The Lost King

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History is full of amazing stories of men and women who lived extraordinary lives. People who changed history and (even better) occasionally people who are changed BY history. Those who, through no fault of their own, found their lives scattered on the winds of fate. This is the brief tale of arguably the most powerful example of this.

This is the story of a refugee; an exile; who briefly became a King; a man whose life took him across the world in countless adventures; from the Middle East to the Carpathian Mountains; from the lush fields of Italy to the wilds of Scotland. He was a warrior; an adventurer; a diplomat; a politician; an occasional Viking; a Crusader; a dynast; a general and a prisoner.

It’s been a while since I did a pure history post, just one where I gush about some awesome tale from the past. I miss doing them, so, I’ve decided ‘to heck with it’- I’m doing one. This is the best story time I think you will hear all week. So get comfy Imgur and let me tell you the genuinely amazing story of a man known to us as Edgar Ætheling. The lost king of England…

He was born a stranger. The young man whose life I’m going to describe was born in a foreign land, a world so alien to us we have a hard time imagining it. This is the world almost 1000 years ago, the year 1052 CE. And the place was Hungary. This was a dangerous neighbourhood in 1052 CE. Hungary was a wild Kingdom, only converted to Catholic faith in the year 1000, and subject to the covetous gaze of the Holy Roman Emperors and vicious internal fighting. The year after Edgar was born, the land was invaded for only the second time in five years by the Germanic Emperor, the Hungarians desperately fighting to keep their independence.

The dangers of this war were mitigated some by the fact that Edgar was born ‘rich’- he was the son of a noble. But not a local one; as I said Edgar was an exile. His father was a noble also, and it was his father’s life story that resulted in Edgar being born in Hungary. You see, Edgar and his father (a man called Edward) were kinda important. They were claimants to the Kingdom of England.

It seems odd that a young English Prince would find himself on the other side of Europe, but that leads to a side story, as Edgar’s father had his own life filled with adventure and danger and great risk that deserves its own post.

The tale BEFORE the tale

I want to talk about Edgar, so this next bit is a BRUTAL summery of the story of his father. To be honest- the story of how Edgar was born into is perhaps one of the most complicated and confusing stories in British history, filled with Anglo-Saxon and Viking names, and can lose folks very quickly. So in essence I am going to reduce it down to it’s bare essentials and students of the late Anglo-Saxon era of British history can scream at me for doing so.

Basically Edgar’s Great-Grandfather was King of England. Who was fighting to keep his throne from the King of Denmark who was seriously going for a full invasion. Luckily the Danish King died just on the verge of complete victory. Unluckily for Edgar’s great-grandfather, the Danish King had a hell of a brilliant son who was determined to pick up where his father left off and take the English throne.

Edgar’s Great-Grandfather died and his Grandfather took over the English struggle. He was young, virile and tough. And he was losing. Basically only London held out for him, and Edgar’s grandfather was reduced to waging a guerrilla campaign to keep himself in the game. But he was excellent at it and eventually the Danish Prince agreed that Britain should be split between him and Edgar’s Grandfather. Alas, Edgar’s Grandfather died soon after, the Danish prince became King of all England leaving his former rival’s very young twin sons in a very vulnerable position.

The Danish Prince was now King of England, and he saw his enemies twin boys as THE number one threat to his rule. So, according to the tales, he sent them away to Sweden for ‘safe keeping’ and, also according to the tales, strict orders that the moment they arrived in Sweden they were to be murdered. When the boys arrived however the Swedish Lord charged with this task refused, and looked after them for a while.

A few years passed. That Danish King of England became King of Denmark. And then King of chunk of Sweden. The boys protector was NOW in the position where he could be forced to kill the boys. So, being the resourceful Viking that he was, the Swedish guy sent the two boys to some Viking friends of beyond the reach of this supreme Danish Emperor- he sent them to the Viking Kingdom of Kiev (below).

Here the boys grew up under the protection of a famed King called Yruoslav the Wise; he was a Viking’s kind of Viking, who had been one of those who had ordered Viking attacks on Byzantium itself. The boys grew up on the plains of Ukraine, miles from their native land, growing up in the company of other exiles from all over Europe. Ukraine was the kind of place exiles ended up in it seems. One of these was a Prince from Hungary called Andrew, and when he decided he was old enough and tough enough to return to his homeland and take back his throne, Edgar’s father and Uncle came with him and helped him. And stayed. And that was how Edgar ended up being born in Hungary.

