Gone Medieval - Edmund Ironside: The 222-Day King

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

What does it take to face a Danish invasion and fight for a kingdom in just 222 days?In 1016, England is at war as Edmund Ironside meets Cnut for a crown on the line. Matt Lewis and Dr David McDermott trace a young warrior king who fought six battles, won his name for speed and strength, and held the field at Sherston, Brentford, and beyond.MOREÆthelstan: First King of the EnglishListen on AppleListen on SpotifyKing Cnut & the End of the Viking AgeListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week PLUS early access, ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world,

to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries and continents to delve into rebellions, plots and murders to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here. Find out who we really were. We've gone medieval. The year is 1016. As the morning mist clings to the damp grass, a young man stands breathing

the fresh air. He wonders what the day will bring and whether he'll see the end of it. There will be a fight today and his crown is on the line. A mighty Danish invader challenges the king of England, and the young man must face him down. His armour has been on for over an hour now. It used to chafe and feel heavy, but now, past his mid-20s, he can hardly remember a day when he hasn't worn it. It's comfortable and somehow comforting too. He knows what he's doing when he wears it. This won't be his first battle, but he can't be sure that.

it won't be his last. As he ponders the field before him, now pale in the thin light of mourning and wreathed in mist that makes the other side as impenetrable as knowing the future, his hand moves to rest on the familiar pommel of his sword,

almost without him knowing that he was moving. What does it mean that he finds such peace in the familiarity of war? Today, it means he feels as prepared as any man might to risk life and limb against this terrifying invader. If he falls, will he be remembered? Will they sing songs of him

and give him a name worthy of a mighty warrior who has fought more than he is ruled? Perhaps, but that's not for him to decide. Gripping his sword pommel a little tighter. He reminds himself, there is brutal and bloody work to be done if there is to be any kind of a future for King Edmund's England.

Edmund Ironside is a name to conjure with. But how much do we really know about the man who was king for just 222 days in the 11th century and who died before he was 30? Well, to find out, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr David McDermott, who's lectured in history at the University of Winchester and written extensively about Edmund Ironside, Canute and 11th century kings. Welcome to God Medieval, David. It's great to have you with us.

Great to be here. Thank you, Matt. I'm really looking forward to digging into someone who, who has a very, very cool name, and I guess we're going to try and find out whether he deserves it or not. So we're talking about Edmund Ironside, and I wonder if you could just start us off by telling us where in history are we?

When is Edmund born? Well, we have no exact dates. The first historical evidence we have for his existence is a diploma of his father, Ethelred, the second, known as Ethelred the Unready. But when that diploma is issued, Edmund appears third, amongst the list of the Afflings. Now, Athlings are princes,

those who are considered to be thrown worthy. So there was his eldest brother, Afflestam, second brother, Edgebert. Then there's Edmund and then the fourth brother, Edwin, I think his name was. So they're all recorded together. But back dating, we think maybe Edmund was born about, let me see, about 989, I think, is a working hypothesis for when Edmund was born. Okay, dokey. And is that lack of.

of recording a symptom of him being a younger son or just poor records of the time? Combination of both records are, I mean, it has been said that you could put all the primary sources we have for Anglo-Saxe and England into a small cardboard box, partly because of record-keeping and also a lot has been lost and destroyed over the centuries. But it wasn't the thing at the time to have an official recording of when a new prince is born. And of course the record for princesses is even worse. Women are even poorly kept in history. You mentioned that his father is Ethelred the unready, so that's a name that lots of listeners will be familiar with. We've got a great episode on Ethelred previously. How much do we know about his mother as well?

His mother came from the north. His grandfather was a northern Thane who was actually outlawed at one point. But we know very little about his mother. and she kind of disappears from the historical record. By 1002, Ethelred has remarried Emma of Normandy, his second wife. And we know that Edmund's mother existed because her name appears in the witness lists of Ethelred's diplomas. But other than that and a few facts we can work out from the Northern record. You know very little about his mother. We don't even know when she died or how she died.

It has been suggested. that as she was the mother about nine children, you probably just died of medical complications. And I guess we're going to dig into his career and get a bit more of an explanation of this particular aspect, but just to deal with it up front, why do we remember him as Edmund Ironside? There's an account very late in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

