Edward the Elder: 899-924

by Nicholas J. Higham (editor)

Edward the Elder, son and successor of King Alfred, was one of the greatest architects of the English state and yet is one of the most neglected kings of English history. During his 24-year reign, Edward led a series of successful campaigns against the Vikings and by the time of his death controlled most of southern and midland England, with his influence also felt in Wales and the north. Edward the Elder is a timely reassessment of his reign and helps to restore this ruler to his rightful place in English history.
The period of Edward's reign is notably lacking in primary materials for historians. But by drawing upon sources as diverse as literature, archaeology, coins and textiles, this book brings together a rich variety of scholarship to offer new insight into the world of Edward the Elder. With this wealth of perspectives, Edward the Elder offers a broad picture of Edward's reign and his relation to the politics and culture of the Anglo-Saxon period.

Genres: History, Biography, Anglo Saxon

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 4, 2001

About the author

Librarian note: There are other authors with the same name.

Dr. Nicholas John Higham, aka N.J. Higham, is Professor in Early Medieval and Landscape History in the History Subject Area in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures at the University of Manchester. His research interests focus on two interrelated areas: the History and Archaeology of the Early Middle Ages in Britain, and the Landscape and Settlement History of North West and North England in the Middle Ages. He has supervised many successful research students in both areas and is always interested in enquiries concerning future research.

Reviews

[Peter Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of specialist papers by a veritable who's who of Anglo-Saxon Studies. These were actually presented at a conference and are simply a must for anyone with more than a passing interest in Edward the Elder.


Edward the Elder's reputation, Nick Higham

This essay shows how Edward the Elder's reputation was overshadowed by that of his father, his sister and his son. One lionised as beating the Danes, another who caught the imagination for being a lady with deeds to her name and the other with a famous battle to his credit. Edward the Elder was also poorly served by near contemporary writers, with Aethelweard being reticent to mention whom his ancestor had rebelled again.


What is not known about the reign of Edward the Elder, James Campbell

There is that much good albeit speculative stuff in here, it's hard to know where to start. This essay looks at what sources may hint at, but don't actually tell us and offers some absolutely fascinating maybes. This is an essay that will really get you questioning what we think we know. Two examples: Danish place-names in East and West Flegg hundreds may be due to it being empty land ready to be settled, or new settlements named for tenurial owners, but given that this region was almost an island it may reflect them settling in an East Anglian equivalent of Walcheren. Also
Aethelwold was accepted as king by Northumbrian Danes, raised a fleet, Essex submitted to him, he persuaded the Danes of East Anglia to fight for him, his army contained a notable with a B name, Brihtsige son of Beornoth – possible relation to Mercian kings of the B series.


Edward as Aetheling, Barbara Yorke

Yorke shows the trouble that Alfred took to put Edward in the best position to succeed him and to keep out his cousins through associating him with his rule through proximity, prominence in charters, granting of estates in his will, the chance to prove himself militarily and by ensuring that the Witan were well disposed to him and his line.


Edward, king of the Anglo-Saxons, Simon Keynes

This was interesting, but a tricky read. Keynes is bursting with knowledge, but could do with cutting to the chase. I had to reread a few sections of it to keep up with his thread and not all of that was due to being at work and disturbed by folk. Keynes shows continuity in kingly development from Alfred to Edward's reign. He demonstrates that whilst Aethelwulf could be seen as a king of Wessex, Alfred and Edward were most definitely kings of the Anglo-Saxons. This is reflected in more engrossing level of royal dignity seen in charters, minting and the new coronation order which includes mention of both peoples. This was achieved not by a naked domination of Mercia, but through co-option. Whilst Aethelraed and Aethelflaed were able to issue charters in their name coinage in their name was off limits. There were also plenty of Mercian personnel (many carried over from Alfred) at Edward's court.


The coinage of Edward the Elder, Stewart Lyon

Mints of Edward's have been identified or inferred in all of England south of the Humber apart from Cornwall, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Notts, but also with imitation sub weight coins being struck in Norfolk. It seems that Lincs and East Anglia weren't fully within Edwards orbit at time of death. Aethelraed and Aethelflaed minted coins not with their names on, but with Edwards. Interestingly a coin was minted with Aethelwold's name on in York.

The West Saxon tradition of dynastic marriage with special reference to Edward the Elder, Sheila Sharp

This essay demonstrates that Kings of the period generally married to gain support against a common enemy, to shore up support within the family or to gain the support of magnates. Rather than bigamy there was serial monogamy with wives being put away in nunneries when necessary. There were a number of prestigious overseas marriages from Alfred to the end of Aethelstan's reign, but then they remained insular until Aethelraed II.