(If you want a more confusing version of this tale please look up the stories of Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironsides and the aftermath of the conquest of England by King Canute- who ran a LOT of territory (above- red he ruled personally; orange swore loyalty to him).

Back to Edgar…
Right so now his backstory has been explained, let’s return to Edgar. Born in Hungary and growing up during a war. His father, called Edward, was an exiled member of the lost royal family of England. His mother? Well we have NO idea as to the origins of his mother. I wish I could say this was a minor matter. There are whole books/articles written about where Edgar’s mother came from. Some say she was Hungarian; others German; some say she was Swedish; others Ukrainian. It’s actually very heated with theories being thrown around like crazy. Me? I’m gonna say she was probably a Ukrainian Rus, and go one further and suggest she was probably one of the daughters of Yruoslav the Wise.

It wouldn’t matter. Unless you are Scottish. Because if you are Scottish it kinda becomes important. But only later on. Anyway, BACK to Edgar. His father was an exiled English Prince. His mother a Ukrainian Viking Princess. Got that? Awesome.

So Edgar was looking at a life to be spent in Hungary when his father got word from England. The Danish dynasty that had ruled England for the last four decades were done. There was a new King in place- an English King. And more importantly, a relative. A cousin. His name was Edward (like his father- hence why the Saxon’s named the king, Edward the Confessor, and Edgar’s father, Edward the Exile). King Edward was delighted to discover his cousin was still alive and so invited them to return home.

Aged only 5, Edgar began the journey back to a home he had only heard off in tales told by his father. England. Wessex. The far west of Europe. On the way there no doubt his father would have heard about the circumstances of his recall; maybe he told young Edgar. Probably he didn’t. Which was bad, as Edgar was walking back into real danger.

England at the time was very unstable. You had the King, Edward, who was off the proper royal dynasty and everything, but he had issues. His biggest rival was this utter git of a human being called Godwin, Earl of Wessex. Godwin was a Saxon who had gained all his power by being one of King Canute’s collaborators. A Saxon loyal to a Dane. He was THE power in the south of England. He had also blinded and murdered King Edward’s brother. King Edward hated him. So a few years before Edgar arrives, King Edward had tried to screw over Godwin for this.

He had exiled the asshole, but it had failed. A civil war between the two had been only just avoided. But it was clear that King Edward wanted to make sure that this Godwin would never hold power. Which is why King Edward, who didn’t have kids, offered the inheritance of England to the son of the man who had looked after him when HE went into exile to avoid the vicious Danish King of England. Edward the Confessor had not fled to Hungary, he had fled to Normandy and was looked after by the then Duke of Normandy. Which is why the King of England had offered William, that Duke’s son, the throne of England when he died.

Years had passed. Godwin had died and his eldest son Harold Godwinsun was now the most powerful man in England. King Edward still didn’t have children but no one really wanted a foreigner in Normandy to take the throne. And it was NOW he heard he had relatives alive and well in Hungary. And that was what Edgar’s father was returning for. To be named heir to the throne of England. An inheritance which would pass to his son.

Edgar was leaving Hungary an exiled little boy, and arriving in England, heir to the throne. Talk about life changing moments.

Edgar arrived in the ancestral homelands in 1057. And no sooner had he arrived then life threw one of its many curveballs at Edgar. His father alas found the journey too taxing- only a few days after he arrived, and before he even met King Edward, he suddenly became sick and died and just as quickly, young Edgar wasn’t just now returned to his fathers homeland, but he was now, formally, THE heir to the throne of England. He received the designation Edgar Ætheling (Prince Edgar) and was now raised to be the future King of England.

Nine years would pass. His mother and sisters and he were under the protection of the pious but weak Edward the Confessor. There is little trace of Edgar at this time. We know the King and his Queen, Edith, surrounded themselves with the young children of the nobles of England, to make up for the fact they had none themselves, and it was in this atmosphere of surrogate love that Edgar probably learned the language of his new land (his father’s knowledge of it being barely comprehensible apparently). Some sources says that Edward the king, Queen Edith and young Edgar made a cute family unit on certain state occasions.