I think the date is 1057. Edmund died in 1016. So a couple of generations after, there's a record that refers to Edmund Diancy's. known for his Snell sheep, and that is his doughtiness, his robustness, the speed with which he reacted to events. You can see the German word Schnell in Schnell Sheep, his quickness, his rapidity to respond to situations. So that's the official explanation why he's called Ironside, because he was so quick to respond. And he did fight six battles within the 222 days

that he was king. Other accounts are saying that maybe another explanation is because at the time, 10-15, when Edmund is active, the English didn't have many ring shirts and many chain-mail shirts. And being a prince, he might have been one of the few people, it is suggested, who would have had a ring shirt, whereas the Vikings, it is thought, had more of them. I'm not so sure about that theory. I rather like the idea that he got his reputation for being robust and quicker,

to react and quite a doughty fight and quite a belligerent, quite a bellicose warrior king. Yeah, yeah. So it's almost certainly a military epithet meant to signal that he was considered to be a great warrior. Absolutely. Got it in one. And what's the political situation in which Edmund is growing up in England? His father's reign is famously quite tempestuous and tumultuous. what is happening around Edmund as he's growing up? Well, from early on, from about 982, Ethelwood comes king, comes to keep at 978. 982, you have a return of Viking raids.

People sometimes date the second Viking age in England from about 982. When we get recurring raids, they were just very few at the beginning, but then as a year's progress, they become more frequent. towards the end of Ethelred's reign, you have an attempt, and a successful attempt, actually, by the Vikings to take over England for a few months, toward the end of 1013 and 1014, we actually had a Viking king of England, Swain Tuskeg, swain two beards, and he dies in February of 1014, by which time Ethelred had fled to Normandy, where his wife came from, and he was in exile, and then he's asked to come back by the leading things. So throughout his boyhood, there are Viking raids,

mostly in the south of England. And even about 1002, the hamlet of Atholingadine, the valley of the Athlings, which is Singleton now in West Sussex. That was attacked by Vikings. Now, we don't know if Edmund was there, but the fact that it was named for the Vikings, it may be in a rural estate where Athlans were brought up, suggests that the Vikings make of known the political capital to be made

of perhaps capturing an Athling and hoarding in ransom or being able to attack a royal estate that was set aside for the raising of the Athlings. Yeah. So it sounds like everything's quite precarious around him as he's a growing up into a man. Yes, yeah, yeah, that's fair to say. I'm sure I think within his immediates around, we don't even know where he was raised as a child, he was probably raised by his grandmother, Elfrit. And we know that she had some estates in the south of England, in Wessex and around Canterbury.

So he may have spent his formative years in that part of the world. And it is where he spent most of his adult life, apart from when he's up in the Midlands, when he's in an alliance with his brother-in-law, Utred of Northumbria. And they attack some of the properties owned by a famed to beamed. called I had rich Stryona, who was a bit of a backstabber and was Ethel Red's hit man. If Ethel Red wanted somebody removed, Edrich, the kind of man who would remove that person for him. Yeah.

And you mentioned that Edmund has older brothers. Athelstan is the oldest. Do we know much about the relationship between Edmund and Athelstan? Probably very good. In his will, Aflstan leaves the majority of his own. his estate to his brother. In fact, he nominates Edmund and his executor to see that his wishes are carried out. And one of the gifts that Edmund receives from his brother is a sword that once belonged to

King Offer, Offer of Mercia. And that sword itself may have been a gift from Charlemagne, the Frankian Emperor. Yeah. And it seems like a fairly significant sort of royal gift to be bestowing on his younger brother. Is this in recognition of the fact that Edmund is likely to become king next? Well, it has been suggested that there was a following around Athlistan who was seen as the next great hope because he was a more military, more martial warrior prince who may have fought against the Vikings. If you like, he's parting on the baton by granting this significant sword to his brother.

It's kind of an acknowledgement that he bequeaths the position of air presumptive to his brother. Yeah, yeah. Someone's got to sort out dad's mess, and it might as well be you. Well, his father wasn't doing it. Yeah. Yeah. And do we know how much Edmund is involved in trying to fight off Swain Fortbeard when he arrives? No, there's no kind of evidence for that. The military exploits of Edmund prior to him rebelling against his father in about 1015 aren't really very detailed. We know that Edmund called out the Faines of Mercia to fight.

He raised an army. But none of them actually came to anything because Ethelred disbanded the armies. Several armies, before Edmund had been rebelled, several armies were gathered. They were summoned that never took to the field, even because Ethelred abandoned them. And on one occasion, he was about to join the theater, the assembled army. And he got wind of a rumor to assassinate him. and somebody close to him, quote unquote, and then he goes back to London. So, Edmund then, as the oldest surviving,

