The Oxford Massacre

One site of the St. Brice's Day Massacre in 1002 seems to have been Oxford. Æthelred called it in a 1004 charter "a most just extermination" of Danes, because of the rumor that they intended to kill him and all his council and take over the entire island, not just the part known as the Danelaw.

The problem in Oxford was that the Danes there saw it coming and decided to take advantage of sanctuary. Sanctuary allowed anyone to take refuge in a church. Sanctuary had a time limit of 40 days, but in that time the refugee could get aid from outside to create a defense on their behalf against the persecutors.

The Danes in Oxford went to St Frideswide's Church (now Christ Church Cathedral), which Æthelred's charter tells:

For it is fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known that, since a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination, and thus this decree was to be put into effect even as far as death, those Danes who dwelt in the afore-mentioned town, striving to escape death, entered this sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to make refuge and defense for themselves therein against the people of the town and the suburbs;

This should have been recognized as a safe haven for them,

...but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its books. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me.

Were the Danes all stuck inside while it burned? Or did they flee and meet the angry mob outside?

In 2008, an archaeological dig found the remains of 37 people who had been massacred. So far as could be determined, they were all male, between there ages of 16 and 25, and some had scars suggestive of previous injuries such as would be incurred by warriors. There were, however, newer injuries that did not have time to heal all over the bodies, as if attacked by a crowd from all sides. Radiocarbon dating suggests they all died between 960 and 1020 CE.

This was not the only site of aggression against Danes, but the king's decree and stories about St. Brice's Day may have been the impetus for what Sweyn Forkbeard did next. Let's get back to him.

The St. Brice's Day Massacre

Clashes with Danes in England resulted in establishing the Danelaw, originally just the set of Danish laws agreed upon with Alfred the Great (848 - 899) wherein Danes could rule themselves while living on English soil. It later came to refer to a specific geographical territory (the pink area in the illustration).

This created a time of relative peace, with each group largely staying out of the other's way. In the 980s, however, Danes started making raids into English territory. In 991, after the Battle of Maldon, King Æthelred the Unready paid Danegeld, a tribute to the Danes to stop their attacks.

The attacks did not stop, however, and from 997 to 1001 there were savage raids by Danes across Southern England, burning towns and killing Anglo-Saxons.

Then Æthelred learned of a rumor, that the Danes intended to kill him, all his councilors, and then possess the entire kingdom. To put it in the words of the (translated) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

...in the same year the king gave an order to slay all the Danes that were in England. This was accordingly done on the mass-day of St. Brice; because it was told the king, that they would beshrew him of his life, and afterwards all his council, and then have his kingdom without any resistance.

Contemporary and near-contemporary and modern historians disagree on the phrase "all the Danes that were in England." Some say it was only those who were warriors, some (like the A-SC) believe it was every Dane they could find.

The massacre took place on the feast day of St. Brice, a Frankish bishop (c.370 - 444) who succeeded St. Martin as bishop of Tours. It took place in Oxford, and a royal charter issued in 1004 by Æthelred called it "a most just extermination."

Part of it involved an act of cruelty that mirrored the much later Clifford's Tower incident, an act so horrendous that it might have been the deciding factor in Sweyn's invasion. I'll explain more next time.

Sweyn Forkbeard

European history classrooms in America often talk about the Danish King Cnut (Canute) and his conquest of England. The modern world also hears about Cnut's grandfather, Harald Bluetooth, from whom the wireless protocol Bluetooth™ gets its name.

Whom we don't hear enough about is the generation sandwiched between these two familiar names, Harald's son and Cnut's father, Sweyn Forkbeard, who managed to be King of Denmark, King of Norway, and King of England (although in England only for a little over a month). He also fathered two kings and a queen.

His birthdate is unknown, but in the mid-980s he was old enough to rebel against his father, Harald, driving Harald into an exile in which he died in either 985 or 986. Despite this treasonous act, the Encomium Emmæ Reginæ ("Encomium for Queen Emma"), written for Emma of Normandy (widow of Æthelred the Unready and later Cnut's wife), claims Sweyn was universally loved:

Sveinn, king of the Danes, was, I declare, as I have ascertained from truthful report, practically the most fortune of all kings of his time, ... The Divine Power granted him such great favor that even as a boy he was held by all in close affection, and was hated only by his own father. No fault of the boy deserved this: it was due only to envy. When he grew to be a young man, he increased daily in the love of the people, and accordingly, his father's envy increased more and more, so that he wished not in secret, but openly, to cast him out, affirming by oath that he should not rule after him.

Some reports say that it was Sweyn embracing Christianity that ultimately turned his father so against him that Sweyn had to depose Harald and take the throne. One German historian, Adam of Bremen, claimed Sweyn was a rebellious pagan, upset that his father embraced Christianity. We also read in some chronicles that Harald was baptized by a cleric named Poppo, who performed a miracle that convinced Harald that Christianity was true. (Other versions claim Poppo performed for Sweyn instead.)