Yet by all accounts King Edward did nothing to particularly train the boy to take the throne after him. Edward saw the talk of his succession to be distasteful. Edgar was clearly beloved as a young child but as he grew up the king grew more and more distant. His only link to this land was his actual mother and his two older sisters.

At aged 14 events in England began to spiral out of control; the country which had spent the best part of 200 years at war with its Danish neighbours and itself, was now heading towards another political crisis. Edgar had been raised by the elderly King, coming of age in the splendour of West Minster- the triangle of land where the river Walbrook met the River Thames, known traditionally as Thorn island. Here he had grown up around the centre of power but Edward the Confessor had made no effort to strengthen Edgar’s claim to the throne. The boy was just a figurehead. Around him powerful political figures were vying for the title itself.

As such in early 1066 when Edward the Confessor died, Edgar had no strong male relatives to push or defend his claim. When the nobles of the Saxon kingdom came together, at the Witenagemot, the Witan, the great gathering of England’s nobles, none were willing to stick their necks out to defend the claim of a 14 year old boy, even if he was the last remaining member of the Royal House of Wessex. In Edgar’s veins ran the blood of Alfred the Great and Æthelstan. But a war was coming and so the powers that be usurped the throne and handed it to Harold Godwinsun, Earl of Wessex and son of Godwin the Backstabbing Danish Collaborator.

While Edgar was not chosen to be king, Harold clearly didn’t see the 14 year old as a threat. Edgar was allowed to stay in the royal residence and it is from here he probably watched as Harold raised the massive English fleet (headquartered as it was in London), which sailed off to defend the shores of England. It was from here that Edgar witnessed the mad events of that year.

Edgar witnessed the English fleet return that August, its provisions run dry. It was here that he heard of the invasion of England by the Scandinavian King, Harold Hardrader, and how Harold Godwinsun had destroyed and butchered the Viking army that came with him. It was in London that he heard that William, Duke of Normandy, had finally landed and was destroying the Sussex countryside and also here that he saw Harold return to raise more troops before marching south… to his inevitable death at the Battle of Hastings.

The Battle of Hasting’s was not the end of the war however. William’s armies rampaged through the south, but William was suddenly struck down by what we think is dysentery. He was reduced to a sickbed near Canterbury for the best part of a month. Hope was not lost… the Bloody Norman could die! The remaining powers that be in London, the remaining members of the Witan, quickly realised that with Harold dead, the only claimant to the throne was Edgar. He was hastily proclaimed King of England. But he had no power.

Really the power lay in the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria and the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. The young teenager could only watch as they named him king but didn’t move to have him crowned. He did received petitions from monasteries who were looking for the ‘King’ to replace Abbot’s killed at Hastings, but the boy had no crown on his head and had no chance to exercise power. Resistance towards William was fading. From the palace in Westminster he would have seen the smoke rising as the Norman invaders destroyed the town of Southwalk, just the other side of London Bridge, sending a ominous warning to London about it’s fate if it continued to resist.

Edgar was a young, isolated teenager, with a huge target on his head, and the powers that be eventually negotiated a surrender deal with William. Edgar was entirely helpless as he was brought, under armed escort, by these powerful men to meet the Duke of Normandy and there to do homage to him, his new King. Understand William was in a weird position with Edgar. He had gone to war for the English throne on the claim that Harold Godwinsun had agreed HE should be king; such a promise would have meant Harold had promised to screw over Edgar’s claim. It was kinda awkward.

Edgar however obviously had no role in Harold’s claiming of the throne. So he was ‘innocent’ of resisting William. As such William had no desire to kill the boy as it would have diverted attention away from Harold being the bad guy. So Edgar was allowed to live. Aged only 14 his brief ‘rule’ as King over, he had already lived an extraordinary life. But it had only just begun.