Athlin, would have been involved in those deliberations, but wasn't given the opportunity to take to the field because his father kept summoning armies and then disbanding them. Yeah. What is the main cause, as far as we know, of this rebellion of Edmund against his father? I mean, it sounds like Ethelred has, sons who are much more marshaly minded than he is, is it a simple matter of policy that they're

disagreeing about? I'd say partly, but another factor I think is the assassination of two of Edmund's long-term associates, Seerforth and Morkar. They're described as leading fames of the Dainlaw, or the seven boroughs. Seerberth and Morkar, their brothers, they're assassinated, their properties are confiscated, and Seyafirth's widow, she is incarcerated in Marmsbury. And Edmund bursts onto the historical page in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. First thing we hear about him in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is that he rides to Marmsbury and releases the widow and marries her, and then rides into the Eastern Dame law to claim the properties of the two members. brothers. And he's acclaimed in that region as their leader. Fascinating. Do you think we should

view this rebellion then as part of, or a symptom of Ethel Red's weakness or a signal of Edmund's ambition? Possibly a bit of both. And also we should have to consider the ambitions of those around him. Did Edmund come up with this idea spontaneously of seizing power in Eastern Dainlaw, granting himself a power base? from which to increase his influence, or are there people around Edmund who can see something in it for them? One must also consider who's giving him advice and what benefit could they gain from it. Yeah, yeah. And how then do we see Edmund react to the arrival, the invasion of Canute's forces? Because he's primarily raising his forces from the north of England.

Does that point to him having strong connections and good relations in the north of England, perhaps based around his mother? Apart from his alliance with his brother-in-law, Utrecht. Now, this is before he becomes king, he's an alliance, as I said earlier, with his brother-in-law U-Tred. But Knut, having landed in 1015, Knut then systematically works his way through Wessex

and then moves through the Midlands and then north and threatens Tread's lands around Bamberra. And Utred then breaks off the alliance. And he heads north. north to preserve his territory. And then Edmund is left with maybe half an army. And he then returns to London. And inside London, that's when Ethel Red dies on 23rd of April. And Edmund becomes king. In the meanwhile, Canute is still at large, so to speak. He's operating in the south of England. When he becomes king, Edmund then leaves London. I think he does that before

Canute can arrive to the siege the town and he rides into Wessex where we are told he is acclaimed by Wessex, you know, as the new king. At the same time, we have an historian like John of Worcester writing in the early 12th century who tells us that while Edmund becomes king in London and then rides into Wessex, the leading fangs of southern England have acclaimed Canute, their king at Southampton. So there's a battle, there's a conflict going on for. Who is going to be king of England. We have two kings of England in effect because the country is so divided politically, it's so fragmented, fragmented politically. We have two people who can lay claim to be the acclaimed king on the land. Yeah, two kings and one crown is never a good situation to be in.

And should we think of England as, you know, Athelstan is usually acclaimed as kind of the first king of the English of a united kingdom. And we're, you know, we're almost a century on, this point from that happening. Should we think of England as being, by now, a firm, solid, political unit, or is there any kind of a risk that England still might kind of shatter and break into pieces? I think there is still that risk because the armies that Edmund was able to raise in Wessex, and most of his armies were raised in Wessex. You find that you have a contingent from Wiltshire in his army. He recruited Somerset, Wilshire, Devon and Dorset. If you look at the Battle Sherston, for example, which was Edmund's second battle after Pencilwood.

Sherston is on the fringes of Wiltshire and Somerset and Oxfordshire. There are men from the county of Wiltshire serving in Edwin's army, but there's also a wheelchair contingent in Canute's army. And there are men from Dorset and Devon in Edmund's army. But on Canute's side, you have a couple of English renegades. One of them, Alvgar, Meow, he was a... a wealthy landowner who had lands in Dorset and Devon. And it has been suggested that with an English turncoat

fighting for Canute, he may also have drawn men from his estates in Dorset and Devon, fighting for Canute. So we have men from at least three counties, Dorset, Devon and Wilcher, who are fighting for Edmund and for Canute. Yeah, that sounds like a mess. So it's politically fractured country. Yeah. One could say it has been said by Anne Williams, for example,

example that up until Sherston, which is 1015, most of Edmund's support was in the west of England. The east of England, the east of Wessex seems to be more in favour for Knut, that after the victory at Sherston, Knoot leaves that territory and Edmund is able to recruit without interference. But whether Edmund won the Battle of Sherston is a moot point. The sources seem to agree that fighting went on until after dark. and I discovered that there was actually enough daylight for them to fight until dark. I asked people from the, what was it in effect is the planetarium in Winchester? They do some calculations for me.

And they said, yeah, there was enough daylight or moonlight to recognize people and fight by. They kind of separated by mutual agreement. But on the cover of darkness, Knoot then leaves the battlefield. Now, holding the battlefield, of course, is the traditional sign of victory. And so one can say, Edmund achieved a Pyrrhic victory by retaining the battlefield at Churston, while Kanoot slinks away under the cover of darkness. Yeah, yeah. And I'm conscious as well that, so Ethel Red, the unready, dies on the 23rd of April 10, 16.

