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Edwy (King 955 - 959)

Edwy All-Fair or Eadwig (941? – October 1, 959) was the King of England from 955 until his death. Edwy was the eldest son of King Edmund I and Saint Elgiva. Edwy was chosen in 955 to succeed his uncle Edred as King.

His short reign as King was marked by conflict. He had problems within his family, the Thanes, and the Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of Saint Dunstan and Archbishop Odo. Edwy died at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and was succeeded by his rival brother, Edgar, who re-unified the kingdom.

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Edgar (King 959 - 975)

King Edgar or Eadgar I (c. 942–July 8, 975) was the younger son of King Edmund I of England. He won the nickname, "the Peaceable", but in fact was a stronger king than his elder brother, Edwy, from whom he took the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia in 958.

Edgar was acclaimed king north of the Thames by a conclave of Mercian nobles in 958, but officially succeeded when Edwy died in October 959. Immediately Edgar recalled Dunstan (eventually canonised as St. Dunstan) from exile and made him successively Bishop of Worcester, then of London and finally Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Edward II (The Martyr) (King 975 - 978)

Edward the Martyr (c. 962 – 18 March 978), was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of the England was divided, some supporting Edward's claim to be king and other supporting his much younger half-brother Æthelred. Edward was chosen as king and was crowned by his main clerical supporters, Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald of Worcester.

Edward's reign began inauspiciously when a comet was sighted. A famine followed. The great nobles of the kingdom, ealdormen Ælfhere and Æthelwine quarrelled and civil war almost broke out. In the so-called anti-monastic reaction the nobles took advantage of Edward's weakness to dispossess the Benedictine reformed monasteries of lands and other properties which King Edgar had granted to them. Edward's short reign was brought to an end by his murder at Corfe in circumstances which are not altogether clear.

Edward's body was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey early in 980. In 1001 his remains were moved to a more prominent place in the abbey, probably with the blessing of his half-brother King Æthelred. Edward was already reckoned a saint by this time. A number of lives of Edward were written in the centuries following his death in which he was portrayed as a martyr, generally seen as a victim of his stepmother Queen Dowager Ælfthryth. He is today recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion.

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Ethelred II (King 979 - 1016)

Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II, (c. 968 – 23 April 1016), was a king of the English (978–1013 and 1014–1016). He was a son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. His reign was much troubled by Danish Viking raiders. Æthelred was only about 10 (no more than 13) when his half-brother Edward was murdered.

Æthelred was not personally suspected of participation, but as the murder was committed at Corfe Castle by the attendants of Æthelred's mother, it made it more difficult for the new king to rally the nation against the invader, especially as a legend of St Edward the Martyr soon grew. Later, Æthelred ordered a massacre of Danish settlers in 1002 and also paid tribute, or Danegeld, to Danish leaders from 991 onwards.

In 1013, Æthelred fled to Normandy and was replaced by Sweyn, who was also king of Denmark. However, Æthelred returned as king after Sweyn died the following year. "Unready" is a mistranslation of Old English unræd (meaning bad-counsel) – a twist on his name "Æthelred" (meaning noble-counsel).

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Edmund (Ironside) (King 1016 - 1016)

Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Cnut. His authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames.

The north was controlled by Cnut, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death. His name is also spelled Eadmund.

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Canute (King 1017 - 1035)

Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995 – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute or Knut or Cnut Sweynsson, was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden. As a statesman, with notable successes in politics and the military, and the importance of his legacy - if now obscure - Cnut seems to have been one of the greatest figures of medieval Europe. Until recently though his achievements were largely lost to history, after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

As a prince of Denmark, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity throughout the British Isles. His accession to the Danish throne within a couple of years in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut held this power-base together by uniting Danes and Englishmen under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, rather than sheer brutality. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. Sweden's capital at Sigtuna was held by Cnut. He had coins struck which called him king there, but no record of a coronation survives.

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Harold I (Harefoot) (King 1035 - 1040)

Harold Harefoot, also Harold I, (c. 1015 – March 17, 1040) was King of England from 1035 to 1040. He was said to be the son of Canute the Great, King of England, of Denmark, of Norway, some of Sweden, by his wife Aelgifu of Northampton, although there was some skepticism that he was Canute's son.

Upon Canute's death (November 12, 1035), Harold's younger half-brother Harthacanute, the son of Canute and his queen, Emma of Normandy, was legitimate heir to the thrones of both the Danes and the English, but was unable to travel to his coronation, because his Danish kingdom was under threat of invasion by King Magnus I of Norway and King Anund Jacob of Sweden. Therefore he was installed temporarily as regent though Godwin the Earl of Wessex and the Queen were against it.

Harold died at Oxford on March 17, 1040, just as Harthacanute was preparing an invasion force of Danes, and was buried at the abbey of Westminster.

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Hardacanute (King 1040 - 1042)

Harthacanute (1018 – June 8, 1042) was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 and England from 1040 to 1042. He was the only son of Canute the Great and Emma of Normandy.

He followed his father as King of Denmark in 1035, becoming Canute III. Fighting with Magnus I of Norway stopped him from sailing to England to take up his throne. His older, illegitimate half-brother, Harold Harefoot, became regent of England. Harold took the English crown for himself in 1037. After Harthacanute had settled the situation in Scandinavia he prepared an invasion of England to take over his kingdom. Harold died, and Harthacanute was able to take back his throne peacefully.

Harthacanute was a harsh and unpopular ruler: to pay for his ships, he greatly increased the rate of taxation. In 1041 the people of Worcester killed two of Harthacanute's men who had been collecting the tax. Harthacanute burned the city. The story of Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets of Coventry to persuade the local earl to lower taxes, may come from the reign of Harthacanute. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says of him: "He never accomplished anything kingly for as long as he ruled."

In 1041, Harthacanute asked his half-brother Edward the Confessor (his mother Emma's son by Ethelred the Unready) back from exile in Normandy to become a member of his household, and probably made Edward his heir. Harthacanute was unmarried and had no children. On June 8, 1042, he died at Lambeth— he "died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth." He was buried at Winchester, Hampshire. Edward became the new king.

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Edward The Confessor (King 1042 - 1066)

Edward the Confessor (c. 1003 – 5 January 1066), son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066 (technically the last being Edgar the Ætheling who was proclaimed king briefly in late 1066, but was deposed after about eight weeks.) His reign marked the continuing disintegration of royal power in England and the advancement in power of the earls. It foreshadowed the country's domination by the Normans, whose Duke William of Normandy was to defeat Edward's successor, Harold II, and seize the crown.

Edward had succeeded Cnut's son Harthacnut, restoring the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut had conquered England in 1016. When Edward died in 1066 he had no son to take over the throne so a conflict arose as three men claimed the throne of England.

Edward was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III, and is commemorated on 13 October by the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and other Anglican Churches. He is regarded as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses. From the reign of Henry II of England to 1348 he was considered to be the patron saint of England, when he was replaced in this role by Saint George, and he has remained the patron saint of the Royal Family.

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Harold II (King 1066)

Harold II (1022 – 14 October 1066) was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England before the Norman Conquest. Harold reigned from 5 January 1066, until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October of that same year, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror. Harold is one of only two Kings of England to have died in battle (the other being Richard III).

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