King William of England, newly crowned, was taking no chances with Edgar, and placed him in custody and immediately took him back with him as he returned to Normandy. Here Edgar was now in his third royal court in only 15 years; the dynamic court of the ruthless new King of England. He spent a year as a hostage alongside the very men, the great and good of England who had decided to not make him King. While they had treated him as an afterthought, William treated the boy as their peer- an English noble he didn’t want to leave behind. Eventually Edgar was allowed to return to England. It was clear the boy was terrified, that he had no actual supporters amidst the Saxon’s of England and was no threat to William.

Edgar was probably just happy to get back to his mother and his sisters, the only family he had left. Events in England were not stable however; the new regime faced various threats. Crucially, there was an attempt to rise up against King William by the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria. There is no evidence to say Edgar had anything to do with this, BUT it was clear the Earl’s were using him as a figurehead, a real ‘Why have this Norman King when we have our own Saxon King to lead us’ type situation.

Edgar seems to have wanted no part of it. The young boy and his family attempt to flee, some say he was trying to get back to Hungary. While wild and crazy it was safer for him. True? Not true? We don’t know. But we do know his ship was caught in a North Sea storm (this wouldn’t be the first time he got caught in a storm) and he and his family ended up in Scotland.

It was in Scotland however, that his life changed and he got what could be described as his first break. Edgar was given shelter and refuge by King Malcolm III of Scotland in 1068. Here, aged 16 he found a patron and a protector. Malcolm was willing to support his claim for the English throne- he had no desire for a tough Norman King on his southern border. And even if Edgar wasn’t willing to fight, he would be safe here. Finally Edgar had safety. But even now there was a dark edge to this.

The Scottish king took a fancy to Edgar’s older sister Margaret, and despite Edgar not wanting it, the King offered and eventually married her in 1070. The 16 year old boy had known a lot of things but the only constant in his young life was family. He had fled England WITH his mother and his two older sisters. They were his only living family left. But now, by hook or by crook, he had a brother-in-law; a King no less. In many ways Edgar had a home.

War

While before now Edgar was simply a young boy, blown along by the winds of fate like some flotsam or jetsam, now he was beginning to come into his own. He realised, I believe, that the only way he would gain any semblance of control back in his life was to seize the moment. He agreed he would seek out the throne that was his legacy. At this point the image of the young boy disappears… now he becomes a war leader.

In 1069, merely a year later, there was a huge uprising in Northumbria against William and his Norman occupation. Marching north to Durham, a sizeable force of Norman’s were ambushed and slaughtered; the Norman garrison in York was seized upon and massacred. Edgar was no figurehead here; he seems to have managed to become a crucial figure in the anti-Norman sentiment around, especially in the north.

He was able to gather up a bunch of disaffected Saxon leaders, as well as having someone arrange for a sizeable mercenary force to be sent by the King of Denmark (which were basically Vikings) AND it seems as if he arranged for a rebellion down in Maine in France against William to take place at the same time. This was a continent wide attempt to place Edgar on the throne of England.

The rebels came from all over, and Edgar became an ideal figure for them to unite behind. He travelled south to join them, using the rebellion to press his claim as King. He saw himself involved in battle for the first time, as the rebels initially won their opening campaign, besieging the Norman garrison in York and seemingly having the full support of many in the city. Only William attacked in a way that surprised everyone. William lacked the sea power to attack by sea/river, and it is worth noting that until this moment? Every attack upon York, ever, had seemingly come via the river. William attacked overland, took the rebels by surprise, and destroyed their army. Then William allowed his men to loot and make merry in the City of York and we believe ordered his men to violate the sanctity of Yorkminster to drag out any surviving rebels who sought shelter inside.

Edgar fled back north to Malcom III’s court but a few months later that fleet of Vikings sent by King Swenson of Denmark arrived back in the north, and this triggered an even bigger uprising against William. The Viking’s tried landing at several places along the coast but always they met with fierce resistance from Norman garrisons and as such decided to go north to where the rebels were still nominally in play. Edgar and the other Saxon exiles in shelter north of the border, sailed south and arrived at the river Humber, and these exiles, the Northumbrian Rebels and the Danish soldiers joined forces. This was the biggest danger William the Conqueror had faced since he took over only three years previously.

Quickly this alliance overwhelmed the Normans, re-took York (looting the castles which were filled with loot the Normans had taken from sacking York) and dominated Northumbria. Edgar saw his chances to regain the throne improve. While only 17 or 18 he was no shrinking violet. He knew the importance of leading and also knew the tales of his Viking ancestors from Kiev (at least IF his mother came from Kiev).

Anyway, the young pretender led a force of Danish Vikings on a proper Viking raid, leading ships into the ancient region known as Lindsey, the around around Lincoln. The raid failed however, as Norman resistance was much fiercer than even the Viking’s expected. The Danes were slaughtered. Edgar somehow survived and with a small handful of followers managed to make his way across land and back to his army.

But the respite was only brief. William returned north and ploughed his way through the rebels, while also buying off the Danes to return home. Edgar and the surviving core of Saxon exiles fled to a well defended marsh area and tried to regroup. William was allowing none of that and so attacked with the same ruthlessness he had shown towards the regions that that rebelled against him. In late 1070, the 20 year old Edgar somehow managed to make his way back to Scotland, through the devastation of the north. This region had risen up in his name. As he scurried away from the chasing Normans he saw that his followers AND the Danes AND now William had decimated the region, leaving it a desolate wasteland filled with death, famine and disease.

Yet somehow Edgar survived and arrived back in the court of the King of Scotland, his ambition burned in the hard learned lessons of the Northumbrian campaign. Edgar took some time to recover, but he had not given up. He knew William had many enemies and so began to focus on building an alliance of support. He was to remain in Scotland however for only two more years. William of England would not stand for his continued presence, where Edgar could become a figurehead AGAIN to be used against him and so the Conquerer marched north, defeating the Scots in battle and forcing King Malcolm to accept him as his overlord. The agreement between William and Malcolm was brutal- Edgar needed to be expelled from the kingdom, brother-in-law or not.

And so in 1072 Edgar was back to sea, this time ending up in Flanders where he was given shelter by Count Robert the Frisian, who was hostile towards the regime in Normandy/England. This was Edgar’s 5th court in only 22 years, and from 1072 until 1074 he remained here, building an anti-William alliance, with help from those nobles in Europe who were opposed to the Conqueror also. This included an offer from the King of France, Philip I. The king was also now opposed to William’s expansionist state and offered Edgar a castle and lands on the borders of Normandy. Here he would be free to basically raid William’s lands for fun and profit to his hearts content, keeping whatever he stole and protected by the French crown.

Edgar sought to cement an alliance of the French, the powers of Flanders and Scotland, all to work against William and restore him to the throne… In 1074 he secretly sailed back into Scotland and gained Malcolm’s support. Supposedly his brother-in-law gave him a sizeable treasure, and Edgar set sail again to take up his lands in France.

But he ran into a storm (again) and ended up being wrecked on the English coast. The Norman powers that be went on the hunt, eventually taking out most of his men. But Edgar managed to escape across country AGAIN (he was getting good at this) and returned to Scotland and his brother in law. This time Malcolm advised the 25 year old that… honestly? His best policy was to reconcile with William- the guy had his act together and it was either that or face exile forever.

However hard it must have been to hear, Edgar accepted his brother in laws advice and he negotiated a return to England, giving up any claim to the English throne in return to gaining some estates in Hertfordshire. And thus he was required to becoming a loyal subject of William I of England. Oddly enough this was a brilliant propaganda coup for William; according to all reports Edgar was treated with great respect and he actually did seem to take his oath seriously.

Edgar’s adventures seemed to finally be over.

They were not.

The Loyalist Saxon in a Norman Court

Edgar tried to be a loyal, quiet noble for the next 11 years. William rewarded him with a few estates in England, but also made him a part of his court. Edgar was, it seems, simply never allowed to marry. From William’s point of view this was crucial. He would tolerate Edgar, allow him into his court sure, but he could never have kids. His sister? The Queen of Scotland? She was having a huge brood of them, but Edgar would sire no children.

While this can seem like a burden, it’s worth nothing that his other sister had entered a convent and was now an Abbess and Edgar seemed to not be bothered by it all. Indeed he spent the next 11 years hanging around Robert, William’s oldest son, where he became a kind of older brother type figure to the heir of William’s kingdom. He also, we think travelled to Scotland to spend time with his nephews and nieces.