And we're kind of putting Edmund on a clock here, because we've talked about him being the king for 222 days. So there's a bit of a spoiler coming. Do we date his reign from the day that his father died or do we need to wait for some kind of a coronation? Do we have any sense of, is he officially made king on the same day that his father dies? Well, the maxim is the king is dead longer of the king. In constitutional law, a king does not need a coronation to be king, since the death of the pursuing king. So we don't know if there was a coronation ceremony.

I think though Edmund was acclaimed by the citizens of London, I know they gave themselves the right to approve his accession to the throne. Tradition law would have required that Edmund received the approval of the Wittan, of the King's Council, so I'm sure he gained that, but the coronation ceremony was not essential for him to be King. But I think in practice we can regard him as King. And do we get any sense from the chronicles of whether this switch from Ethelred to Edmund, is that considered a good thing, where people kind of glad to see the back of Ethel Red,

given that he hadn't been particularly successful and hopeful for one of his more martial sons to come to the throne? We get a kind of an epitaph. I think it's an early one, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and that certainly the effect that Ethelred, you know, defended his kingdom as best he could, and then he died. That's a bit of a pat on the head, isn't it? Yeah, it's a kind of tacit admission that we hadn't really done as good a job as he could. And we know if the Andrews-Satine Chronicle on one occasion, 1009, if I remember correctly, Ethelred is unusually at the head of an army.

Of course, in those days, the laws of Inna, going back to the 7th century, say that 35 armed men constitute an army. so I don't know how many men he was leading but he was leading an army and he had the Adrich Strina this traitorous alderman from Mercia next to him they come across a Viking army and Ethelred is persuaded

not to attack the Vikings Etheret allows them to leave unhindered kind of a foretaste of things to come Yeah yeah So Edmund Ethelred has an opportunity to do something but he's talked out of it by Iadrich. And at that time, there was also a movement to discourage kings

from actually putting themselves in danger by leading armies, which is something that Edmund subsequently ignored is very much in the forefront of the fighting. It's interesting that that movement comes so early because we tend to think of that being a bit more of an early modern thing, don't we, that all medieval kings and rulers are expected to be at the head of their army setting an example. but it sounds like there's evidence that already at this point there is concern that it's a bit too dangerous for a king to be there?

Yeah, there was some concern. Now, the only clergyman I know of doing that was, I think, is Elfrick in the Midlands. I think he was a lone voice arguing that the king should not put himself in danger, whereas from biblical times, King David, for example, kings are very much at the front of their armies leading by example. So this movement of Oh, the king shouldn't be at forefront of the battle It's far too dangerous Was I think an exception that proved the rule Yeah, yeah Sounds like a message that Ethelred might have wanted to hear though

Very good, yeah Don't worry about getting out there and fighting Ethelred, it's fine And so now we've got Edmund as king We've got Canute in the kingdom as well So we've got two kings, one throne It's all going to come to a confrontation And really I guess the story of the rest of Edmund's life is the story of his struggle against Canute.

So you mentioned that he fights in six battles. I think Pencilwood is the first one. So can you talk us through the events of kind of each of those six battles? If we start at Pencilwood, what happens there? Who wins? Okay, right. Pencilwood, we don't actually know who wins Pencilwood. The Anglox Action Chronicle simply says that Edmund fought there.

And then we learn that he fights next at Sherston. So I would attribute a victory to Edmund for doing that. I think later writers, Ruben Marlesbury, John of Bustner, the Anglo-Norman historians writing in the early 12th century, I think they would give a victory to Edmund, but you have to bear in mind that one of the reasons for writing about Anglo-Saxon history for the Anglo-Normans was to exonerate and to praise Anglo-Saxon history.

They were proud of their Anglo-Saxon ancestry. and their heritage, and they wanted to present it in a good light. But the earliest record we have in the Anglo-Saxian Chronicle doesn't tell us who won. We have to infer a victory. I mean, that sounds like it might suggest that Edmund lost it, because otherwise why wouldn't you say it was a glorious victory for the Anglo-Saxon forces? Well, indeed. Well, what answer is the Amundaxaxon Chronicle is notoriously laconic. Very few details are given, even for, I think, in really major important things.

So, yeah, we can't even, well, did he lose and therefore they didn't want to say he lost or they don't say anything simply that he won. I think that's a valid interpretation. We simply don't know. You can almost imagine the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle smirking to himself and thinking in a thousand years' times this is going to really, really annoy people. Oh, possibly. Yeah, I'll be deliberately interst.

The second battle is just, and we know a little bit more about this from the Chronicle and the later writers. as I said, they fought for a long time, until it was kind of too dark, they too tired and they withdrew, and Canute then leaves under the cover of darkness leaving, Edmund with a fierce, well, well, the pretty victory.