We know about Sweyn's invasion of England in 1003. Now, Danes were frequently invading England, and had established an enormous foothold, an occupied area known as the Danelaw, an agreed-upon compromise between the Danes and Alfred the Great. Was there a reason why Sweyn felt he had to start ravaging other parts outside of the Danelaw?

He might have had a very good reason, we could even say a legitimate reason, because of an incident in November of 1002. Tomorrow we'll learn about the St. Brice's Day Massacre.

Defectors

It must have been a shock when Thorkell the Tall, a leader and warrior of the early 12th-century Danish invasion of England, changed his stance and defected to join the English forces of King Æthelred the Unready, taking 45 ships' worth of loyal men with him. There is some reason to believe that Thorkell was married to a daughter of Æthelred, possibly Eadgyth (Edith).

As mercenaries for Æthelred, the Danes fought in 1013 against their former liege lord, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark and his son, Cnut (whom Thorkell had helped raise and educate). Sweyn was successful, forcing Æthelred into exile by the end of 1013. Sweyn died not long after, however, on 2 February 1014, and Cnut was declared his successor.

The remaining English nobles called Æthelred back from the continent to reclaim the throne (Cnut was back in Denmark). While Cnut was preparing a fleet to re-take England, Æthelred's eldest son Æthelstan died, making his second son Edmund Ironside the new heir to the throne of England.

Cnut's invasion arrived in September 1015 with numerous mercenaries and help from Poland and Sweden. Thorkell decided to leave the employ of Æthelred, defecting to join up with Cnut. While they plundered southern England, the elderly and ill Æthelred left leadership of the army to Edmund. Edmund's army was joined by an army raised by Eadric Streona, but Eadric betrayed Edmund and the English, convincing 40 ships to defect with him and join Cnut.

During a Battle of Otford (near the village of Otford in Kent), Eadric defected from Cnut back to the English. This seems to have been simply a ruse, because at the following crucial Battle of Assandun he defected again, leaving Edmund's army alone to fight Cnut. A majority of English nobility were killed, defeated by Cnut. 

For Thorkell's defection back to Cnut, he received East Anglia. Eadric received Mercia, but Cnut knew he could not be trusted. Eadric must have acted true to form for the dastardly fellow he was, because less than two years later Cnut had him beheaded.

Thorkell, again, had some falling out with Cnut, in 1021. Cnut banished Thorkell, who returned to Denmark. Fearing Thorkell's reputation as a powerful leader, Cnut didn't want Thorkell to defect again to join some enemy of Cnut, so he made him an earl of Denmark and foster-father to Cnut's son, Harthacnut.

Mentions of Thorkell end in 1023. The details of his death are unknown. One of his sons was in the retinue of Harthacnut, but after Harthacnut's death Thorkell's wife and sons were expelled from Denmark, suggesting there was suspicion on the family.

Now: mentioned several times but never discussed in detail, let's talk about Cnut's father and Thorkell's lord, Sweyn Forkbeard.

Thorkell the Tall

The Danish raid on Canterbury in 1011 included a leader named Thorkell the Tall. He was an important enough man that his name was recorded on a few runestones, such as the one pictured here in Sweden, commemorating the taking of Danegeld in England. (I actually mentioned Thorkell, though not by name, 12 years ago; same illustration, it turns out; there aren't many graphics available that can be linked to Thorkell.)

Legend says Thorkell helped raise the young Cnut, taking him on raids and teaching him warfare. The Encomium Emmae Reginae ("Encomium of Queen Emma"), about Emma of Normandy, tells us he was a great leader and warrior.

Landing with an army on the shores of Sandwich in the south-east in 1009, he began a progress through southern England either destroying or getting paid off. Canterbury initially gave them 3000 pounds of silver, which assuaged the Danes and sent them to London for their next attacks.

London's defenses and people were too much, however, and the Danes' siege failed to defeat the city, so they returned to Canterbury. Canterbury was besieged for two weeks. It finally fell due to treachery by Ælfmaer, Abbot of St Augustine's, who (according to William of Malmesbury and others) let the Danes into the city. (Cnut made him Bishop of Sherborne in 1023.) Canterbury Cathedral was burned, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Ælfheah, was captured for ransom. The Danes demanded an additional 3000 pounds of silver to let the captives go.

Ælfheah refused to be ransomed, and over seven months took the opportunity to speak to his captors and persuade many of them to convert to Christianity. On 19 April, during a feast in which the Danes got very drunk, they decided to kill Ælfheah.

Thorkell tried to save the archbishop. He begged the Danes to let Ælfheah live, offering them all that he possessed except his ship. The crowd would not be stopped. Ælfheah was pelted with stones and bones and finally beheaded by one impatient man.

More attacks across southern England produced a total of 48,000 pounds of silver, but Thorkell and men loyal to him split from the other Danes. Thorkell and 45 ships defected and offered themselves to King Æthelred as mercenaries.

This would mean that Thorkell would ultimately wind up on the other side of a battle with his own king and the son of that king, Cnut, whom Thorkell helped raise. I'll tell you how that went tomorrow.

A Noble End

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Alfheah (also called Alphege), was captured during an invasion of Vikings in 1011. Eadric Streona was supposedly sent to negotiate. Unfortunately, Eadric might not have been the ideal negotiator; on the one hand because he seemed to be King Æthelred's "enforcer," and on the other hand if we consider William of Malmesbury's opinion of the man:

...the dregs of mankind and a disgrace to his countrymen, a criminal debauchee and a cunning rascal, whose wealth owed its origin to his rank and had been increased by his skill in speech and his effrontery. A skilful deceiver with a ready invention, he sought out the king's intentions as his faithful servant, and spread them around as a common traitor. Often, when sent on a mission to the enemy to secure peace, he rekindled the war.

It is also possible that Eadric decided not to negotiate very diligently out of cowardice. In fact, when Eadric as Ealdormen of Mercia brought forces to join with Edmund Ironside and Æthelred against Cnut, Eadric abandoned the battle and later pledged his loyalty to Cnut. Cnut recognized that Eadric was untrustworthy and ultimately had him executed.

So Ælfheah was still in the hands of the Vikings. We are told that Ælfheah refused to have a ransom paid for his freedom, but I'm not sure how that information came to be known, and lying and reporting it to the king would be a way for Eadric to shirk the responsibility of effecting Ælfheah's release.

One version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports the death thusly:

... the raiding-army became much stirred up against the bishop, because he did not want to offer them any money, and forbade that anything might be granted in return for him. Also they were very drunk, because there was wine brought from the south. Then they seized the bishop, led him to their "hustings" on the Saturday in the octave of Easter, and then pelted him there with bones and the heads of cattle; and one of them struck him on the head with the butt of an axe, so that with the blow he sank down and his holy blood fell on the earth, and sent forth his holy soul to God's kingdom.

The date was 19 April 1012. Pope Gregory VII canonized Ælfheah in 1078 with a feast day of 19 April. Ælfheah's remains were place around the high altar of Canterbury cathedral along with Dunstan's, Ælfheah's friend. (The illustration is a memorial to him in the Church of St. Alphege in Greenwich.)

There was, however, one Viking leader who did not want to see Ælfheah toned, and tried to save him. I'll tell you about him tomorrow.

Ælfheah of Canterbury

Yesterday mentioned that Eadric Streona failed to negotiate the release of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Ælfheah, from the Vikings. Ælfheah (we are told) did not want a ransom paid for his release.

Ælfheah is also known as Alphege. He was born c.953 and joined a monastery early in life, then a little later moving to another monastery and becoming an anchorite, removing himself from the world to devote himself to prayer while residing in a very confined space.

His reputation for piety eventually caused him to be offered the position of abbot of Bath Abbey (the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul) by 982. In 984 he was elected Bishop of Winchester, it is believed to be with the influence of the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Dunstan. As bishop, Ælfheah added a large organ to the cathedral, supposedly requiring two dozen men to operate and able to be heard a mile away.

He promoted the cults of St. Swithin and of Æthelwold of Winchester, Ælfheah's predecessor, bringing Æthelwold's body to a new tomb in the cathedral.

A Viking raid in 994 resulted in one of the raiders, Olaf Tryggvason, converting to Christianity. He was baptized by Ælfheah in one account, but another historian claims Olaf was already a Christian prior to this. In either case, Olaf vowed never to fight the English again.

In 1005, Archbishop of Canterbury Ælfric of Abingdon died, and Alfheah was chosen to succeed him in 1006. He needed to receive the pallium from Pope John XVIII. As archbishop he promoted Dunstan's cult and ordered the writing of a biography of the man. He also helped convince the Anglo-Saxon witenagemot to recognize Wulfsige of Sherborne as a saint.

Then came 1011 and a Danish raid on Canterbury in September. Ælfheah was captured, along with the Bishop of Rochester, the abbess of St. Mildrith's. The abbot of St. Augustine's Abbey, Ælfmaer, managed to escape, and there is some suspicion that he betrayed the others. We'll talk about Ælfheah's end tomorrow.

Eadric Streona

Eadric, the son of Ethelric, started as a relative unknown. His father was at the court of Æthelred the Unready, but was not distinguished. Something in Eadric caused him to get the attention of Æthelred, and he somehow became the king's enforcer.

