Edwin (son of Edward the Elder)
Edwin | |
---|---|
Died | 933 |
House | House of Wessex |
Father | Edward the Elder |
Mother | Ælfflæd |
Edwin (died 933) was the younger son of King
The contemporary evidence for Edwin's life is very limited. At some point during the reign of his half-brother Æthelstan, Edwin witnessed a charter, S 1417, at New Minster, Winchester, granting lands to one Alfred, a thegn (minister) of King Æthelstan. Edwin witnesses the charter immediately after his half-brother and is described as ætheling (clito). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that Edwin drowned at sea in 933.[3] The Francian Annales Bertiniani compiled by Folcuin provide more detail:
For in the year of the Incarnate Word 933, when the same King Edwin, driven by some disturbance in his kingdom, embarked on a ship, wishing to cross to this side of the sea, a storm arose and the ship was wrecked and he was overwhelmed in the midst of the waves. And when his body was washed ashore, Count Adelolf, since he was his kinsman, received it with honour and bore it to the monastery of Saint Bertin [at Saint-Omer] for burial.[4]
Later writers such as
The Annales Bertiniani say that the monks of Saint Bertin were granted a monastery at Bath by "King Æthelstan" in 944 – in fact by King Edmund, Æthelstan having died in 939 – in gratitude for their care of Edwin's remains.[8]
Notes
- ^ a b Thacker, Dynastic monasteries, pp. 254–255.
- ^ Hill, Age of Athelstan, pp. 101–105.
- ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 107, Ms. E, s.a. 933.
- ^ Whitelock, English Historical Documents, pp. 346–347; Count Adelolf of Boulogne was a grandson of King Alfred the Great and thus Edwin's first cousin.
- ^ Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 355–356.
- ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 107, note 11.
- ^ Hill, Age of Athelstan, p. 202.
- ^ Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 346.
References
- Hill, Paul (2004), The Age of Athelstan: England's forgotten history, Stroud: Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-2566-8
- Swanton, Michael (1996), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-92129-5
- ISBN 0-19-821716-1
- Thacker, Alan (2001), "Dynastic monasteries and family cults: Edward the Elder's sainted kindred", in Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.), Edward the Elder 899–924, London: Routledge, pp. 248–263, ISBN 0-415-21497-1
- Whitelock, Dorothy (1968), English Historical Documents v.l. c.500–1042, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode