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Edward the Exile (1016 – February 1057), also called Edward Ćtheling, son of King Edmund Ironside and of Ealdgyth, gained the name of "Exile" from his life spent mostly far from the England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 of his forefathers. After the Danish conquest of England in 1016 Canute
Canute the Great

Canute the Great, also known as Cnut in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, or Knut was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden ....
 had him and his brother, Edmund, exiled to the Continent. Edward was only a few months old when he was brought to the court of Olof Skötkonung, (who was either Canute's half-brother or stepbrother), with instructions to have the child murdered.






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Edward the Exile (1016 – February 1057), also called Edward Ćtheling, son of King Edmund Ironside and of Ealdgyth, gained the name of "Exile" from his life spent mostly far from the England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 of his forefathers. After the Danish conquest of England in 1016 Canute
Canute the Great

Canute the Great, also known as Cnut in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, or Knut was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden ....
 had him and his brother, Edmund, exiled to the Continent. Edward was only a few months old when he was brought to the court of Olof Skötkonung, (who was either Canute's half-brother or stepbrother), with instructions to have the child murdered. Instead, Edmund was secretly sent to Kiev
Kiev

Kiev, also known as Kyiv , is the Capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River....
, where Olof's daughter Ingigerd was the Queen, and then made his way to Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
, probably in the retinue of Ingigerd's son-in-law, King András
Andrew I of Hungary

Andrew I the White or the Catholic , King of Hungary . He descended from a younger branch of the ?rp?d dynasty. After spending fifteen years in exile, he ascended the throne during an extensive revolt of the pagan Hungarian people....
.

On hearing the news of his being alive, Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor

Saint Edward the Confessor , son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxons List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death....
 recalled him to England and made him his heir. Edward offered the last chance of an undisputed succession within the Saxon royal house
House of Wessex

The House of Wessex, also known as the House of Cerdic, refers to the family that ruled a monarchy in southwest England known as Wessex. This House was in power from the 6th century under Cerdic of Wessex to the unification of the Heptarchy....
. News of Edward's existence came at time when the old Anglo-Saxon Monarchy, restored after a long period of Danish domination, was heading for catastrophe. The Confessor, personally devout but politically weak, was unable to make an effective stand against the steady advance of the powerful and ambitious sons of Earl Godwin. From across the Channel William, Duke of Normandy
William I of England

William I , better known as William the Conqueror , was Duke of Normandy from 1035 and English monarchy from later 1066 to his death. William is sometimes also referred to as "William II" in relation to his position as the second Duke of Normandy of that name....
 also had an eye on the succession. Edward the Exile appeared at just the right time. Approved by both king and by the Witan, the Council of the Realm, he offered a way out of the impasse, a counter both to the Godwins and to William, and one with a legitimacy that could not be readily challenged.

Edward, who had been in the custody of Henry III
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Empire. He was the eldest son of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor and Gisela of Swabia and his father made him duke of Bavaria in 1026, after the death of Henry V, Duke of Bavaria....
, the Holy Roman Emperor, finally came back to England at the end of August 1057. But he died within two days of his arrival. The exact cause of Edward's death remains unclear, but he had many powerful enemies, and there is a strong possibility that he was murdered, although by whom it is not known with any certainty. It is known, though, that his access to the king was blocked soon after his arrival in England for some unexplained reason, at a time when the Godwins, in the person of Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson

Harold Godwinson also known as Harold II, was the last Anglo-Saxons King of Kingdom of England before the Norman Conquest of England. Harold reigned from 5 January 1066, until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October of that same year, fighting the Normans invaders, led by William I of England....
, were once again in the ascendant. This turn of events left the throne of England to be disputed by Earl Harold and Duke William, ultimately leading to the Norman Conquest of England
Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England began in 1066 AD with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by the troops of William I of England, Duke of Normandy , and his victory at the Battle of Hastings....
.

Edward's wife was a woman named Agatha
Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile

Agatha was the wife of Edward the Exile and mother of Edgar ?theling, Saint Margaret of Scotland and Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile. Her antecedents are unclear, and subject to much speculation....
, whose origins are disputed. Their children were Edgar Ćtheling, Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland

Saint Margaret , was the sister of Edgar ?theling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxons King of England. She married Malcolm III of Scotland, King of Scots, becoming his Queen consort....
 and Cristina
Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile

Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile and Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile, was the sister of Edgar ?theling and Saint Margaret of Scotland, born in the 1040s....
. Edgar was nominated as heir apparent, but was too young to count for much, and was eventually swept aside by Harold Godwinson.

Ancestors



See also

  • House of Wessex family tree
    House of Wessex family tree

    The following chart is a family tree of the kings of the House of Wessex, a dynasty whose members were Kings of Wessex, and then, from Athelstan onwards, King of England....


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