This seems to have started in 1006 when he arranged the death of Ælfhelm, the Ealdorman of Northumbria. The Worcester Chronicle, which borrowed from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and supplemented the information, says:

The crafty and treacherous Eadric Streona, plotting to deceive the noble ealdorman Ælfhelm, prepared a great feast for him at Shrewsbury at which, when he came as a guest, Eadric greeted him as if he were an intimate friend. But on the third or fourth day of the feast, when an ambush had been prepared, he took him into the wood to hunt. When all were busy with the hunt, one Godwine Porthund (which means the town dog) a Shrewsbury butcher, whom Eadric had dazzled long before with great gifts and many promises so that he might perpetrate the crime, suddenly leapt out from the ambush, and execrably slew the ealdorman Ælfhelm.

Eadric was rewarded for his service. In 1007 he was made Ealdorman of Mercia. By 1009 he was married to Æthelred's daughter, Eadgyth.

His job was not only eliminating people. Vikings in 1011 had captured Archbishop of Canterbury Ælfheah. Eadric was tasked with negotiating Alfheah's release. (This was unsuccessful.)

The nickname "Streona" is translated as "The Acquisitive" or "The Grasper" because he was known to appropriate church lands and funds for himself, creating fake charters to support his claims to property. Of course many of the histories that write about him (like the page from Hemming's Cartulary, shown here, collected by a monk named Hemmings around the time of the Norman Conquest) came from clerics and monks, so his actions did not prompt them to write about him in a good light.

William of Malmesbury described him thusly:

the dregs of mankind and a disgrace to his countrymen, a criminal debauchee and a cunning rascal, whose wealth owed its origin to his rank and had been increased by his skill in speech and his effrontery. A skilful deceiver with a ready invention, he sought out the king's intentions as his faithful servant, and spread them around as a common traitor. Often, when sent on a mission to the enemy to secure peace, he rekindled the war.

He also arranged the deaths of two friends of Edmund Ironside, and then most egregiously abandoned the fight against King Cnut at the Battle of Assandun. After Cnut's victory, however, Eadric did not last long. Cnut no doubt realized the man was not trustworthy, and was ordered by Cnut on Christmas Day 1017 to be executed. We are told he was beheaded, his body thrown outside the city to rot, and the head displayed on a pole on the highest battlement of the Tower of London.

But what happened to Alfheah, the Archbishop of Canterbury whose release from the Vikings Eadric failed to gain? Let's find out tomorrow.

Edmund Ironside

Edmund, son of Æthelred the Unready and his first wife Ælfgifu of York, was likely born between 990 and 993, one of several siblings. He was raised in Wessex by his grandmother, Ælfthryth, wife of King Edgar the Peaceable. He might have had an education at Wherwell Abbey, a place important to his grandmother.

In his youth, there were constant raids on England from Vikings. He may have been put into the field early as a soldier, but we don't really have any evidence of his actions until about 1014 when his older brother Æthelstan Ætheling died. Edmund and Æthelstan were still in England, even though his father had taken the family to Normandy to flee from the invasion of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark. Æthelstan's will left most of his goods to Edmund, including estates and a sword that had belonged to Offa, King of Mercia c.730 - 796.

Edmund became angry with his father when Æthelred allowed the execution of two friends, Sigeferth and Morcar. They were killed by Æthelred's enforcer and son-in-law, Eadric Streona, probably so that the king could seize their lands. Edmund boldly married Sigeferth's widow and occupied the area that had been controlled by Sigeferth. Edmund began issuing charters, in one of which he referred to himself as king.

His revolt against his father didn't last, since Sweyn's son Cnut invaded in the summer of 1015. Edmund was forced to raise an army and fight alongside Eadric and Æthelred, but distrust caused their effort to collapse. After Æthelred died in 1016 the succession passed to Edmund. Edmund was successful in several battles, inspiring all the English to unite. Eadric fled, however, from the climactic Battle of Assandun, and the English were suddenly outnumbered. Edmund was forced to give most of his kingdom to Cnut, leaving himself with only Wessex.

Edmund's total rule was 222 days. Cnut executed or exiled all of Edmund's relatives and consolidated the rest of England under his rule. Although Cnut was his enemy, on the tenth anniversary of Edmund's death, Cnut visited the grave at Glastonbury Abbey and honored it with a cloak of peacock feathers to symbolize Christian resurrection. Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries destroyed Glastonbury and the location of the remains of Edmund are unclear.

Why was he called "Ironside"? The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to a lost history called Life of King Edmund Ironside. We can guess that it was the source for the nickname "Ironside" denoting a strong and relentless warrior. It also is where we find the source to call Eadric "Streona" meaning "The Acquisitive" must originate.

Speaking of Eadric Streona, what an interesting man. Let's talk about him next.

The St. Edmund Cult

After Edmund of East Anglia began to be treated as a saint, he became an important focal point for Christians in East Anglia, and embraced by important figures.

