Book 2, Chapter 7, Alfred’s Children from 901 AD to 955 – Alfred’s Children
The period of a century and a half which elapsed from the death of Alfred to the permanent establishment of a foreign family on the Anglo-Saxon throne, is occupied by the reign of fourteen kings, of whom ten were of the royal family of Wessex, and of the posterity of Alfred, three were Scandinavians, who during thirty years mastered their Saxon neighbours, one was a powerful lord who paved the way for the Norman invader by an assumption of the crown without the descent from Cerdic, or the fabulous pedigree from Odin, to which the choice of a Saxon king had hitherto been limited. This period was distinguished by some remarkable transactions, of which as they were productive of lasting and grave consequences, a summary statement is necessary.
Alfred had six children by his queen Alswitha, a daughter of Ethelred, a Mercian ealdorman, and descended on her mother’s side from the famous Panda. Of these six children, the eldest son, Edmund, died before his father, the second son, Edward, succeeded to the throne, and the third, Ethelward, a very learned man, died in 922. There were three daughters, Ethelfleda, married to Ethelred of Mercia, a lady of great abilities, Ethelgiva, who chose a monastic life, and was appointed Abbess of a Nunnery which her father had founded at Shaftesbury, and Alfritha, or Ethelswitha, wedded to Baldwin, Earl of Flanders son of the famous Judith.
Chapter 7, Alfred’s Children
Edward Becomes King
The Succession Disputed by Ethelwald
Partial Annexation of East Anglia and Northumbria
Chapter 7, Athelstan
Athelstan, the First Monarch of England
Conflicts with the Anglo-Danes
The Anglo-Danes Revolt, and are Subdued
Chapter 7, Renown of Athelstan
Chapter 7, Edmund
Chapter 7, Edred
Categories: Book 2
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