees or leave his tent until he had completed hearing the Mass. He said he would not serve man before God.

Ethelred is buried in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, where a Purbeck marble slab is believed to be a part of that which originally covered his grave. Such was his fame that a memorial brass was put in Wimborne Abbey in 1440, six hundred years after his birth – the only memorial brass effigy of an English king.

ALFRED THE GREAT

c. 849–899 REIGNED 871–899

Son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

The only appropriate title for Alfred is ‘the Great’. He was an outstanding Saxon king, and would have made a brilliant monarch in any age. He married Elswitha, and they had two sons and three daughters.

Alfred was born in Wantage, Berkshire. As a boy he travelled twice to Rome and had been an honoured guest of Pope Leo IV, who confirmed him, so he had a broader vision of European culture than most of his predecessors. He was the youngest of the family. Three of his brothers had been Saxon kings before him, then, after helping his brother King Ethelred to fight eight battles against the Danes, he had the sadness of seeing him die of wounds after the Battle of Merton. He was elected king over Ethelred’s sons.

The first years of his reign were desperate. The Danes were moving further and further into the west of England. In January 878 they made a surprise attack and gained even more territory, so that Alfred had to go into hiding in marshy land near Athelney, in Somerset. This is where the episode of ‘Alfred and the cakes’ is supposed to have taken place. (Disguised as an ordinary traveller, he stayed for a while in a swineherd’s cottage, and after letting some cakes burn, which he had been asked to look after, he earned a sharp rebuke from the swineherd’s wife, who of course did not know who he was.) Ironically, the cake story, which is probably invention, is remembered more than many of his real achievements.

Patiently and with great courage and tenacity, Alfred gathered his army together again and fought one of the most important battles in English history, the Battle of Edington, near Westbury in Wiltshire, in May 878. It was ferocious fighting with swords and axes, lasting for many hours. However, the Danes were decisively defeated, and the threat to Wessex was halted. But the most interesting thing about this victory was the way in which Alfred dealt with the defeated Danish leader Guthrum and the remains of his army. Alfred pursued them back to their camp at Wedmore, near Bath, and surrounded them. He had them completely in his power and could have starved or slaughtered every one of them. They begged for mercy and said he could take as many hostages as he liked if only Alfred would let them go. Quite astonishingly, Alfred insisted that Guthrum became baptised as a Christian and stood godfather to him; then he entertained the whole Danish army for twelve days and gave them gifts. After this he let them go and enjoyed peace for fourteen years.

In 886 Alfred captured London and in the subsequent peace treaty allowed the Danes to stay in East Anglia, but Wessex and the south were left to Alfred. In the following years Alfred showed himself to be an imaginative and innovative peacetime ruler; in fact, it has been said that if he had never fought a battle he would still have been one of Britain’s greatest kings.

He reorganised the defences of Wessex and set up a rota-system for military service, so that he could always have a standing army and yet men could also get on with their farming or other jobs in peace. He restored fortresses throughout Wessex and caused new ones to be built, thus founding dozens of new towns. These were ‘boroughs’ (the Saxon word burh meant ‘fortress’). The largest of these in Wessex was his capital, Winchester.

Realising that the Danes would still attempt further invasions, he built large speedy ships, and successfully fought several sea battles. He is generally regarded as being the ‘father of the English navy’.

In addition to all this, Alfred revised the laws of the land; introduced many new ones; invited foreign scholars to his court; encouraged learning and the arts; set in motion the writing of the great Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; learnt Latin himself and translated books by Boethius, Bede, Gregory the Great, Orosius and St Augustine; invented a clock made with candles; and started the ‘Book of Winchester’, which was a survey of the counties, parishes and hundreds into which he divided his kingdom.

Alfred was only fifty when he died in Winchester in 899. A thousand years later his great reign was celebrated by the erection of a magnificent statue in Winchester, his capital city.

His presence is felt there still.

It is sad to record that Alfred’s remains have been lost. In the eighteenth century some bones were found in a stone coffin on the site of Hyde Abbey in Winchester. They were tipped out and reburied. A century later they were dug up again, exhibited in London, and then returned to Winchester. They now rest outside the east end of St Bartholomew’s Church in that city…. But no one will ever know if these are really Alfred’s.