But by 1086, now aged 34, Edgar, the Saxon high nobility who was a regular feature in both the courts of Normandy and Scotland, sought out some new adventure. He decided to give up his holdings in England and make a new life for himself. He lived as part of the Norman world and as such his new choice was utterly Norman… By now the Norman’s had not just conquered England and Normandy, one group had carved a kingdom for themselves out of south Italy and Edgar in 1086 decided to take himself and a bunch of Knights to the Duchy of Apulia, on the Adriatic coast.

The Norman’s had just finished battling Byzantium for control of this region and right now were engaged in a ruthless bloodbath of a campaign to drive the Muslims out of Sicily. It was into this world that Edgar now disappears.

Alas there are no records of what he got up to for the year or so he was there, but the possibilities are awesome. Alas whatever happened (and we are not sure exactly) it didn’t work out and Edgar had to return to Normandy. But he arrived at a VERY interesting time.

William the Conqueror had just died.

What made things really interesting was that King William had, in the years previous to his death, fallen out with his eldest son, Robert Cuthrose. With his fathers death Robert inherited the title of Duke of Normandy but his father made it clear he wanted Robert’s young brother William ‘Rufus’ to take the throne of England. The succession of the English throne was in crisis.

Edgar was now 35 and was one of the few who had seen up close what happened last time the throne was contested. He was ideally placed to advise one of the sides in this brotherly feud. And even though he was known and had known all of the Conquerors sons (and got on with them), he was closest to Duke Robert. Had been for years. And so he joined his side.

Edgar quickly became one of Duke Robert’s most trusted advisors; in 1087 Duke Robert seized land in Normandy belonging to those who supported the division of the kingdom and gave it to his favourites, including Edgar, and now this last scion of the Kings of Wessex had estates in Normandy. But 1087 also was the start of a military campaign and rebellion to overthrow William II of England, spearheaded by William’s and Robert’s Uncle, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux.

By 1091 however, the rebellion was crushed and as part of the peace agreement between Duke Robert and King William II, Duke Robert had to give the lands he had confiscated back. Which meant Edgar lost what possessions he held in Normandy. Very disgruntled by the whole thing, apparently Robert and Edgar had some kind of row, and Edgar decided to return to Scotland and his brother-in-law. King Malcolm was now preparing to go to war with William II and Edgar travelled there to advise and help him.

In one of the strangest moments in British history however, the war never came about. William II marched into Scotland, the Scottish army assembled to meet them. But at the last minute peace negotiations were asked for. Hurriedly diplomats needed to be found. For Malcolm, his natural choice was well travelled, has-known-the-king-since-he-was-a-kid Edgar and he rode forth to be the voice of Scotland that day. On the other side? Duke Robert of Normandy!

Apparently he had reconciled with his brother and was here to help him in his campaign with the Scot’s. Edgar and Robert awkwardly met at the heads of their respective armies… on the one side, the representative of the King of Scotland was the last surviving member of the bloodline of Alfred the Great and de Jure King of England; while on the other, the ELDER brother of the king of England and also de Jure King of England.

The irony was not lost on both men. They got on famously, reconciling their differences, and negotiating a peace settlement which prevented the two nations going to war. This done, Edgar remained as a friend and intermediary between Malcolm of Scotland, Duke Robert of Normandy and William II of England for a few years, maturing into this ‘behind the scenes’ mover and shaker it seems. Eventually, however, Duke Robert left England in 1093 (having fallen out with his brother again), and Edgar went with him back to Normandy for a while. But it was a short visit.

In 1093 William II personally asked Edgar (who was the designated diplomat for such things) to travel to Scotland to talk to King Malcolm, as Malcolm was convinced William had not fulfilled the peace treaty Edgar and Robert had negotiated back in 1091. William II was worried Scotland was about to go to war. Edgar duly travelled back, but probably wasn’t that convinced to work hard on William’s behalf and eventually Malcolm marched south, and invaded England.

In 1093 then the Scottish army rampaged south into the lightly defended northern English region, when during a siege of Alnwick, a small force of English took the Scots by surprise. In the resulting fighting, both Malcolm and his eldest boy Edward were killed. The loss of the strong King of Scotland hit the nation hard and it didn’t help that Margaret, Edgar’s sister, died a month later. There was a dynastic crisis in Scotland and Malcolm’s younger brother Donald Bán (above) seized the throne suddenly, disinheriting Edgar’s nephew’s.

