EDMUND I., Atheling, succeeded his brother Athelstan in the year 941, being then about eighteen years of age. Emboldened by hearing of the death of the great Athelstan, the savage, half-pagan Northumbrians threw off their allegiance, and brought over from Ireland their native prince Anlaf or Olave to be their king. Landing in the Humber, the Dane led the Northumbrian forces without delay into Mercia, and assaulted and took Tamworth. Edmund, who had just been crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames, advanced to meet him. The details of the campaign which followed are obscurely related by the chroniclers; but the terms of the treaty by which it was ended leave no doubt that its advantages remained chiefly with Anlaf. Edmund agreed to cede to Anlaf all the country north of Watling Street, and that the survivor of the two should succeed to the undisturbed possession of the territories of the other. It is true that Edmund was much the younger of the two; but to contemplate even the possibility of a Danish barbarian occupying the throne of Athelstan involved in great humiliation. However, after Anlaf's death, Edmund proceeded with great tact and ability to repossess himself of the northern kingdom. From the "five burghs" of Mercia—Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Stamford, and Lincoln—which, being occupied by Danes, could not be depended upon during an invasion of the country by their brethren of the north, he expelled the Danish inhabitants, and repeopled them with English colonists. Then marching northwards, he easily made himself master of Northumbria, receiving the submission of two petty kings. Turning westward, he chastised the restless turbulence of the Britons of Cumbria or Cumberland, whose king, Dunmail, had been the constant ally of his enemies. The British army was overthrown while defending the picturesque pass, or raise, which divides Westmoreland from Cumberland. Dunmail fell in the battle; and the traveller from Ambleside to Keswick may still gaze at the grey, moss-grown
" heap of stones,
That covers o'er King Dunmail's bones."
Edmund bestowed Cumbria on Malcolm the Scottish king, on condition that he should become his vassal and co-operator both by sea and land. In the sixth year of his reign, Edmund met with an untimely death. While celebrating at Pucklekirk, in Gloucestershire, the festival of St. Augustin the apostle of the Anglo-Saxons, the king saw one Leof, a noted outlaw, enter the hall. Indignant at his audacity, Edmund, who was flushed with wine, strode up to him, and while attempting to turn him out by force, received a mortal wound in the breast from a dagger which the outlaw had concealed under his clothes. He expired almost immediately. The murderer was cut in pieces by the royal attendants. By his wife, Elfgiva, Edmund left two young children, Edwy and Edgar. He was buried in the monastery of Glastonbury, for whose abbot, St. Dunstan, he had a singular regard, and to which he had by charter granted very ample privileges.—T. A.
EDMUND II., commonly called Edmund Ironside, was the eldest son of Ethelred the Unready, by Iris first wife Elfleda. No particulars are recorded of his early life. We first hear of him after the treacherous assassination of the Danish chieftains, Sigeferth and Morcar, by the contrivance of Ethelred in 1015. Edmund, who was then about twenty-seven years of age, demanded from his father the possessions of the two earls. Ethelred refused, whereupon Edmund went to Malmesbury, where Algiva the widow of Sigeferth was confined, and induced her to marry him; then passing into Northumbria, he succeeded through her influence in prevailing upon the subjects of her late husband to receive him as their chieftain. Towards the close of the year, Canute, who claimed the crown in right of his father Sweyne, landed at Sandwich in Kent, and led his army into Wessex. Edmund raised an army in the north to oppose him. Early in the following year, both armies went through the country in all directions, plundering and destroying. Canute, after reducing a great part of Northumbria, returned before Easter to his ships which were lying in the Severn. He at once set sail, intending to besiege London. Ethelred, who, after being prostrated by a lingering illness at Corsham in Wiltshire, had lately been removed to London, died on the 23d of April, shortly before the Danish fleet entered the Thames. Edmund, who was in London at the time, was immediately proclaimed king by the citizens. A better choice could not have been made; and if the courage and energy of an individual could have prevented the subjugation of England, that catastrophe would have been averted by the exertions of Edmund. Canute, with a fleet of three