View from the West: An Irish perspective on West Saxon dynastic practice, Alex Woolf

This one is a bit of an oddity, talking a lot about the situation in Ireland and then drawing a parallel with the centralising attempts of the Wessex kings. This felt more of an element of coincidence than a link between them. When it went on to discuss the tightening of canon law regarding marriages it felt more relevant, but it was still light on Edward the Elder.

Gloucester and the New Minster of St Oswald, Carolyn Heighway

Here the foundation of the New Minster at Gloucester by Aethelraed and Aethelfaed is looked into. A spot of late evidence that suggests that Athelstan was fostered by them gets a mention. A small church by the standards of the day, it may not have lacked beauty for all of that. The joint raid with Edward in 909 that gained the bones of Oswald from Bardney features. These bones added to the spiritual and political prestige of the place. It's the resting place of Aethelraed and Aethelflaed.


Aelfwynn, second lady of the Mercians, Maggie Bailey

This sheds a bit of light upon Aelfwynn. Her appearance in charters prior to her mother's death is strongly suggested. Due to dating discrepancies in the sources it is possible that she may have ruled for a short while before deposition. Afterwards there is a reasonable chance that she lived to a ripe old age and was the recipient of a gift of bookland in 948.

Edward the Elder's Danelaw, Lesley Abrams

Danelaw surprisingly hard to define when you look closely into it. More of a hodgepodge, Cambridgeshire has English place-names and tenurial terminology and Yorkshire Scandinavian place-names and terminology, but non-Danish tenurial characteristics. Unclear how far Guthrum's or Northumbria's authority spread into the Midlands. The numbers of settlers aren't certain, but we know that there were people seen as English there from the treaty. The diocesan and monastic structures were disrupted, but Christianity continued at a local level with Saints' cults and relics being respected. It appears that notables who submitted quickly to Edward were allowed to keep land, but those who didn't may have been expropriated and their land redistributed.


The shiring of Mercia – again, David Hill

There is a striking correlation between the wall lengths of West Mercian shire towns, the hidages required to man them and the various hundreds and hidages recorded for the shires. However, given the vagaries of the figures, there are huge dangers of playing with the figures to get the answer that fits best. Does this show that the shires were planned around the burhs that were created? Considering that the shire boundary runs directly through the middle of the ancient capital of Mercia and Tamworth wasn't made a shire would this posit that these shires were created during the reign of Edward the Elder, as opposed to Athelstan, who was sympathetic to Mercia?


Edward the Elder and the re-establishment of Chester, Simon Ward

I found this one to be very dry. Essentially we don't know anywhere near as much about Chester as we'd like during this period. It was refounded as a burh by Aethelflaed in 907 in response to the presence of Irish Norse in the Wirral and pressure from South-West Northumbria. Pottery is hard to date and the archaeology isn't massive clear cut.


The North-West frontier, David Griffiths

This is an essay of two halves. The bulk of it consists of the attempts to locate the exact locations and characteristics of the six burhs established on the NW Mercian frontier. Alright if you're into knowing the ins and outs of whether a ditch is Roman, Anglo-Saxon or medieval. I'm not. The other part was far more interesting, suggesting that these burhs were less about containing an intermittent Viking threat (angry bees, boiled beer and Ingimund aside) or even persistent border warfare with the Welsh and instead their main role was in establishing Mercian/English authority more firmly in what had been nominally territory. The Welsh, English and Hiberno-Norse seem to have gotten on pretty well together for most of the time (plenty of Hiberno-Norse merchants and moneyers within Chester). Griffiths shows that the burhs were located close to centres of royal influence, such as estates, but depending upon definitions, I'd be more surprised if any burh didn't have a royal estate or something of that ilk within the area.

A kingdom too far: York in the early tenth century, Richard Hall

A survey of how things were in York. This city was the only permanent mercantile and commercial centre of any size north of the Humber. There was a level of continuity from Archbishop Wulfhere down to stone carving and minting. The same moneyers minting for three kings at the same time (Cnut, Siefred and Aethelwold), although the three kings killed at Tettenhall may have been local leaders, rather than the top level. York was a vibrant city and the hinterland economically important.


The (non) submission of the Northern Kings in 920, Michael Davidson

This posits that the apparent submission to Edward at Bakewell was more nuanced. It wasn't an alliance against the Norse, either. This meeting wasn't about submission or alliance, but for agreeing bounds and a way of working together, mostly between Ragnald who had recently conquered York and Edward who had Southumbria. Instead it fits within a series of irregular meetings between kings and other powers. Meetings where precedence and protocol dignities were carefully and sympathetically massaged with comments of working together.


The Northern hoards from Cuerdale to Bossall/Flaxton, James Graham-Campbell

This is an account of 11 hoards discovered in the region that can be dated (more or less) to Edward's reign. The bulk of the essay consists of descriptions of what and where. The conclusions are that there was an upsurge of treasure deposits during this period and that this reflected greater political uncertainty than the periods before and after. The sheer bulk and variety of coins and treasure show the wealth of the area.

