Edward the Elder (874-17 July 924) was King of Wessex from 26 October 899 to 17 July 924, succeeding Alfred the Great and preceding Aethelstan of England.
Biography[]
King Edward in 910
Edward was born in Winchester, Wessex in 874, the son of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and Queen Ealhswith. Edward was trained in martial skills by Uhtred of Bebbanburg and Steapa, and, as a teenager, he struggled with his responsibilities as crown prince, being forced to divorce his wife Ecgwynn, who had a lascivious reputation (and was forced into a nunnery with her children in order to make his marriage to her invalid). In 892, Edward was betrothed to marry Aelfflaed, the daughter of Ealdorman Aethelhelm of Wiltshire, the richest man in Wessex. A year later, he held his first battlefield command at the Battle of Beamfleot, where he disobeyed his father's orders to abandon Uhtred's force and led his men in a charge, saving the day and defeating Hastein's Vikings.
Edward became King of Wessex on 26 October 899 following his father's death, although he was challenged by his cousin Aethelwold Aetheling, the son of Aethelred of Wessex. Aethelwold invaded Wessex at the head of an army of Danish warriors and West Saxon rebels, but Edward's forces were victorious over Aethelwold at the Battle of the Holme, where Aethelwold and the Viking ruler Eohric of East Anglia were slain. From 911 to 914, he and his sister Aethelflaed, the regent of Mercia, built fortresses to defend Anglo-Saxon England from Viking attacks. In 914, he repelled the Breton Viking Ottir's invasion, and, that same year, he forced the Vikings of Bedford and Northampton to submit. In 917, his forces scored another victory over the Vikings at Tempsford, destroying their burh. In 918, after Aethelflaed's death, Edward forced her daughter Aelfwynn into a monastery, and he became lord of Mercia as well, as well as obtaining the fealty of the five Welsh kingdoms. He died in 924, and he was succeeded by his son Aethelstan.
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