Edmund Ironside: The Last Warrior King of Wessex

in the year 10:13 Sweyn Forkbeard the powerful viking king of both norway and denmark invaded England and usurped the throne of King Ethelred Swain led a huge force of Danish and nor a dose many of whom were still pagan warriors who worshipped the pantheon of Norse gods upon Swain's death later that year however Ethelred despite being remembered as the unready meaning bad council was invited back to reclaim the throne of England Swain's young son Knut had other ideas amassed himself a large army after the ashes of his father's and launched his own invasion England was

in turmoil for the first time since the time of the great even army well over 100 years before during the time of ethelred's ancestor Alfred the Great the very survival England hung in the balance against an onslaught of Vikings this time led by a king now in 1030 England had no great defender such as Alfred Ethelred was renowned as being a weak ruler he was ruthless but he was indecisive and pursued a policy of appeasement rather than organizing a decisive campaign against the invaders Ethelred died in 1016 and a very different man his young son

Edmund seized the throne for himself it was Edmund who would assemble an English force to push back the Vikings to the sea Edmund was a warrior Prince he had spent much of his life upon the battlefield and amassed a small fortune of weapons and armor in the process most notably wielding a great long sword once possessed by offer the revered anglo-saxon king of Mercia from centuries before after securing the throne of Wessex after defeating the English elite who had sided with Knut after ethelred's death Edmund pushed forward defeating Knut time and time again relieving the

siege of London before finally meeting him for one last decisive battle of ascendant in the years to follow Edmund would be remembered under a very different title to his father he was given a name which reflected his valor in battle and his courage Edmund Ironside Edwin's exact year of birth is unknown but it was certainly no later than 99 3 when his name first begins to appear in official charters along with that of his two elder brothers edwin was the third of six sons of Ethelred with his first wife elf Gifu of Northumbria and as

such had likely never expected to be king himself nevertheless he was considered an athlete a prince with a potential claim to the throne little is known of the eldest brother Egbert who died in 1005 but the second brother Athelstan and Edmund were close they were both warrior princess and leaders of man after their mother died in around 1000 F already remarried this time 2nr of Normandy who would have three more children by him Alfred goda and Edward who would later be called the Confessor by all accounts Ethelred had been a terrible King he had come

to the throne 978 is a twelve-year-old boy after the murder of his half-brother Edward the martyr by ambitious members of his own court although likely not directly involved himself in this episode it certainly cast a shadow over his reign and made it more difficult to gather support against renewed military raids by the Danes from 1991 onwards ethelred's began to pay tribute of Dane guilt to the Danish King Sweyn for bid to force him out of his lungs seemingly Ethelred refused to or was simply incapable due to lackluster support of meeting the Danes in battle and

as a result more and more Vikings flocked behind Swain to extract tribute or simply raved throughout England themselves in 1002 in one of the grisliest episodes of the anglo-saxon period Ethelred ordered the deaths of everyday living in his lands men women and children were all ordered to be killed of course this was impossible to carry out in many areas where substantial integration had occurred but it certainly did happen in some stories abound it of Danes taking refuge inside churches subsequently all being burned to death on Mars many of the Danes had been settled in England

for what over 150 years but this font broomer even has it the swains own sister was killed in the massacre as a result he certainly picked up his rage at this point making it his mission to kill Ethelred and take his kingdom from him Swain finally accomplished this in 1014 when he launched his definitive invasion it's likely that the warrior princess Edmund and Athelstan force against the Dames along with an English army but they could do little as Swain succeeded in taking the whole country he died soon afterwards however but his young son Knut hoped

to take the throne in his place the English Lords had other ideas sent for authority to return from his exile or normative which he did and he ruled for another two years again in an indecisive and poor manner allowing Knut to rampage around the country raiding at will the young Athelstan also died but Edmond continued to resist the Danes wherever he could whoever controlled London controlled the power and Knut had not managed to take it yet finally when Ethelred died in April 1016 the whitin of Wessex had had enough of war and decided to choose

Knut as king Edmond was outraged and even before a florets death he may have been on the verge of rebellion he certainly did rise up at this point in a master small arm through his own sheer force of will a June he won his first victory at pencil wood in central Wessex against the traitorous Lords who was cited with Knut he then pushed north to sure stone to defeat an army of Danes supported by local English leaders including ear Drake the Lord of Mercia he won a great victory there and again pushed eastward gathering more

and more men to his banner with each day he kept north of the Thames and marched on London to relieve Knut siege going on to fight several more battles pushing Knut all the way to the Isle of Sheppey encamped a traditional stronghold of Viking raiders were Knut leads awaited him at this stage Edmund was joined by many English leaders including some who had previously cited with connect such as heir Drake of Murcia Canute then pushed out to sea and landed north in Essex but finally Edmund engaged him in what would be the final battle of

the conflict the Battle of Assam done was fought on the 18th of October between the two armies adorned the Englishmen fought in three large contingents east angles merci ins and West Saxons Canute advanced also and the shield walls crashed into one another in the centre of the field the battle lasted for hours as each side had tried to overcome another then Eric did what Edwin had feared most all along he turned with this man and he fled the field was betraying his liege lord and allowing Knut to triumph over the now outnumbered and outmaneuvered West

Saxons there is even some speculation the air Drake had planned to do this all along nevertheless Edmond fought on bravely until nightfall upon a hilltop before finally withdrawing back to Wessex a deal was struck similar to the deal Alfred had made with the great even army over a hundred thirty years before Wessex would remain in Edmonds hands whereas the rest of the kingdom would go to the Danes later that year however Edmond was dead and the kingdom of Wessex had been taken by cannons foul play was never ruled out although no one was ever held

responsible Knut became the king of England Denmark and Norway establishing a North Atlantic empire and eventually being remembered as the great Knut proved to be a far better King than Ethelred ever was he kept intact the existing anglo-saxon infrastructure that brought many anglo-saxon leaders onto his site most notably the Earl Godwin he became one of his most trusted advisors and the Earl of Wessex his sons Harald and Tostig would go on to become influential leaders in their own right over the next decades a decade after the events of a cinder in 1016 kin who visited

the grave Redmond to pay his respects to the man who was arguably his most worthy adversary after Canute's death in 1035 and the deaths of his sons Harold and Arthur Knut Edward the Confessor the son of Ethelred by amer of Normandy would return from his exile and inherit the throne Edward was childless however and upon his death in 1066 William I know the relative of his mother Emma would join Harold the son of God with and faithfully staking a claim to the English throne [Music] [Music]