The Danish King Cnut (c.990 - 1035), who conquered England in 1016, was a good Christian who supported the Church. Cnut founded an abbey at Bury St. Edmunds.

The shrine of St. Edmund became famous, and fame brought wealth in the form of donations, making the abbey wealthy. (The illustration shows John Lydgate worshipping at the shrine.) King Edward the Confessor in 1044 created the Liberty of St. Edmund, placing the entire area of the County of West Suffolk under the jurisdiction of the abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. A Steward was appointed by William the Conqueror to manage the Liberty on behalf of the abbot. Although Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries eliminated the abbot's prerogative, the position of Hereditary High Steward of the Liberty of St Edmund still exists.

King John gave the abbey a great sapphire and a stone set in gold. His son, King Henry III, prayed to St. Edmund for a second son, which he eventually received, and named him Edmund. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the shrine was defaced and silver and gold valued at 5000 marks was taken away.

Edmund's cult was revived in, of all places, France. The city of Toulouse was spared from a plague (1628 - 1631), which they ascribed to the intercession of relics in their basilica of a saint referred to as Aymundus. They built a new reliquary to hold the saint's relics. In 1664, a Toulouse lawyer published the theory that the relics of Edmund had been taken from England by King Louis VIII of France in 1217 after the Battle of Lincoln, giving them to the basilica in Toulouse. This newly revived cult of St. Edmund flourished in Toulouse until the French Revolution (1794), but found and returned to the basilica in 1845.

The relics were offered to the Archbishop of Westminster by Toulouse in 1901 to be placed in the altar of the under-construction Westminster Cathedral.

There was another Edmund connected to Cnut, the man he killed to take over England. Tomorrow we look at Edmund Ironside, often mentioned but never examined.

Saint Edmund

When King Edmund of East Anglia bought off the Vikings of the Great Heathen Army in 865, he might have thought he was safe from that point on. They returned to East Anglia in 868, however. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

...here the army rode across Mercia into East Anglia, and took winter-quarters at Thetford; and that winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danish took the victory, and killed the king and conquered all that land.

Originally buried at a chapel near the site of his death, years later it was removed and taken to a place then called Beodricesworth, but is now appropriately called Bury St. Edmunds.

About 890, moneyers who were responsible for minting the coins during Edmund's reign started minting new commemorative coins for Edmund. The coins (see illustration) are proof that a cult was cropping up around veneration of Edmund's burial place and his reputation. They are mostly half-pennies, but also include pennies with the inscription SCE EADMVND REX, "O St. Edmund King."

The coins were minted in numerous locations. The Cuerdale Hoard found in 1840 includes over 1800 commemorative Edmund coins.

The importance of Edmund as a saint did not attach him to liturgical calendars until three centuries after his reign. Abbo of Fleury (c. 945 – 13 November 1004), while running the school at Ramsey Abbey,  wrote the Passio Sancti Eadmundi ("Passion of Saint Edmund") that is no doubt highly fictitious, but nevertheless brought Edmund into prominence. Abbo depicts the Vikings as emissaries of the devil, there to make Edmund fall into despair. Edmund resists and is put to death (not dying in battle).

Whatever the strength of the Edmund cult was, the minting of coins declined by 910. In 1010, Edmund's remains were considered important enough (probably thanks to Abbo's account, which survives in several manuscripts) to translate them to London to keep them out of the hands of invading Vikings. They were kept there for three years before being returned to Bury St. Edmunds.

Edmund remained a symbol worthy of veneration, however, and was promoted by kings to come along, one of which was Canute. I'll explain what Canute did for the saint next time.

King Edmund of East Anglia

The Kingdom of East Anglia formed in the first half of the 6th century. Its first king was Wehha, ruling people who came from Frisia and Jutland. He was followed by Luffa, who was followed by Tytila. Except for references in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, we have no real evidence of these men.

There is scant evidence for King Edmund of East Anglia; what we have is thanks to Dudda, Eadmund, and Twicga. These three men were moneyers, men allowed to mint coins. They were responsible for coins of King Æthelweard of East Anglia, who died c. 854. Æthelweard is not even mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but the evidence of the coins confirm his existence and royal title.

The same three moneyers were responsible for the coins made for the reign of Edmund, who followed Æthelweard. The coins usually have the inscription + EADMUND REX AN[glorum] ("Edmund, King of the Angles"). The large number of coins still existing from his reign suggest that he reigned for several years, but there are no contemporary records from his time as king.

Later accounts say that he was crowned on Christmas Day in 856.

The lack of records is attributed to the Vikings. In 865, a Viking invasion, called by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the Great Heathen Army, came to England and seemed to intend to stay, rather than make their usual raiding parties on defenseless monasteries and then go back home. Edmund assuaged them with horses and other supplies. In the summer of 866 they went north to York, but they were back in East Anglia in 868.