But the sources do record that there were heavy losses on both sides. So we think no quarter was given. They were really out to kill each other. Both sides wanted victory. But they were just too exhausted to carry on. So by mutual agreement, you know, they kind of just withdraw from the battlefield.

But we can kind of chalk that up as a victory to Edmund in the sense that it's Canute that leaves an Edmund that holds the field? I certainly do, yeah. And what's the third battle we get next then? Well, let's see, there's the relief of the siege of London. Now, Canute tried several times to besiege London, and each time he had to give up, a ditch was dug from Southwark around the city,

on its three sides, because on one side, of course, is the Thames. So the ditches dug around three sides of the city. Kanoot gives up those sieges, goes into Wessex to fight London, London, Edmund, then returns to London to resume the siege. In the meantime, Edmund then gathers another army. Having vanquished, Knoot, is then able to recruit men, as I said, unhindered. And an army arrives outside London. It comes through Tottenham, kind of roundabout way of doing it.

And we are told that when Canute hears that Edmund is on his way with an army, the Danes then abandon the siege. They run away and Edmund enters. So he regains London without a single blow. Edmund stays in London for two days. We don't know what he does, but I imagine he saw to the defences and the administration of the town had arrest, made sure that London could continue to defend itself.

Then after two days, he heads west. He goes to Brentford. Now, Brentford is the first place outside of London going west where you can cross the Tens. And Edmund catches up with Canute at Brentford. And they have a battle, and the Danes are then forced across the ford. We are told that the River Thames was clogged with the dead at Brentford,

possibly Danish and English dead. And the battle then continues on the other side of the crossing. In fact, there was a Ford at Brentford until the 19th century. You can still see the gate at Q Gardens, where the ferry used to go from Brentford to Q Gardens. And the fighting then continued on what is now the car park of Q Gardens. and Canute is then driven off. Again, leaving, I think, another victory for Edmund, but Edmund has lost so many men

that he has to go back into Wessex to recruit another army. And there's a strange story about Edmund encountering Frisians. Now, I used to get told off as saying Frisians because that implies we're talking about cows. Frisians. Now, we don't know if these were Frisian mercenaries.

in Canute's employ and his army was made of mercenaries. We know from rune stones, gravestones in Sweden that Canute's army was recruited from men who volunteered from Sweden. It was a pan-Scanadian army that Canute arrived with. He recruited from Denmark and Sweden. And also of course Norway. We have the laird of Lada in Norway, aiding Canoeuvre, in Norway, aiding Canute in his. his attempt to conquer England. So Panter-Candinavian army, Edmund goes back into Lusick recruits another army. Then we hear that this is only one source. John of Worcester is our only source for this.

Canutis is raiding in Mercia because he needs supplies. He's running out of men. He's not recruiting new men to replace those who are killed and of course constantly have to renew supplies. He's raiding in Mercia and they're on the way back to their ships. We think. think they were on the Isle of Shepi. And Edmund rides into what is now Kent and chases the army to Otford, according to Donner Wuster, has a battle and it's recorded as a victory for Edmund at the Battle of Otford. But John of Wuster is our only source for this battle.

So we're not quite sure whether we can believe John of Wester. Sometimes John of Wuster does fabricate, we know that it's a lot of the warstead. we know that in his description of the Battle of Ascendon, for example, he simply lifted descriptions of a Roman battle that took place, and I think the first century BC, and transposed it to Ascendon and simply changed the names of some of the weapons used, but attributed the actions of a Roman general to Edmund Ironside. Which, I mean, interesting fabrication, but it's interesting then that John of Worcester

is trying to equate Edmund with a Roman general, because it sounds like across these battles that we've talked about, including I'll never parking Q. Carden car parks, again, without thinking of the fighting going on there. But it sounds like Edmund is doing incredibly well. We tend to have this vision of Canute and his Danish forces. Canute the Great, he's almost unstoppable. But it sounds like Edmund is actually beating Canute.

I think that is true. There is a very telling sentence. Imming Comium, M.I. which is a work commissioned by Emma of Normandy, Knut's widow, Canute dies in 1035. And she commissions this work to glorify herself and the Anglo-Danish dynasty that she's the mother of.

