View source for Edmund I

== Family and early life ==
Edmund's father, Edward the Elder, had three wives, eight or nine daughters, several of whom married Continental royalty, and five sons. Æthelstan was the only known son of Edward's first wife, [[Ecgwynn]]. His second wife, [[Ælfflæd (wife of Edward the Elder)|Ælfflæd]], had two sons: [[Ælfweard of Wessex|Ælfweard]], who may have been acknowledged in Wessex as king when his father died in 924 but who died less than a month later, and [[Edwin, son of Edward the Elder|Edwin]], who drowned in 933. In about 919, Edward married [[Eadgifu of Kent|Eadgifu]], the daughter of Sigehelm, [[ealdorman]] of [[Kent]].{{sfnm|1a1=Miller|1y=2004|2a1=Stafford|2y=2004|3a1=Foot|3y=2011b|3pp=50–52}} Edmund, who was born in 920 or 921,{{efn|According to William of Malmesbury, Edmund was about eighteen years old when he succeeded to the throne in 939.{{sfnm|1a1=Mynors, Thomson and Winterbottom|1y=1998|1p=229|2a1=Williams|2y=2004}} }} was Eadgifu's elder son. Her younger son [[Eadred]] succeeded him as king. Edmund had one or two full sisters. [[Eadburh of Winchester|Eadburh]] was a nun at Winchester who was later venerated as a saint. The twelfth-century historian [[William of Malmesbury]] gives Edmund a second full sister who married Louis, prince of Aquitaine; she was called Eadgifu, the same name as her mother. William's account is accepted by the historians [[Ann Williams (historian)|Ann Williams]] and Sean Miller, but Æthelstan's biographer [[Sarah Foot]] argues that she did not exist, and that William confused her with Ælfgifu, a daughter of Ælfflæd.{{sfnm|1a1=Foot|1y=2011b|1pp=45, 50–52|2a1=Williams|2y=2004|3a1=Miller|3y=2004}}

Edmund was a young child when his half-brother Æthelstan became king in 924. He grew up at Æthelstan's court, probably with two important Continental exiles, his nephew [[Louis IV of France|Louis]], future [[West Francia|King of the West Franks]], and [[Alan II, Duke of Brittany|Alain]], future [[Duke of Brittany]].{{sfn|Dumville|1992|p=179}} According to William of Malmesbury, Æthelstan showed great affection towards Edmund and Eadred: "mere infants at his father's death, he brought them up lovingly in childhood, and when they grew up gave them a share in his kingdom". Edmund may have been a member of the expedition to Scotland in 934 as, according to the {{lang|la|[[Historia de Sancto Cuthberto]]}} (History of [[Saint Cuthbert]]), Æthelstan instructed that in the event of his death Edmund was to take his body to Cuthbert's shrine at [[Chester-le-Street]].{{sfnm|1a1=Mynors, Thomson and Winterbottom|1y=1998|1p=229|2a1=Foot|2y=2011b|2pp=43, 210|3a1=Johnson South|3y=2002|3pp=64–67}} Edmund fought at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, and in a poem commemorating the victory in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' (''ASC''), Edmund {{lang|ang|[[ætheling]]}} (prince of the royal house){{sfn|Miller|2014b|p=15}} is given such a prominent role – and praised for his heroism alongside Æthelstan – that the historian [[Simon Walker (historian)|Simon Walker]] has suggested that the poem was written during Edmund's reign.{{sfnm|1a1=Foot|1y=2011b|1pp=113, 170–171|2a1=Swanton|2y=2000|2pp=106–110|3a1=Walker|3y=1992|3pp=31–34}} At a royal assembly shortly before Æthelstan's death in 939, Edmund and Eadred attested a grant to their full sister, Eadburh, both as {{lang|la|regis frater}} (king's brother). Their attestations may have been because of the family connection, but they also may have been intended to display the throneworthiness of the king's half-brothers when it was known that he did not have long to live. This is the only charter of Æthelstan attested by Edmund, the authenticity of which has not been questioned.{{sfnm|1a1=Roach|1y=2013|1p=40|2a1=Trousdale|2y=2007|2p=77|ps=; [https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/446.html# S 446]}}{{efn|Edmund attested one other charter of Æthelstan which some scholars regard as genuine, S 455, dated to between 934 and 939.{{sfn|Trousdale|2007|p=77, n. 66; [https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/455.html S 455]}} (A charter's S number is its number in [[Peter Sawyer (historian)|Peter Sawyer]]'s list of Anglo-Saxon charters, available online at the [https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/about/index.html Electronic Sawyer].) }} Æthelstan died childless on 27 October 939 and Edmund's succession to the throne was undisputed. He was the first king to succeed to the throne of all England, and was probably crowned at [[Kingston-upon-Thames]], perhaps on [[Advent Sunday]], 1 December 939.{{sfnm|2a1=Nelson|2y=1977|2p=66, n. 99|1a1=Keynes|1y=2014b|1p=277|3a1=Trousdale|3y=2007|3p=87}}