This time they fought, and Edmund took the first step in becoming a saint: he died. We'll continue this tomorrow.

Edmund at War

There were few times in England's Medieval period when it was not at war with someone. Even when they were not forced to defend themselves, they chose to go to war for territory or to start a Crusade.

During the time of Edmund Crouchback, younger brother of King Edward I, the relationship between Wales and England was not good. During the Second Barons' War against their father, Henry III, the chief rebel, Simon de Montfort, had made an alliance with the Prince of Gwynedd, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.

Llywelyn kept up good relations with Simon de Montfort's family, and married Simon's daughter Eleanor by proxy in 1275. Eleanor (Edward's cousin: her mother and his father were both children of King John) was in France, and when she sailed to England to meet Llywelyn, Edward had her ship seized and herself imprisoned at Windsor Castle.

Edward's intent was to force Llywelyn to make certain concessions. Llywelyn was not universally liked by his countrymen, and Edward considered taking over Gwynedd himself or splitting it up and letting the parts be ruled by Llywelyn's brothers, Dafydd and Owain. Dafydd was on-board with this plan.

Edward declared Llywelyn a rebel and made military preparations in 1276. In 1277 Edmund was put in charge of the forces in southern Wales. Some Welsh castles had already been captured, so Edmund was able to move north, taking Aberystwyth in July. He rebuilt Aberystwyth Castle before returning to England.

Through Edmund's marriage to Blanche of Artois, he became Count of Brie. In January 1280, the capital of Brie, Provins, was taken over by rebels who opposed a new tax. They killed the mayor and installed their own. Edmund marched to Brie. The mob fled, leaving the town undefended. Edmund removed the town's privileges, confiscated weapons, and declared the rebels to be executed or banished. (He returned in 1281 and pardoned Provins after negotiations with church officials, but hit them with a heavy tax that caused the town to deteriorate.)

In 1282 Wales started a war with England (it was still Llywelyn in charge), in violation of the Treaty of Aberconwy signed just a few years earlier, and Edmund returned to England to help. It was part of the forces under Edmund's control that lured Llywelyn into a trap and killed him.

There was more to his life—another 15 years or so—but I'd like to go back to the man for whom Edmund was named, an earlier king who became a saint. Tomorrow we'll examine what we know about Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia.

Edmund's Second Wife

After returning to England from failed Crusade attempts, Edmund Crouchback had to deal with some unrest. His father, Henry III, died on 16 November 1271. The succession passed to Edward, who was still returning from the Mediterranean. In fact, Edward was gone so long that there was a rumor that he would never return. This prompted some unrest and a rebellion in the north. Edmund had to suppress that rebellion with help from royalist supporter Roger, 1st Earl Mortimer.

Edmund's wife Aveline turned 14 in 1273, so Edmund was allowed to consummate the marriage. She died suddenly on 10 November 1274, however, meaning there would be no chance of Edmund inheriting any of the titles and lands of Aveline's still-living mother, Isabel. The search for a new wife commenced. 

Enter Margaret of Provence, Edmund's aunt, who had been married to Louis IX and was therefore the Dowager Queen of France. She wanted Edmund to marry Blanche of Artois (c.1248 - 1302). Blanche was recently widowed after the death of King Henry I of Navarre (c.1244 - 1274). Blanche was also Countess of Champagne and Brie, making her quite wealthy.

Blanche was willing, because she had to manage Champagne and Brie, and wanted a husband who was on good terms with the current king of France, Philip III. Since Edmund and Philip were cousins, this seemed like a sensible choice. At least one chronicler of the time, the Benedictine monk John of Trokelowe (flourished about 1290 - 1330) claimed the two knew of each other already, and the reputation of Edmund as a handsome knight and Blanche as an attractive woman made them both amenable to the union.

One person was not in favor. Blanche had a brother, the Robert II, Count of Artois, who still thought of England as an enemy of France. King Edward I supported the union, however. The couple was close in age; Edmund was only three years older.

Edmund went to France to meet her after August 1275, and met and married Blanche sometime between December and January of 1276. Edmund was now Count of Champagne, and paid homage to King Philip III as his vassal in Champagne.

Edmund and Blanche returned to England in June to see Edmund's lands, and then in July went to Navarre to see the lands there that she still possessed. The couple's first child, Thomas, was born in 1278. Henry was born c.1281, and John, Lord of Beaufort was born in 1286.

In many of those years of their marriage Edmund was away fighting wars on behalf of his brother Edward. We'll take a brief look at those tomorrow.

Funding a Crusade

When Henry III's son Edmund Crouchback was 23 years old, he pledged to go on crusade with his brother, Edward, and a cousin, Henry of Almain (son of Henry III's brother, Richard of Cornwall; Henry would be killed three years later by relatives of Simon de Montfort).