This was devastating to Edgar. His Scottish family had really been his only family. And there was nothing he could do. Luckily for Edgar, King Donald of Scotland was just about to make a crucial mistake. Because not only did he disinherited his brothers family, he immediately drove out the French and English nobles who had been a mainstay of Malcolm’s court since 1066. This act caused the ire of William II and the new King of England was now involved.

Yes, he may have just been at war with the King of Scotland but he was more focused on preventing the new King of Scotland from setting up without links to England in his court. Go figure. Anyway, having William II involved gave Edgar a great opportunity… because William II had a trump card to play in this situation.

The next Eldest son of Malcolm and Margaret was a lad called Duncan who had been held as a hostage in the English court by William I to secure a compliant Scotland. William II released him and allowed him travel north to reclaim his title.

Duncan did this but his uncle Donald defeated him and killed him. This was finally too much for Edgar. In 1097 he gained the support of the Norman’s and led an army personally- he was going to place his nephew and namesake Edgar, upon the throne of Scotland. Our Edgar now led an army for the first time since his rebellion against the Conqueror, leading forces supplied by his least favourite of the Conquerors sons.

Finally Edgar, in whose blood ran the ancestry of Alfred the great, was able to show his military prowess. In 1097 we ousted Donald and installed his nephew (above) upon the throne of Scotland. While he had never come close to installing himself upon the throne, he was in all ways now a Kingmaker.

He could have remained in Scotland to aid his nephew but Edgar still had a few more adventures in him yet…

By 1098 or 1099, Edgar, former ætheling of England, Kingmaker of Scotland, exile, refugee, prisoner and diplomat, decided to take the Cross and join the First Crusade. Some reports claim he was in charge of the English fleet active during the First Crusade off the coast of Syria, but the chances are that was a later embellishment. We do know however that he did make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at sometime between 1099 and 1102, travelling there probably on an English ship.

While there he would have seen the new Christian kingdom of Jerusalem under its newly installed King Godfrey de Bullion, and his brother Baldwin.

We also suspect that on his way back Edgar travelled to Constantinople, where supposedly he was offered a place at court and some maintain he was made a member of the Varangian Guard, either in a full role or an honorary title. Personally this makes sense… in the aftermath of 1066, many Saxon members of the scpsfyrd, the grant fleet of Saxon England, had ended up fleeing and coming to Byzantium. The Varangian Guard during the previous era had been dominated by Saxon’s from England. 30 years later, when no doubt many had retired and/or were at the end of their term serving and/or their sons had joined their fathers in service to the Emperors, along comes the last true Saxon King of England?

It would be wrong to assume this wouldn’t have been seen as a big thing. Indeed this is where I believe the tales of his being in charge of the English fleet in the First Crusade began. Whatever the case, I like to imagine Edgar enjoying the majestic splendour of Constantinople, a world away from the cold hills of Scotland and the troubled lands of England. Also worth considering- a few years previously Edgar had been in Italy fighting WITH the Normans who had inflicted defeats upon Byzantium’s Saxon’s. And now a few years later he was being honoured by them.

What a life of adventure…

But he still wasn’t done yet.

By 1106 Edgar was back in Normandy and once again taking the side of Robert, Duke of Normandy in ANOTHER family feud for the crown. This was was caused by real skullduggery. William II had been out hunting in the New Forest. An arrow or crossbow bolt ‘accidentally’ struck the king and killed him. At once his servants, retainers and HIS BROTHER, Henry, left the body and fled the scene. Henry immediately travelled to London, seized the Royal Treasury and announced he was now King of England. Robert, the eldest of William I’s sons was having none of that and so raised arms to finally take back the throne of England. And Edgar was on Robert’s side.

Henry I was taking no chances and so HE invaded Normandy to end the trouble. Edgar found himself in Robert’s army as he was defeated at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106. Duke Robert and his highest ranked supporters were captured and spent the rest of their lives in jail. Edgar however, while captured, got off lightly. See, he did occasionally have a stroke of luck.

