by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Credit- Wikipedia

Born in 923, Eadred, King of the English was the younger of the two sons and the second of the three children of Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons and his third wife Eadgifu of Kent, the daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent. He was also a grandson of Alfred the Great.

Eadred had two full siblings:

• Edmund I, King of the English (921 – 946), married (1) Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, had two sons, King Eadwig and King Edgar (2) Æthelflæd of Damerham, no children
• Saint Eadburh of Winchester (died 960), Benedictine nun at St Mary’s Abbey, Winchester

Eadred had two half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to Ecgwynn:

• Æthelstan, King of England (circa 894 – 939), unmarried
• A sister who married Sitric Cáech, a Viking leader who ruled Dublin and then Northumbria. The daughter’s name was possibly Edith and she may have been Saint Edith of Polesworth

Eadred had eight half-siblings from his father’s second marriage to Ælfflæd, daughter of Ealdorman Æthelhelm, probably of Wiltshire:

• Ælfweard (circa 902 – 924), unmarried, died sixteen days after his father and was possibly king during that period
• Edwin (died 933), unmarried, drowned in a shipwreck in the North Sea
• Æthelhild, lay sister at Wilton Abbey
• Eadgifu (born 902 – died in or after 951), married (1) Charles the Simple, King of West Francia, had one son Louis IV, King of West Francia (2) Heribert III, Count of Omois, no children
• Eadflæd, a nun at Wilton Abbey
• Eadhild (died 937), married Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris, no children
• Eadgyth (910 – 946), married Otto I, King of East Francia, and, after Eadgyth’s death, Holy Roman Emperor, had two sons
• Ælfgifu, married “a prince near the Alps”, possibly Louis, brother of King Rudolph II of Burgundy

On May 26, 946, Eadred’s elder brother King Edmund I was murdered while celebrating the feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury at a royal hunting lodge in Pucklechurch, north of Bath, England. Because Edmund’s two sons were very young, he was succeeded by his 23-year-old brother Eadred who was crowned on August 16, 946 in Kingston-upon-Thames by Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury. The coronation was attended not only by numerous bishops but also by Welsh rulers and Scandinavian earls from the north of England who all appeared to have recognized Eadred as their overlord.

Eadred, King of the English; Credit – Wikipedia

Eadred suffered from ill health all his life. He had symptoms similar to the symptoms Alfred the Great, his grandfather also had. Alfred’s contemporary biographer, the Welsh monk Asser, gave a detailed description of his symptoms, and modern doctors suspect that he had Crohn’s disease. However, a genetic disease such as porphyria, which Alfred’s descendant King George III may have had, is also a possibility. Eadred’s ill health is often given as the reason he never married.

Eadred surrounded himself with the same counselors as his brother had: Archbishop Oda of Canterbury, Bishop Ælfsige of Winchester, Bishop Cenwald of Worcester, Abbot Dunstan of Glastonbury and Ealdorman Æthelstan Half-King of East Anglia. Although both his half-brother King Æthelstan and his full-brother King Edmund both quelled situations in York and Northumbria and were recognized as overlords, Eadred also had issues in that region. However, by 952, the threat of an independent Northumbrian king finally came to an end.

Towards the end of his life, Eadred’s health deteriorated drastically. He had physical difficulties eating and suffered from some kind of physical disability, possibly paralysis. He delegated most of his royal powers to Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury and other counselors. Eadred died at the age of 32 on November 23, 955 in Frome in Somerset, and was buried in the Old Minster at Winchester. Sometime between 1093 – 1158, his remains were moved to Winchester Cathedral which was completed and consecrated in 1093. Eadred’s successor was his 15-year-old nephew Eadwig, the elder son of his brother King Edmund.

Mortuary chest in Winchester Cathedral believed to contain Eadred’s remains; Credit – By Ealdgyth – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11358612

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England: House of Wessex Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Unofficial Royalty: House of Wessex Index
• Unofficial Royalty: British Royal Burial Sites: House of Wessex
• Unofficial Royalty: Coronations before the Norman Conquest (871 – 1066)

Works Cited

• Ashley, M. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf Pub.
• Cannon, J. and Griffiths, R. (1988). The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Eadred. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadred [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019].
• Dodson, A. (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London: Duckworth.
• En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Eadred. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadred [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019].
• Williamson, D. (1998). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.