EDWARD THE ELDER

870–924 REIGNED 899–924

Son of Alfred the Great and Elswitha

As his predecessors before him, Edward the Elder was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. Like his father, he fought successfully against the Danes, capturing the Danish Five Boroughs of Leicester, Stamford, Nottingham, Derby and Lincoln. He also fortified many other towns. He completely annexed Mercia after the death of his sister Ethelfleda, who had been its ruler.

Edward the Elder probably holds the paternity record among English kings for legitimate children, fathering two sons and a daughter by Egwina; ten children by Elfleda; and five more (including two future kings, Edmund I and Edred) by Edgifu. Edward the Elder is also believed to have had a bastard son, Gregory, who later became Abbot of Einsiedlen in Germany.

He died in Farndon-on-Dee, Cheshire, and was buried in Winchester. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Athelstan.

ATHELSTAN

c. 895–939 REIGNED 924–939

Son of Edward the Elder and Egwina

Crowned at Kingston upon Thames, Athelstan was the first undisputed king of all England; the Welsh and Scottish kings also paid him homage.

He arranged politically advantageous marriages for his sisters: one of them to the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great; another to Hugh Capet of France; and another to King Charles of the West Franks. He was a great king, giving hospitality to other kings, passing humane laws, introducing a national coinage, and administering the unified country with skill.

Athelstan died on 27 October 939 and was buried at Malmesbury, north Wiltshire. He was unmarried and was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund.

EDMUND I (THE ELDER)

c. 921–946 REIGNED 939–946

Son of Edward the Elder and Edgifu

Edmund I was only eighteen when he was crowned at Kingston upon Thames, and he was only twenty-five when he was involved in a brawl and stabbed to death by Leofa, an outlawed thief. His reign, though brief, was nevertheless full of incident and he had fought successfully against the Vikings in the Midlands and Northumbria.

He married twice: firstly, (Saint) Elgifu, by whom he had two sons, Edwy and Edgar; and secondly, Ethelfled of Damerham. His premature death occurred in Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, on 26 May 946, and he was buried at Glastonbury in Somerset. His brother, Edred, succeeded him.

EDRED

923–955 REIGNED 946–955

Son of Edward the Elder and Edgifu

Crowned at Kingston upon Thames, Edred’s relatively short reign saw much fighting, especially in the north, where he fought the Dane Eric Bloodaxe. He managed to establish dominance in Northumbria when Eric Bloodaxe was killed in battle in 954.

Edred was advised by St Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, to help establish monastic centres of learning. Unmarried, Edred reigned for only nine-and-a-half years. He died on 23 November 955 in Frome, Somerset, and was buried in Winchester. He was succeeded by his nephew Edwy.

EDWY THE FAIR

c. 940–959 REIGNED 955–959

Son of Edmund I (the Elder) and Elgifu

Edwy was only fifteen when he came to the throne, crowned at Kingston upon Thames, and nineteen when he was probably murdered. He was a weak and incompetent youth who would probably have plunged England into chaos if he had lived, but his reign was mercifully brief.

He is notorious for having left the table at his coronation banquet in order to make love to his mistress (another Elgifu, his stepmother’s daughter), and had to be brought back and listen to rebukes from Archbishop Odo. He married the mistress, but then had to banish her because he was related to her, thus making the marriage illegal.

He exiled the famous church leader Dunstan; lost control of Mercia and Northumbria; and was finally forced to give up his throne to his younger brother Edgar. He died at Gloucester on 1 October 959.

EDGAR THE PEACEFUL

c. 944–975 REIGNED 959–975

Son of Edmund I (the Elder) and Elgifu

Edgar was successful in many ways and brought stability and prosperity to the country. He was fortunate in having good advisers; St Dunstan, whom he brought back from exile to become Archbishop of Canterbury; St Oswald, Archbishop of York; and St Aethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester.

