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Edward the Elder
| Edward the Elder was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin Æthelwold, who had a strong claim to the throne as the son of Alfred's elder brother and predecessor, Æthelred.
Alfred had succeeded Æthelred as king of Wessex in 871, and almost faced defeat against the Danish Vikings until his decisive victory at the Battle of Edington in 878. After the battle, the Vikings still ruled Northumbria, East Anglia and eastern Mercia, leaving only Wessex and western Mercia under Anglo-Saxon control. In the early 880s Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, the ruler of western Mercia, accepted Alfred's lordship and married his daughter Æthelflæd, and around 886 Alfred adopted the new title King of the Anglo-Saxons as the ruler of all Anglo-Saxons not subject to Danish rule.
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In 910 a Mercian and West Saxon army inflicted a decisive defeat on an invading Northumbrian army, ending the threat from the northern Vikings. In the 910s, Edward conquered Viking-ruled southern England in partnership with his sister Æthelflæd, who had succeeded as Lady of the Mercians following the death of her husband in 911. Historians dispute how far Mercia was dominated by Wessex during this period, and after Æthelflæd's death in June 918, her daughter Ælfwynn, briefly became second Lady of the Mercians, but in December Edward took her into Wessex and imposed direct rule on Mercia. By the end of the 910s he ruled Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia, and only Northumbria remained under Viking rule. In 924 he faced a Mercian and Welsh revolt at Chester, and after putting it down he died at Farndon in Cheshire on 17 July 924. He was succeeded by his eldest son Æthelstan. (Wikipedia).
BNJ References:
| H. Whittock, | The Annexation of Bath by Wessex: The evidence of two rare coins of Edward the Elder, 82 (2012), 46-53. |
| A. S. Blackburn, | Two new halfpennies of Edward the Elder and Athelstan, 63 (1993), 123-24, pl. |
| P. Robinson, | The Shrewsbury Hoard (1936) of Pennies of Edward the Elder, 53 (1983), 7-13 |
| H. M. Dolley, | A suspect “tower” type penny of King Edward the Elder, 28 (1955-57), 408-11, pl. |
| C.E. Blunt, | A gold penny of Edward the Elder, 25 (1945-48), 277-81, pl. |
| W.J. Andrew, | Coins commemorating the rebuilding of York Minster A.D. 921-25, 20 (1929-30), 31-32 |
| G.D. Lumb, | Edward the Elder pennies with façade of a building, 20 (1929-30), 27-29 |