Crusades cost money, of course, and that was a problem. The recent Second Barons' War had depleted the king's funds. Edward turned to his uncle, King Louis IX of France, for a loan. (Louis was already planning a Crusade against Tunis.) Edmund decided it was time to make a political marriage (to someone with wealth).

A wealthy countess, Isabel de Forz, had been widowed several years earlier. Henry arranged a marriage between his son and Isabel, but Edmund thought he would be better off marrying one of Isabel's daughters, and in early April 1269 he married Aveline de Forz, Countess of Aumale (arranged by Edmund's mother, Eleanor of Provence). Aveline was only ten years old, and the marriage couldn't be consummated until she was 14.

The 6th Earl of Derby, Robert de Ferrers, was unable to recover his lands financially after his participation in the Second Barons' War; his title was removed from him and given to Edmund. Edmund was already Earl of Leicester and Lancaster. This gave him some additional income.

By the summer of 1270, however, they had still not started on Crusade because Henry was vacillating about being absent from England. It was decided that Edward would lead the English. Edward and his people arrived in Tunis on 10 November 1270, but it was too late to help Louis. The Treaty of Tunis had been signed 11 days earlier after Louis died of an epidemic and the Crusade failed. Edward led his men to Palestine, arriving on 9 May 1271.

Edmund, however, left England for the Holy Land by March 1271, leaving Eleanor of Provence in charge of his estates. He stayed briefly with his maternal great uncle Philip I, Count of Savoy, and possibly met James of Saint George (a master mason who would later build castles in England for Edward).

Edmund joined Edward in September 1271 with an army that was expanded with the participation of Hugh III of Cypress. Unfortunately, despite a few successful attacks, the Crusade was outnumbered and eventually forced to concede defeat. Hugh III had to coexist with the other powers in the Eastern Mediterranean, and so signed a 10-year-treaty with the Mamluk sultan Baibars.

There is no contemporary account for why Edmund had the epithet "Crouchback." The idea that he had a hunchback is countered by contemporary chronicles that claim he was handsome and good at combat. The best theory historians have to offer is that the epithet is a corruption of the term "crossback," referring to the practice of stitching a cross onto the back of one's clothing to indicate being on Crusade.

Aveline died at the age of 15, childless, in 1274, and Edmund went looking for another wife. We'll talk about his later life tomorrow.

Edmund Crouchback

Henry III wanted another son. His first son, Edward, was followed by a daughter, Margaret, and Henry needed at least "an heir and a spare." So he prayed to the 9th-century East Anglian king Edmund the Martyr, who was canonized a saint not long after his death. Henry and Eleanor of Provence's next child was a son born in London on 16 January 1245 (the illustration is of Edmund's birth by Matthew Paris), named Edmund after the saint.

Edmund grew up at Windsor Castle with his siblings and parents—Henry rarely spent time away from the family—and was very attached to them all. Edmund would become his older brother Edward's faithful administrator.

When Edmund was nine, the "Sicilian Business" happened, in which Pope Alexander IV was looking for a suitable (to him) ruler of Sicily and the Regno (southern Italy), to get it away from the German Hohenstaufens.

Edmund actually made preparations to become King of Sicily while his father tried to persuade the barons to give him money and soldiers. His mother took him to Gascony in May 1254 to be closer to the Mediterranean for the eventual invasion. In October 1255, Henry started referring to Edmund as "king." In April 1257, Edmund was back in England, being displayed to Parliament in Italian garb and trying to raise money. A marriage to Manfred of Sicily (currently acting as ruler of Sicily) was suggested in order to make him seem the natural successor to Sicily. None of that worked out.

Meanwhile, Pope Alexander had been financing Henry's preparations, but was giving up on ever seeing Henry take the lead and succeed. He demanded £90,000 from Henry in compensation. Henry's failed attempt to raise the money only accomplished two things: turning the barons against him and helping to motivate the Second Barons' War, and prompting the pope to rescind the offer and offer it instead to Charles of Anjou. (Henry extorted money from the clergy to try to pay off the debt to Alexander after being threatened with excommunication.)

During the Second Barons' War, Edmund went to France with his mother to raise funds to fight. After the war and the death of Simon de Montfort, Simon's title as 6th Earl of Leicester was eliminated and Edmund became the 1st Earl of Leicester of the Second Creation in 1267.

An adult now with his own title, it was time for him to do what several nobles of his era did: go on Crusade. How that went, and how it created his nickname, will be tomorrow's topic.

Eleanor the Queen

A queen can have several duties, one of which is to produce heirs that can either succeed their parents or be used to make politically advantageous marriages. Eleanor of Provence was one of four sisters each of whom became a queen. Eleanor was married to King Henry III of England, and exercised a great deal of influence in England, even if she was disliked by the citizens of London.