Edward the Elder and the churches of Winchester and Wessex, Alexander Rumble

Here the founding of New Minster and the subdivision of the Wessex Sees are examined. It seems that relations were a bit strained between Edward and Bishop Denewulf, possibly due to royal demands to exchange lands (forced exchange of Beddington, etc) and pay gelds in the past. A certain element of F you can be seen in building a whacking great new build just feet away from Denewulf's cathedral instead of extending it. The creation of 3 extra bishoprics did make things easier administratively, with more bishops for the shires and can also be seen as depressing the status of bishops versus that of AB Plegmund and Edward himself.


Dynastic monasteries and family cults: Edward the Elder's sacred kindred, Alan Thacker

This is a great essay and it delivers far more than you'd expect from the title. The lack of West Saxon royal saints and monasteries that functioned as dynastic centres is pointed out. This may be due to various branches of the Cerdicingas competing, with the result that Old Minster became the default burial place of royal stiffs, probably to emphasise status. Both Alfred and Edward's lack of enthusiasm for saint's relics (the raid to collect St Oswald's bits resulted in them going to Gloucester and not Wessex) and granting land to the church are mentioned, as is the suppression of non West Saxon dynastic cultic centres. New Minster became the centre for burying Alfred's noble descendants for a few generations, with the exception of Athelstan (Malmesbury) who possibly rejected New Minster due Aelfflaed and co being buried there.


Kingship and royal property from Aethelwulf to Edward the Elder, Patrick Wormald

Another very interesting essay. Here the strategy of estate holding is examined. Alfred was niggardly with his grants to the church, driving several hard bargains, a policy continued by Edward. It seems that the ultimate aim was to keep as much land as possible within the main part of the family (gifts to the spindle side could revert upon on death, or be bought out by the king) and in this Domesday shows that out of the estates left to Edward in Alfred's will, the majority still remained within the royal domain, or had a connection to it so many years later. It also discusses how acquired land could be left to people outside any family, but folcland stayed within it, unless it could be proven otherwise. The lack of charters for the last 15 years of Edward's reign is
suggested as being a result of a lack of permanent alienations and so no need for records to have been made or kept, rather than a lack of grants. Records were only kept when there was a permanent grant, a dispute or it found its way to a church.

The Junius Psalter gloss, Mechthild Gretsch and The embroideries from the tomb of St Cuthbert, Elizabeth Coatsworth

Neither of these tickled my fancy, so I didn't read them. Life's too short to read something that your heart isn't in.

Endpiece, Nick Higham

A brilliant summing up of all of the main points in this collection.

Three things you'll take away from this book:

1, we really could do with more sources for this period – it's significance is in inverse proportion to the number of sources.
2, Aethelwold is one of the great might have beens of Anglo-Saxon history
3, Edward really didn't like Old Minster

[Sonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very dense read. This work was intended for the Anglo-Saxon scholar and not the general audience or most undergraduates. If you are looking for a basic biography of who Edward the Elder was, you will be a little disappointed. The book will give you as much historical evidence as can be had - in pieces - as seen by numismatists, archaeologists, art historians, etc. For the average reader, I do recommend reading some chapters more than others - such as the one on Edward's youth, the one on monasteries and family cults, and the one on the churches of Winchester. Overall, the "Endpiece" ties up all that you will glean from this dense work. It is helpful to read that to help digest all that you have read/skimmed before it.

[Shake n' Vac]

I got hold of a copy of this when it was first published and have just re-read it to find my view of it has not changed. This is not a traditional biography, but was created from a series of papers given at a conference - and let's be honest it reads like that with bits of repetition, lengthy references within and academic book/article lists at the end of each submission. It was pulled together, at the time, due to the paucity of evidence on the man and his reign and was the best that an interested party (more a local West Midland/Staffs historian) was going to get to put the reign and west Mercia in context. Its format - if you try to read it from cover to cover - will be hard going for all but the dedicated; it is more a dip-in for me, especially as this is really an interdisciplinary approach - in the days when that meant people that could contribute useful knowledge from different areas.

[M.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edward the Elder is a collection of papers given at a Conference in 1999 to mark the anniversary of Edward's accession to the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. It is not a coherent account of his reign but rather a series of interesting, if sometimes, contradictory, opinions on various aspects of Edward's reign - from his overall reputation, to what happened to his niece the Lady Aelfwynn, his coinage, the borders etc, etc. It is, perhaps, intended as a book for scholars of the period and not for those who know nothing about Edward's reign. However, it is filled with interesting information and research and although it might be in need of some updating due to recent archaeological investigations etc, it is still a rewarding and worthwhile read.

[Scott Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, succinct history of Edward and the surrounding time. Well documented.

[Susan Abernethy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Link to my review of this book:

http://flhwnotesandreviews.com/2014/0...