hundred and forty sail, soon appeared on the Thames, and laid siege to London. The fortifications of the bridge at first arrested the progress of his vessels; but the indefatigable Dane caused a canal to be cut on the Surrey side, through which his ships were dragged, and launched on the river above the bridge, thus cutting off all communication between the city and the country. Perceiving that the only chance of saving London was by a diversion from without, Edmund with his brother escaped by night through the Danish lines, and hastened to Wessex. He had no difficulty in raising an army, with which he defeated a Danish force, probably a party of marauders, in Gillingham forest in Dorsetshire. Canute was forced to turn the siege of London into a blockade, and lead the bulk of his army against Edmund. At Sherston in Wiltshire the armies met. The traitor Edrie, ealdorman of Mercia, who was serving under Canute, cut off the head of a fallen thane in the heat of the battle, and holding it up, cried, “The head of Edmund! fly, English, fly!" Edmund, who perceived the act, hurled his spear at the traitor, and uncovering his face dispelled the panic which had begun to spread among his troops. After a desperate contest, the advantage remained with the English. Canute retreated towards London, followed by Edmund, who was again victorious in two sharp rencontres, at Oxford, and at Brentford. After concentrating his forces at the isle of Sheppey, Canute passed over to Essex. At Assington took place the final struggle, which resulted in the complete defeat of Edmund, the chief of the Saxon nobility being left among the slain. After in vain challenging his crafty opponent to decide their rival claims by single combat, Edmund consented to a pacification, by which he retained possession of the southern districts; Mercia and Northumbria being assigned to Canute. Within a month afterwards, on St. Andrew's day, Edmund died, and was buried at Glastonbury. Canute then took undisputed possession of the whole kingdom.—T. A.
EDMUND, Saint, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in the latter half of the twelfth century, the son of a tradesman of Abingdon. He commenced his studies at Oxford, and finished them at Paris, and his piety was of so ascetic a kind that, we are told, "for thirty years he never undressed himself to sleep." After teaching the arts and mathematics at Paris, and becoming a doctor of theology, he returned to England, and is said to have been the first person who taught Aristotle's logic at Oxford, where he remained from 1219 to 1226. He preached here and there extensively, and was made a canon and treasurer of the cathedral of Salisbury. At the bidding of the pope, he preached the crusade against the Saracens, and, more difficult task, he converted from the error of his ways that undevout nobleman William Longspear, earl of Salisbury. On the death of Richard Weathershed, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1231, the primacy remained vacant for several years, the king, the pope, and the monks of Canterbury never agreeing as to a suitable successor. At last, in 1233, much against his will, the future saint was selected with the approbation of all three, and consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in the April of 1234. He was a very strict and just archbishop; his archiepiscopal "Constitutions in thirty-six canons," for the reformation of abuses, are to be found in several collections. At last he fell into a controversy with the king, on that frequent subject of quarrel between the early Norman monarchs and their ecclesiastics—the appointment to vacant benefices. Henry III. wished to keep them in his own hands and enjoy their revenues; the primate insisted that they should be filled within six months after they had become vacant, and procured a bull from the pope to that effect. Eventually the pope gave way, but St. Edmund would not. He retired into France, where he was well received by St. Louis, and died in 1242 at the convent of Soissac, on the 16th of November, the day consecrated to his memory in the calendars. His life was written by his brother Robert.—F. E.
EDMUND DE LANGLEY, fourth son of Edward III., duke of York and earl of Cambridge, administered, in concert with his brother the duke of Lancaster, the government of the kingdom during the minority of his nephew, Richard II. In 1399, while Richard was absent in Ireland, the duke, afterwards Henry IV., invaded England, and Edmund de Langley, as regent, mustered considerable forces in opposition to this invasion. He finally espoused the cause which it was his duty to resist, and so the duke's party prevailed. He died in 1402.—T. J.
EDMUND PLANTAGENET or WOODSTOCK, Earl of