We're told that after the Battle of Ascendam, which is a loss for Edmund, and I'll say more about that shortly I expect. Edmund is all for fighting on, but his advisors want him to sue for peace while he's making up his mind, Edmund is making up his mind, Canute goes off and, you know,

to have a think by himself. And we are told, and this is by a pro-Danish source, we are told that Canute admits to himself that Edmund can always find someone to step into a dead man's shoes. He can always recruit new soldiers. While he, Canute, is running out with men

and running out of supplies. So he'd better sue for peace. And that's what he does. He goes back to Edmund and says, how about we divide up the country? Yeah, okay, says Edmund, reluctantly. So, yeah, Edmund would have won by, simply by attrition, by just carrying on, he would have reduced and reduced and worn away,

bit by bit, connude's ability to fight. Yeah, and I guess that's the difference between an army that's in its own country and an invading army that is unable to recruit locally in the same kind of way. Edmund has the advantage on that. He does. Now, I think we can. There's also one incident between Otford that may or may not have happened and Ascendon. Edmund is chasing Canute. And by this time, the Adrich Streiner, who'd gone over to the Danes,

in fact, Eadrich was meant to join up with Edmund in 1015, but didn't and tried to betray Edmund to Canute. and in order to get into Knut's good books, Edrich took with him 40 ships from the English fleet and kind of sweetened the deal. So the Adrich was on Knut's side. At the Battle of Sherston, we're told that Edmund sees his brother-in-law.

Another brother-in-law was the Adrich Streona, the alderman of Mercia. He sees the Adrich across the battlefield, fighting for Knut. And Edmund is so angry at this, he picks up a spear, throws it across the battlefield, field at Eadrich. And of course, once the spear is held, it kind of be called back. The Adrich sees the spear coming at him, so he simply steps aside, which is what you can do.

And then we're told that such as the force of the blow, because Edmund is said to be a very large, very powerful man. The spear pierces one Viking, and then it pierces the Viking next to him. So two Vikings are cabbed on the same spear at the Battle of Sherston. Just as a testament to Edmund's sheer strength and power, that's pretty impressive. Indeed. And I want to believe it's true. And it is possible one of these spears that the Anglo-Saxons used at that time was called an Angon, which had a very, very long steel neck on the spear with a barbed head. And you can accommodate two people on the very long, you know, steel ferrule of this, of the spearhead. I want to believe it's true because I want to believe our Edmund was this big, strong,

powerful Angelo and Saksin King, or it might just be fanciful because there are earlier accounts and other battles. For example, when the Vikings besieged Paris in 885, there's a story of two Vikings being pierced by the bolt from a giant crossbow shot from the walls of Paris. It might be a literary trope. Yeah. Interesting. I quite like the way you put that as well that you can accommodate two Vikings on this spear. It's a very polite way of putting.

So to speak, indeed. So if we've had Pencilwood, Sherston, Brentford and possibly Otford, that gives us four battles. Where's our fifth? Well, there's a kind of a non-battle, as I was saying, at Aylesford. sometime after the Battle of Sherston the Adrich has somehow wheeled his way back into Edmund's favour and now he's with Edmund

and at Aylesford Edmund is persuaded by Adrich not to pursue the Vikings across the Ford so he lets the Vikings get away we're not told what Eadrich said how he managed to do it but somehow Eadritch had a gift of the gab

and could persuade Edmund I think that was a serious serious mistake. So we have our fifth battle, which is Ascendon, October the 18th, 1016. We're not quite sure where it was. We know it's in Essex. There are at least two putative places. Ascendon, of course, is the Lasson.

It could be in the Latin. It could be Ashdown or Ashton. I think both places in Essex could claim their village, their town is the site of the battle. But at that battle, Edmund seems to be, He gained the high ground, because ash down the hill, the hill of the ass. He had the high ground and the Danes then had to fight uphill. Then at some point, Edmund takes the battle to them. They rush downhill, the force, the momentum of the battle.

But at some point, early on, Eadrich withdraws from the battle. And he takes with him his section of the army, who comes from the Maguncata, which is a border, territory in Shropshire. The Adrich and the men of the Magansata, they leave. So the English army is depleted. And when the rest of the English armies see this, they become disheartened. And so men also from other contingents start to withdraw.

So Edmund's army kind of shrinks and it dwindles. And so Edmund has to flee the Battle of Ascendon because of a greatly reduced, numerically reduced army. but it goes into the west and we find him at Olney which is close to Worcester the island of Olney it was an island then and Canute sends men

to barter a peace and Edmund as I said reluctantly agrees and on the island of Olla's Island Olney next to the river the seven they hold their peace treaty and decide to have Wessex for Edmund and the Chronicle tells of the Angnangelo.

The Acton Chronicle tells us Knut received the North. Now, out of the two, Edmund got the better deal because Wessex was the economically richer part of the country. I'm just going to go back because I'm sitting in Shropshire

looking out over the Clee Hills as we're talking. Oh, right, yeah. I'm wondering where I can find my men of the Magansata now. I'm going to have to try and reform them. It sounds very cool. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. close to whiche.

