Allen Mawer

“ EDWARD, “The Elder” (d. 924) , king of the Angles and Saxons, was the second son of Alfred the Great, and with his sister Æthelflæd was carefully educated at the court of his father. During his father’s lifetime he took an active part in the campaigns against the Danes, especially in that of 894, and as early as 898 he signs a charter as “rex,” showing that he was definitely associated with his father in the kingship. He succeeded his father in October 899, [1] but not without opposition. The Ætheling Æthelwold, son of Alfred’s elder brother Æthelred, seized Wimborne and Christchurch. ”

“ Edred recklessly ravaged all Northumbria in revenge, burning Ripon during his march. On his return home Edred’s rearguard was attacked at Castleford, and the infuriated king once more turned to ravage Northumbria, which was only saved by its abandonment of Eric and by compensation made to Edred. ”

“ After the brief rule of Anlaf Cuaran in Northumbria, Eric was once more restored, probably in 950, only to be expelled again in 953 or 954, when Edred took the Northumbrian kingdom into his own hands. In the same year Wulfstan was liberated and appointed to the Mercian bishopric of Dorchester. Edred died on the 23rd of November 955 at Frome, in Somersetshire, and was buried in the old minster at Winchester. During the whole of his life Edred was troubled by ill-health, a fact which may help to explain some of the more passionate acts of violence attributed to him. ”

“ When we turn to the social divisions we find in Domesday and other documents classes of society in these districts bearing purely Norse names, dreng, karl, karlman, bonde, thrall, lysing, hold; in the system of taxation we have an assessment by carucates and not by hides and virgates, and the duodecimal rather than the decimal system of reckoning. ”

“ This marriage was probably an irregular one. (2) To Ælflæd, by whom he had two sons—Ælfweard, who died a fortnight after his father, and Eadwine, who was drowned in 933—and six daughters, Æthelflæd and Æthelhild nuns, and four others (see Æthelstan) . (3) To Eadgifu, the mother of Kings Edmund and Edred, and of two daughters. ”