Edmund Ironside: The Last Warrior King of Wessex
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In the year 1013, Sweyn Forkbeard, the powerful Viking King of both Norway and Denmark invaded England and usurped the throne of King Æthelred. Sweyn led a huge force of Danish and Norse raiders, many of whom were still pagan warriors who worshipped the pantheon of Norse Gods. Upon Sweyn’s death later that year however, Æthelred, despite being remembered as ‘the unready’; meaning bad counsel, was invited back to reclaim the throne of England. Sweyn’s young son Cnut however had other ideas, and amassed himself a large army out of the ashes of his fathers and launched his own invasion. England was in turmoil. For the first time since the time of the Great Heathen Army well one hundred years before during the time of Æthelred’s ancestor, Alfred the Great, the very survival of England hung in the balance against an onslaught of Vikings, this time led by a King. Except this time, England had no great defender such as Alfred. Æthelred was renowned as being a weak ruler. He was ruthless, but indecisive and pursued a policy of appeasement rather than organising a decisive campaign against the invaders.
Æthelred died in 1016 however and a very different man, his young son Edmund, seized the throne for himself. It was Edmund who would assemble an English force to push back the Vikings to the sea. Edmund was a warrior prince, he had spent much of his life upon the battlefield, and amassed a small fortune of weapons and armour, most notably wielding a great longsword once possessed by Offa, the revered Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia from centuries before. After securing the throne of Wessex after defeating the English elite who had sided with Cnut after Æthelred's death, Edmund pushed forward, defeating Cnut time and time again, relieving his siege of London, before finally meeting him for once last decisive battle at Assandun. In the years to follow, Edmund would be remembered under a very different title to his father, he was given a name which reflected his valour in battle and his courage. Edmund Ironside.
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