You know, you find them on the tribal hideage, you know, the lost kingdoms of Anglo-Saxe in England before they were absorbed by the bigger, by the bigger kingdoms. Yeah, I know what I'm doing with my weekend now. You're going to find the men of the Magansata. Does this splitting of England, again,

point to this idea that England isn't yet a kind of really fixed, settled, single unit. We've seen it split into the Dane Law previously, it's come back together for a while, and now it's being separated again? Well, we have examples of it being split even before. So, for example, when Edward the Elder dies, 924, up in Cheshire, we find that one of your sons is declared king in Winchester,

and yet Mercia decides for the young Afflestam. And when Eadred dies in the 10th century, we find the country split between Edmund the first two sons, Edmund has two sons, but they were too young to inherit the crown. And so Edmund's brother Iadred becomes king. And you have Edwy and Edgar. The country is split between them. After a couple of years, Edgar becomes king of all England.

And he's the Edgar we know, you know, who donates riches to the old minister in Winchester. Is this Edgar the Peaceable? Edgar the Peaceable. Edgar, who is said to have six kings, Rohing. him on the river D as a kind of symbol of their subservience to him. Is there any sense in which we can think of Edmund here at Olney, almost replicating what Alfred had done a few generations earlier? He's what, three times great granddad or something?

That's right, yeah. In the sense that he's taking back, you know, the core heartlands and allowing himself to rebuild, that there's almost, you know, another creation of the Dane law, but with the intention always of rebuilding and going taking that back. Is he taking a leaf out of Alfred's book? maybe. It's sort of like that. Maybe, yes, I'm sure the story of great-great-grandfather, Alfred, you know, dividing the country as a temporary measure, as it turned out, because we know that Alfred's son and then-grandson, Athelstan, and of course, Ethel Freed, Lady of the

Mercians, they retake all the territory ceded to the Danes. Edmund may have had in mind, and we simply don't know, I'm sure a conjecture on my part, may have had in mind a plan for his sons and grandsons to gradually take back any territory that was ceded to Canute. Even London, which Alfred took back with the help of Ethelred, the Thane of Mercia, who was married to one of Alfred's daughters. Well, Ethelflayed are the Lady of Mercians. So Edmund is granted Wessex. Canute goes to London, which then becomes a kind of a Danish town.

We have lots of churches dedicated to St. Olath. in Anglo-Danish London. But we simply don't know what the ultimate plan was because on the 30th of November, St Andrew's Day, Edmund unexpectedly dies. Maybe the age of 27. Yeah, incredibly young. So before we deal with his death,

do we get, is there any opportunity for us to have any sense of what Edmund was like as a political ruler? Or is he so engrossed in the military aspects that we simply don't see the nature of his rule? There's very little evidence for that, but I've said that it's difficult to judge the reign of Edmund by the reign of other kings. He only had 222 days. He didn't have time to pass laws, didn't have time to reform the currency, didn't have time to make church appointments, didn't even have time to issue new coins. I think, yeah, his focus was to retain England, to stop Canute from becoming.

I mean, the next King of England from replacing him. Thereafter, who knows? Certainly, I think he must have been charismatic to be able to recruit and recruit and recruit and have men essentially die for him. Suggests something about the magnetism, the charisma of an ally. It must have the gift of the gab to some extent to persuade people. To continue fighting.

It's such an elusive but interesting character if you think he has all of this kind of charisma to draw men to him and also the physical prowess to supposedly be lobbing spears that pierced two Vikings at a time it'd be so much I don't know, it'd be incredible to know so much more about him wouldn't it? But our opportunity because of his 222 days

is just curtailed. So I guess what is the immediate impact of Edmund's death in November 1016? The story goes a bit quiet we hear that Edmund is, it dies on the 30th of November, he's buried at Glastonbury, close to his grandfather Edgar. And that's in 1016. Then in 1017, the next entry, the Annal Exit Chronicle, we hear that Canute becomes king. Now, Anne Williams has suggested that something was going on in that interval, and Canute probably had to put down rebellions.

for people who favoured Edmund, people who didn't want him to be king. And one piece of telling evidence is the fact that once Canute becomes king in 1017, two men are executed. One of them is the Adrich Streuna. Canute has him executed. This is a man who has gone over to Canute, then gone back to Edmund, and then after Edmund's death he'd gone back to Canute. And I think once Canute's position was secure, he then had Eadritch executed.

One story is that he hadn't beheaded in London and his headless body thrown over the walls of the city for the dogs to devour. And another Englishman was the son of a leading Thain in the West Country. we don't know why he was killed. We don't know. One possibility is that he had been organizing opposition in the West Country to the rule of Canute.