Henry I was married to Edith, Princess of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III and Margaret; the new King’s wife was Edgar’s niece. They had married in 1100. Being the uncle to the Queen had its advantages; Edgar was pardoned and released by Henry I and seems to reconciled with the dynamic King. Certainly he was able to retire now, in his 50’s, and ready to end his wandering.

According to the scant sources we do have, Edgar travelled only once more to Scotland, maybe in 1120 or maybe in 1124. His nephew, King Edgar died, but he was followed by two more nephews of Edgar of Wessex, Alexander and David I. Edgar’s impact upon the dynastic linage of Scotland was to live on much longer than on England. In many ways, Scotland had a purer Wessex bloodline than England ever did.

We are told that Edgar was still alive in 1125 when aged about 73 he is said to have been around at the death of his nephew, Prince William Adeling, heir of Henry I at the disaster of the White Ship (where Prince William drowned as his party boat got into trouble in harfluer harbour, an event that’s as to plunge England into a generations worth of conflict known as the anarchy).

According to William of Malmesbury, at this time, Edgar "now grows old in the country in privacy and quiet". We do not know exactly when Edgar died, but we assume it was sometime after this.

Edgar, the Last Scion of Wessex, the King without a Kingdom, led a genuinely amazing life. He was an exile; refugee; political pawn; Viking raider; Crusader; diplomat; advisor; general; Varagardian; Kingmaker (dynasty maker really); brother of the Queen of Scotland, Uncle to the Queen of England; rebel; loyalist; and more.

His story ranged from darkest Hungarian to the white marble splendour of West Minster Abbey; from the desert sands of Jerusalem, to the verdant fields of Normandy; from the desolation of the North of England, to the glory of battlefields of Scotland; from the storm tossed waters of the North Sea, to the sun baked fields of southern Italy; from the glory of Byzantium to the quietness of the English countryside.

Stories like his make me love history.

Lies, damn lie, and contradictions

The above is MOSTLY true. Or as true as I could make it.
There are things said above which would be contested if this was a proper historical paper (which, it isn’t). We don’t know if Knut (Canute) of England tried to have Edward and Edmund Ætheling assassinated; that could have just been said later.
We really don’t know the origin of Edgar’s mother.
How much Malcolm forced his marriage to Edgar’s sister is a matter of debate also.
The exact details of his Viking raid on Lindsey is also unknown.
Nor do we know for sure how much he instigated the campaign to topple William and how much he was used by a desperate group of people.
The exact events when he travelled to Jerusalem are also unknown. We are fairly sure he died without kids, but there is a mention of a daughter. And also records which suggest he lived to be over 100 which sounds very unlikely.
Beyond that? Hey, the story is true.

Sources and resources:
Sources: Books mostly. Alas yes, books are crucial here.
Gonna turn around and suggest David Bates utterly masterful biography of William the Conquerer here. I’ve done posts on William but this book is utterly captivating and THE best guide to the life of this most amazing King (and the people around him).

In 1985 Nicolas Hooper published this summery of Edgar’s life and times in Vol 14 of the Oxford University Press ‘Anglo-Saxon Times’. This is a copy on JSTOR- you need an account but JSTOR accounts are free and are awesome.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44509867

A much shorter and possibly better bio of Edgar
https://medium.com/@johnwelford15/edgar-atheling-denied-a-throne-8a293a6b603e

Another account, adding a few more details…
https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2016/12/10/edgar-the-boy-who-wouldnt-be-king/

About 3 years ago (dear Lord how time flies) I did a post specifically on William the Conquerer and his life; I’d revise some of this now but it holds its own as a decent overview of his life. the guy didn’t have as many adventures as Edgar, but his upbringing was WAY more brutal and is a heck of a tale. https://imgur.com/gallery/nZTdI2t

I write these posts kind as a way to keep myself sane; I desperate wanted to not do a current affairs post, as the world is getting very heavy at the moment. So, history it is. If you feel like buying me a coffee for this that would be awesome. If you don’t? That’s fine also. For those who do, please note your contributions are making a difference. Podcasts coming very soon- two in fact, with YouTube on the close horizon. Any contribution makes a difference. A real one.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Thefeck

have a good week imgur!