Edward 'the Exile' Ætheling of England

Edward “the Exile” Ætheling was born in 1016, the son of King Edmund Ironside and Ealdgyth. He belonged to the royal house of Wessex. The supplied account describes him as a descendant of a line of Wessex kings that included Alfred the Great and, through the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tradition, was traced to Cerdic of Wessex. It further states that four of Edward’s male-line ancestors were kings of England before Cnut took the crown.[12][13]

After the Danish conquest of England in 1016, Edward and his brother Edmund were sent from England. According to the account, Cnut sent the boys, said to have been only a few months old, to the Swedish court of Olof Skötkonung, supposedly with instructions that they be killed. Olof, described as an ally of their grandfather Æthelred the Unready, is said instead to have secretly sent them to the Hungarian court of King Stephen I and Queen Gisela, where they lived until 1028.[1][2]

The account states that, when the brothers were about twelve, Cnut sent assassins against them. King Stephen then sent them to Gardorika, identified as the court of Kievan Rus', where they could be protected and educated by Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev. During the 1030s, the exiled Hungarian prince Andrew joined them there.[3] By 1043, Edward was said to have been raised to a position of sole responsibility in matters concerning England’s crown or dynastic alliances, while his brother Edmund had fallen into disfavor after causing a scandal.[4][5]

Andrew returned to Hungary in 1046 to regain the throne. Edward and Edmund likely accompanied him and may have fought with his army; it is also possible that they attended his coronation.[6][7][8] At some point, Edward received an estate associated with Réka Castle, called Terra Britanorum de Nadasd. The account suggests that this estate may have been granted in connection with Edward’s marriage to Agatha, whose origins are disputed and who is believed in this account to have been related to King Stephen or Queen Gisela. Because Stephen died in August 1038, this tradition raises uncertainty about the commonly proposed marriage date of 1040 to 1045. Réka Castle is considered in the supplied account to have been the birthplace of their daughter Margaret, and perhaps of their other children; the family is said to have lived there until their summons to England.[9]

Edward the Confessor learned that Edward Ætheling was alive and recalled him to England in 1056, intending him as heir. The account presents Edward as a potential successor from the Saxon royal house during a period of rivalry involving the sons of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and William, Duke of Normandy. It states that Edward had the approval of both the king and the Witan, or Council of the Realm.

Efforts to arrange Edward’s return had begun earlier. In 1054, Edward the Confessor sent Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, to the court of the German emperor to negotiate with the king of Hungary. The mission was initially unsuccessful. The account says that Earl Harold Godwinson’s journey to Flanders in 1056, and possibly onward to Germany and Hungary, was probably connected with further negotiations.

Edward finally arrived in England in 1057 with Agatha and their children. He died within a few days, on 19 April 1057, before meeting the king, and was buried in Old St Paul’s Cathedral.[10]

Edward and Agatha’s children were Edgar Ætheling, born about 1051 and living until about 1126; Margaret, later Saint Margaret of Scotland, born about 1045 and died 16 November 1093; and Cristina, born about 1057 and living until about 1093. Edgar was elected king of England after the Battle of Hastings but submitted to William the Conqueror. Margaret married King Malcolm III of Scotland, and Cristina became abbess of Romsey Abbey. Edward’s granddaughter Edith of Scotland, also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England, continuing the Anglo-Saxon line into the post-Conquest English monarchy.[11]