Why else would Canute have this otherwise unknown man, little recorded person put to death? Probably because of the threat he posed. Yeah. So, I mean, it seems like from such a promising start, Edmund has ultimately, through no fault of his own, I mean, how clear are we about why he dies, what kills him? Stories emerge again in the 12th century as to how he died. And they're all variations on a theme. And each retelling becomes more gruesome.

But basically it involves Edmund going to the toilet and then somebody skewering him in the fundament with a spear. Ouch. Yeah. Indeed. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But probably having thought so many battles in such a short space of time, he may have received a fatal wound, which wasn't life-threatening to begin with, but the lack of antibiotics and modern medicine, it just may have got worse.

We don't know why his brother died either. Again, it has to be inferred possibly from illness, or it could have been from a wound received in an engagement and into the daze. Yeah, yeah. And what would you say then is Edmund's legacy? Because we've seen him, you know, from the promising start. He's ultimately lost to Canute. Canute is now king of all of England. But the House of Wessex does return,

not least in the guise of Edmund's half-brother, Edward the confessor. So should we see his legacy as in some way keeping Anglo-Saxon alive despite the Danish victory? Edmund had two children by his wife. I'm not quite sure where she. came from. I have my suspicions. She was Mercian. I have my suspicions. But the two children who are, who are infants, because don't forget, he doesn't marry until 1015, the widow of CFRth. They're whisked away, and they end up in Hungary. One of them dies, and then we have Edgar the

Athling comes back in 1057. And he's the presumptive. I think that's the intention of Edward the confessor, you know, that his relative become the next king. Then we have, you know, William comes across. But Edmund's granddaughter, Margaret, of course, marries Canmore, Malcolm Canmore of Scotland, has many children by him. And her daughter, Edith, Matilda, marries then Henry I. and so that connection between the Anglo-Saxon bloodline is maintained through through sects of the family.

As I said, going back to Edith, renamed Matilda for Henry I. Yeah, the Anglo-Saxon bloodline survives. It has been suggested that somebody did a piece of research who traced all the presidents of America, bar one, he was of Dutch descent, But all the presidents of America bar one are descended from King John, good King John. And yet King John was an ancestor of Edmund Dianside. And so is that, if you can believe, that that research, you know, the bloodline of Edmund Dianside has flown through the veins of American presidents.

Yeah. So, I mean, despite only being king for 222 days, that's an incredible physical legacy in the world right up until today. It is. and then of course but it also demonstrates I mean he had Edmund had a posthumous legacy as well

because for centuries he has been remembered for his snowship for being the name Ironside no other King of England has that supricate Ironside no other King of England has that same reputation for being so battle-hardened

for being so bellicose as Edmund and it does go to show that it was possible But, you know, kingship very much did depend on the personality of the king. And it being very difficult to remove a king, not impossible, but being very difficult to remove an hereditary king, you know, people just had to make the best of what they got. Yeah.

This is fascinating. And it makes it all the more frustrating that we can't see him more clearly. But just to end on, how would you sum up Edmund Ironside in a few words? I would say patriotic, charismatic. inspirational and warlike. Yeah. Yeah. What a combination. It's a good sales pitch for him.

This has been absolutely fascinating, David. It's been really great to get to know Edmund a little bit better. He feels like such an obscure figure, but you've really helped to draw him into the light for us and bring into life a little bit. So thank you very, very much for joining us. I hope so. I hope I've been able to say a few intelligent things about Edmund

and draw him out of the shadows. and one of the reasons I got involved with Edmund was I wanted to know more about Edmund because I was reading Henry of Huntingdon who says Edmund's first battle was and his second battle was and his third battle was and he writes so enthusiastically about Edmond Dianzadthad and thought I want to know more but I you know I looked for papers and books and I couldn't find any and suddenly had an epiphany I thought if I want to read a book about Edmund Dineside I'm going to have to write it then I thought I've got a PhD subject here and as they say the rest is history.

Yeah, perfect, wonderful. I'm very glad that you did, so you're able to share all of that with us today. Thank you very much. Thank you, glad to be able to do it. Thank you, David. That made me wish that we knew more about Edmund, but also made me grateful of the work people like David do

to unearth the stories that we get to share with you. There's a great episode on Edmund's father, Ethel Reddy and Ready with Levi Roach in our back catalogue, as well as one on Canute with Dr Caitlin Ellis, if you'd like the bread on either side of the Edmund sandwich. There are new installments of Gone Medieval every Tuesday and Friday, so please come back to join Eleanor and I for more from the greatest millennium in human history. Don't forget you can also subscribe or follow us on Spotify

or wherever you get your podcasts and tell all of your friends and family that you've gone medieval. You can also sign up to HistoryHit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a new release every week at HistoryHit.com forward slash subscribe. Anyway, I better let you go. I've been Matt Lewis and we've just gone medieval with history hits.