Edmund, King of the English

Edmund
Edmund in the late thirteenth-century Genealogical Chronicle of the English Kings
King of the English
Tenure	27 October 939 – 26 May 946
Coronation	c. 29 November 939 probably at Kingston upon Thames
Predecessor	Æthelstan
Successor	Eadred
Born	921 Wessex, England
Died	26 May 946 (aged 24–25) Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, England
Burial	Glastonbury Abbey
Spouse	Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury Æthelflæd of Damerham
Issue	Eadwig, King of England Edgar, King of England
House	Wessex
Father	Edward the Elder
Mother	Eadgifu of Kent
Religion	Roman Catholic

Edmund I (Old English: Ēadmund, pronounced [æːɑdmund]; 921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 939 until his death. His epithets include the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, and the Magnificent.

Edmund was the son of Edward the Elder and his third wife Eadgifu of Kent, and a grandson of Alfred the Great. His father died when he was young, and was succeeded by his oldest son Æthelstan. Edmund came to the throne upon the death of his half-brother in 939, apparently with little opposition. His reign was marked by almost constant warfare, including conquests or reconquests of the Midlands, Northumbria, and Strathclyde (the last of which was ceded to Malcolm I of Scotland). Edmund was assassinated after six-and-a-half years as king, while attending mass in Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire. He was initially succeeded by his brother Eadred, but his two sons – Eadwig and Edgar the Peaceful – both later came to the throne.

Edmund came to the throne as the son of Edward the Elder, and therefore the grandson of Alfred the Great, great-grandson of Æthelwulf of Wessex and great-great grandson of Egbert of Wessex, who was the first of the house of Wessex to start dominating the Anglo Saxon realms. However, being born when his father was already a middle aged man, Edward lost his father when he was a toddler, in 924, which saw his 30 year old half brother Athelstan come to the throne. Edmund would grow up in the reign of Athelstan, even participating in the Battle of Brunanburgh in his adolescence in 937.