He was born into England’s royal family with perhaps the strongest hereditary claim to the throne, only to watch another man become king instead. Then, just months later, that king was killed and the leading men of England finally turned to him. There was only one problem: the man who had defeated him was already advancing towards London.
Today I want to discover more about Edgar Ætheling, one of the most easily forgotten figures in the struggle for England in 1066. Harold Godwinson had power and experience, William of Normandy had an army and Harald Hardrada had a formidable reputation. Edgar had something rather different: royal blood.
Edgar was probably born around 1052. His father was Edward the Exile, the son of King Edmund Ironside, which made Edgar a great-grandson of King Æthelred II and a member of the old English royal house. His title, Ætheling, mattered because it marked him out as someone of royal blood who could potentially inherit the crown.
By ancestry, Edgar’s claim was extremely strong, but medieval kingship was not quite as simple as following a family tree. A king also needed powerful supporters, political experience and, particularly in the dangerous world of 1066, the ability to defend the kingdom. Edgar had the bloodline, but he did not yet have the experience.
His father had spent much of his life abroad after the Danish conquest of England. In 1057, Edward the Exile returned to England with his family, but died soon afterwards. Edgar was still young, and suddenly the young boy was left as one of the last male representatives of the old royal line.
When Edward the Confessor died on the 5th of January 1066, Edgar was probably only around fourteen years old. England was facing the very real possibility of invasion, and the country’s leading men instead turned to the powerful and experienced Harold Godwinson, who was crowned on the 6th of January.
For Edgar, it must have been an extraordinary situation. He had royal ancestry, but ancestry alone was not enough to put a crown on his head, especially when England needed a ruler who could command armies and deal with rival claimants.
Then 1066 became even more chaotic. Harald Hardrada invaded from Norway, Harold Godwinson raced north and defeated him at Stamford Bridge, and shortly afterwards William of Normandy landed in southern England. Harold then turned his army around and marched south to face him.
On the 14th of October 1066, Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings. England suddenly needed another king, and this time Edgar’s name came forward. In the aftermath of the battle, leading English nobles in London proclaimed the young Ætheling as king.
At last, the boy whose royal blood had not been enough in January appeared to have inherited the throne. But Edgar was never crowned.
William had won at Hastings, but England had not simply dropped into his hands. He began moving towards London while English leaders tried to decide whether they could continue resisting him. Edgar was still very young and had never commanded an army, while William was an experienced military leader who had already defeated England’s king.
Gradually, the resistance collapsed. Edgar and other leading English nobles submitted to William, and on Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. Edgar Ætheling had come astonishingly close to becoming king, but his chance was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared.
His story did not end there. Edgar later became involved in resistance against Norman rule and was connected with rebellions in northern England. His family eventually found refuge in Scotland, where his sister Margaret married King Malcolm III and became Queen of Scots.
Edgar himself survived the dangerous politics of the Norman Conquest and lived for decades afterwards. Remarkably, the boy who had been passed over for the crown in January 1066, recognised as king after Hastings and then pushed aside by William was still alive well into the 12th century.
There is something rather sad about Edgar’s place in the story. Harold Godwinson wore the crown, Harald Hardrada died trying to take it and William of Normandy conquered it. Edgar Ætheling may have had the strongest hereditary claim of them all, but he became the king England chose but never crowned.
Had you heard of Edgar Ætheling before, or did you think the struggle for the English crown in 1066 was mainly between Harold and William?
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