Edward the Elder: England’s Forgotten Founding Father
Edward was the son of Alfred the Great, who, after succeeding to the throne of Wessex in 871, oversaw the political transformation of Southern England. Alfred defeated the Vikings in battle, built fortifications and reformed the army to protect his subjects, oversaw a literary renaissance, improving literacy and making English books more accessible and expanded his authority into the West Midlands, forming a vast pan-English state spanning from Chester on the Irish Sea to Sussex on the English Channel. However, the creation of what would later be described as the Kingdom of England would be completed by his descendants. These descendants, along with Alfred, should collectively be remembered as England’s founders. One of the most influential figures in this group was Alfred’s eldest son and heir, Edward the Elder .
Edward Ætheling
We don’t know when Edward was born. Modern historians suggest it was around c. 874. The first information we receive about Edward’s youth is from Bishop Asser, a scholar at Alfred’s court. Asser tells us that Edward was brought up at the King’s court, was very obedient to his father and was taught to show ‘humbleness, affability, and gentleness towards all, both natives and foreigners.’ His education consisted of reading secular and religious texts, Old English poems and the Psalms. Asser also adds that he was given ‘liberal training’ and suggests he was taught the art of war. He also distinguishes Edward’s education from that of his younger brother Æthelweard, who was sent to a school (schola) and taught Latin, suggesting a more scholarly education.
Edward’s first taste of combat came in 892 when two Viking fleets landed on the coast of Kent. At 18, his father called him up to lead a division of the West Saxon army. He swiftly won his first victory at the Battle of Fearnham, after which he chased the defeated Viking army northward into Essex. The following year, Edward married Ecgwynn, who remains an obscure figure, although the couple had two children, Æthelstan and Edith.
Succession and Preparation for Kingship
In the last years of Alfred’s reign, he named Edward as ‘King.’ However, we don’t know whether this meant Edward was the Co-King of Alfred’s kingdom or if Alfred had set up Edward as the (sub)King of Kent. Either way, he was attempting to prepare Edward for kingship. In Edward’s attempt to secure West Saxon support for his succession, he remarried to Ælfflæd, daughter of the predeceased Ealdormen Æthelhelm of Wiltshire. We do not know if Ecgwynn was set aside or whether she had already died. Edward and Ælfflæd had eight children; several of their daughters went on to marry some of the most powerful rulers in Europe.
However, the path was not clear for Edward. Father-son succession was not a certainty, and his cousin, Æthelwold (son of Alfred’s older brother), had as good a claim as Edward had to Alfred’s throne. Thus, it is no surprise that when Alfred died in 899, a succession crisis broke out between his son and nephew. After a conflict which brought the Vikings of York and East Anglia into a war with Edward, Æthelwold died at the Battle of Holme 902, securing Edward’s throne.
Relations with the Mercians
Edward was not only the King of Wessex. In the early 880s, his father had accepted the submission of the ruler of the Western half of Mercia. This ruler, Æthelred, would later marry Alfred’s daughter and became a loyal follower of the West Saxons. In recognition of his expansion into the West Midlands, Alfred adopted the title ‘King of the Anglo-Saxons.’ This settlement appears to continue into Edward’s reign, who adopted the same title as his father and received Æthelred at his court in 903 and 904, who acknowledged that he ‘held rulership and power over the Mercian people under the aforementioned king (Edward).’
This relationship would prove vital in 910 when a Viking army from York led a raiding mission deep in Southern Mercia. Seemingly unable to provide opposition alone, the Mercian army aligned themselves with the West Saxon army, and together at the Battle of Tettenhall, they inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Viking army. The loss was so damaging that three Danish kings, Eowils, Halfdan and Ingwær, died at Tettenhall.
Æthelred died the following year. As he was without a male heir, his wife, Edward’s sister, Æthelflæd, was supported by the Mercians as his heir, taking the title ‘Lady of the Mercians.’
The Conquest of the Danelaw
As Tettenhall had weakened the Danes, Æthelflæd and Edward began a new offensive campaign, targeting the Danes in Southern England. By 918, Edward and his sister had conquered Essex, East Anglia and the East Midlands. Frank Stenton in Anglo-Saxon England gave particular praise to Edward for his ability to organise and coordinate military attacks:
‘King Edward will still be left as the organizer of one of the best-sustained and most decisive campaigns in the whole of the Dark Ages. He showed the ability to plan and the patience to carry out a series of operations which needed years for their completion; and he always had men in reserve for an emergency.’
Mercia, the North and Another Marriage
Edward established himself as Æthelflæd’s successor in Mercia in 918. The following year, he remarried, setting Ælfflæd aside and marrying Eadgifu of Kent, with whom he had two sons, both of whom were future Kings of England.
He would quickly discover the complexities of ruling Mercia. Not only did he have to worry about the Danes but also the Welsh and the Norse Vikings of Northumbria. However, he proved to be a capable diplomat. After taking control of Mercia, the Welsh Kings Howel, Cledauc and Jothwell ‘sought him (Edward) as their lord.’ He then turned his mind northward. Æthelflæd had already established an alliance with Scotland and Strathclyde. Using these pre-existing connections, Edward pressured the Viking warlord, Ragnall, King of York, to agree to peace with his neighbours at Bakewell in 920.
Despite his success in war and peace, his reign ended in 924 with a revolt at Chester. While he defeated the dissenters, he was fatally wounded in battle. Dying at the age of 50. He was buried at New Minster, Winchester, a new religious house he built in 901 in honour of his father and his achievements.
Edward’s Legacy
Edward’s military feats are a crucial part of the story of English unification. It was his expansion in the wars of conquest of 913–918 that gave his son, Æthelstan, the platform from which he was able to launch his 927 invasion of Northumbria, which, once completed, led to the unification of England for the first time. A 12th-century chronicler, William of Malmesbury, comparing Edward to Alfred the Great, commented that Edward was ‘much inferior to his father in the cultivation of letters’ but ‘incomparably more glorious in the power of his rule’. In a more recent study of Edward by Michael John Keys (2019), he was described with the following, “Edward had the vision and the ability to lay the strong foundations for a future politically united England under a single ruler. In respect of his achievements it is evident that Edward the Elder should be remembered as a great king.”
Further Reading
Michael John Key, Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons: Forgotten Son of Alfred, (Stroud: Amberley, 2019).
Simon Keynes, ‘Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons’, in Edward the Elder 899–924, ed. by Nicholas Higham and David Hill, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2001).
Simon Keynes, ‘England 900–1016’, The New Cambridge Medieval History II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 456- 484.
Marc Morris, The Anglo-Saxons — A History of the Beginnings of England (London: Hutchinson, 2020).
Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).
Barbara Yorke, ‘Edward as Ætheling’, Edward the Elder 899–924, ed. by Nicholas Higham and David Hill, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2001).