Edgar made a point of strengthening the Church, and founded forty religious houses, encouraging learning and culture. He deliberately delayed his coronation until 973 and then held a magnificent ceremony in Bath. This coronation service, devised by St Dunstan, was the first to include the practice of anointing the monarch, with the Biblical words, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king being said or sung. This same service has been used by every English monarch since Edgar’s coronation in 973. Later that year the famous incident took place when he was rowed in state on the River Dee by seven Welsh and Scottish kings (Malcolm of Strathclyde, Kenneth II of Scotland, Maccus of the Isle of Man, and various Welsh kings). This publicity stunt was a memorable public relations exercise which has been depicted again and again over the centuries.

Edgar ruled over a peaceful and united country, dying on 8 July 975. He was buried at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, and was succeeded by Edward the Martyr, his only son by his first wife, Ethelfled. Edgar also had a daughter, Edith, by Wulfryth, although it is unclear whether she was a mistress or his second wife. His third wife, Elfrida, bore him two sons, Edmund Aetheling and Ethelred, who became Ethelred II (the Unready).

EDWARD THE MARTYR

c. 963–978 REIGNED 975–978

Son of Edgar I (the Peaceful) and Ethelfled

Edward was about twelve when his father Edgar died and was king for less than three years. He too was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. He was murdered, on 18 March 978, probably on the orders of his stepmother, Elfrida, when he went to visit her at Corfe Castle. Her motive was that she wanted to place her own son Ethelred on the throne.

The murder was a bloody affair, and shortly afterwards miracles were reported to have happened at his tomb, which led to his becoming known as Saint and Martyr. He was buried first at Wareham without any royal honours, and then, when the miracles began to occur, it was decided to remove his body for reburial near the high altar in Shaftesbury Abbey.

The solemn transfer from Wareham to Shaftesbury was the occasion of what was probably the greatest religious procession ever to take place in Dorset. The slow cortège took seven full days to cover the 25-mile journey, and further miracles were said to have occurred during that time.

Although King Edward, Saint and Martyr, was of very little importance during his lifetime, his influence continues even today as pilgrims come to visit his modern shrine in Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey. If Edward’s death had been plotted by Elfrida, then the plan worked; his younger half-brother Ethelred (the Unready) was ready enough to succeed him.

ETHELRED II (THE UNREADY)

c. 968–1016 REIGNED 978–1016

Son of Edgar I (the Peaceful) and Elfrida

Ethelred II was crowned at Kingston upon Thames at the age of about ten. The title or nickname ‘The Unready’ means that he was unraed, which is Saxon for ‘ill-advised’ or ‘lacking advice’. Certainly, he was ill-advised to try to buy off the Danes and Vikings. He spent enormous sums in protection money; then he tried massacring the Danish settlers; finally he had to flee the country when the Danish King Sweyn invaded England.

Sweyn ruled briefly as uncrowned king but soon died. Ethelred was brought back, but then he too died, on 23 April 1016, and was buried in Old St Paul’s in London; the throne passed to his son, Edmund Ironside. Edmund was one of about thirteen children by Ethelred’s first wife, Elfled of Northumbria. He had three other children by his second wife, Emma of Normandy, including Edward, later known as Edward the Confessor.

EDMUND II (IRONSIDE)

c. 992–1016 REIGNED APRIL–NOV. 1016

Son of Ethelred (the Unready) and Elfled

Edmund II was crowned at Old St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Struggling against the Danes, he fought four battles, won three, but then was let down by the Mercians and had to partition the country, sharing it with the Danish King Canute, son of Sweyn Forkbeard. Edmund died soon after, on 30 November 1016, probably murdered; he was buried in Glastonbury Abbey. So the throne was left entirely to the Danes, led by King Canute. Edmund’s two sons, by his wife Eadgyth, were but infants and were banished.

SWEYN FORKBEARD

REIGNED BRIEFLY 1013–1014

Forkbeard was constantly attacking England from about 994 onwards. In 1013 he invaded in earnest, driving Ethelred II temporarily from the throne. He reigned uncrowned for a few weeks only, being killed after falling from his horse. Edmund returned, but Forkbeard’s incursions had paved the way for his son, Canute.