Her relationship with Henry was very strong, and he did his best to care for his young wife (they were married when she was not yet a teenager and he was 28). He embarked on a campaign of updating and decorating royal apartments. They had their own rooms, but he made sure they were next to each other. If the queen's apartments were in a separate building or other part of the palace, he made sure the distance between them had covered walkways so she could visit his apartments in comfort.

The two often appeared in public in matching outfits, and Henry made sure her residences had furniture and trappings equal to his. For the wedding of their daughter, Margaret, to King Alexander III of Scotland, they wore matching cloth of gold.

Eleanor also matched her husband in religious devotion. Henry had a special love of King Edward the Confessor, and instilled in Eleanor the same religious fervor. In 1250 she and Henry vowed to go on Crusade, and she vowed that after his death she would enter a nunnery.

She had close relationships with some of the greatest English minds of that era: Adam Marsh, Robert Grosseteste of London (the bishop, not the Oxford scholar), and royal physician and Bishop of Durham Nicholas Farnham.

Part of that religious devotion expressed itself in an act of anti-semitism shortly after Henry died. Henry had created in 1232 the Domus Conversorum ("House of Converts") in the west of London, a place where Jews who converted to Christianity would be housed, fed, given a stipend, and instructed in their new faith and made to pray for the king, his ancestors, and his descendants. Henry died in 1272, succeeded by his eldest son, Edward. In 1275 Eleanor sought, and received, permission from King Edward I to expel Jews from the lands given to her, in Marlborough, Gloucester (told to go to Bristol, but choosing Hereford since Bristol was known to have plenty of anti-semitism), Worcester (told to go to Hereford), and Cambridge (told to flee to Norwich).

Edward was raised by his mother to be hostile to Jews, and used the crime of coin-clipping as an excuse to punish them. This was a prelude to 1290, when Edward expelled all Jews from England.

Eleanor retired after Henry's death to Amesbury Priory, where two of her granddaughters were already nuns. She died in June 1291 and was buried at the Priory in a location that is now unknown—the only English queen whose grave is unmarked (except for her heart, which was buried at the Franciscan priory Greyfriars in London).

Of her children, Edward became king, Margaret became queen of Scotland, Beatrice became Duchess of Brittany, and Edmund became Earl of Leicester and Lancaster. Edmund had a nickname, "Crouchback," which sounds like something worth discussing. See you tomorrow.

Eleanor versus London

The citizens of London may have welcomed their new queen when she and Henry III rode to Westminster for the coronation after the wedding (1236) at Canterbury, but while they got to know her they found plenty of reasons to resent her presence.

For one thing (and this may not have been her fault exactly), she was accompanied by several retainers from the continent (called Savoyards from her mother's background, Beatrice of Savoy). Some of these became influential in Henry's administration. But Eleanor made deliberate moves that angered Londoners.

One was claiming the queen-gold. The Queen of England was allowed one-tenth of all the fines paid to the Crown. That wasn't enough for Eleanor, however: she started levying fines on Londoners for perceived infractions. This was one more straw on the camel's back for the barons to rebel in the Second Barons' War.

Eleanor and Henry seemed devoted, but there were troubles between them. He had gardens planted for her. He had her rooms in the palace painted with flowers. In 1252, however, they quarreled over a dispute between her followers from Savoy and Henry's Lusignan relatives from Poitou. Henry banished her from Court, took control of her properties in England, and stopped her collecting the queen-gold. The disagreement lasted only a fortnight, however, and Henry afterward trusted her even more than before, making her co-Regent (with his brother, Richard of Cornwall) when he traveled out of England.

During the recently discussed Second Barons' War, when the forces of Simon de Montfort invaded and occupied London (aided by the citizens), Eleanor and Henry were trapped in the Tower of London. Eleanor escaped, sailing down the Thames on a barge. The Londoners attacked her with stones and mud and rotten produce.

The Mayor of London, Thomas Fitzthomas, rescued her and took her to the home of the bishop of London, Richard of Gravesend. She eventually made it to France and raised a fleet to go back, but the fleet was wrecked off Flanders in a storm.

Despite her reciprocated antipathy with London, she was successful at the other functions of a queen. We'll talk about the duties of a medieval queen through Eleanor's example next time.

Eleanor of Provence

Ramon Berenguer V, Count of Provence (1198 - 1245), and Beatrice of Savoy (c.1198 - c.1267) had four daughters, all of whom married kings. Their second daughter, Eleanor (c.1223 - 1291), however, was not well-liked by her subjects.

She loved reading, and was well-educated. Like her mother and sisters she was considered very attractive. One contemporary English chronicler, the Augustinian canon Peter Langtoft (died c.1305), described her as "the fairest May of life."

Her older sister Margaret married the King of France, and Eleanor's uncle, Bishop William of Savoy, persuaded Henry to consider Eleanor. Such a marriage would tie him politically to France.

Matthew Paris says she was already 12 years old when she arrived in England to marry King Henry III. He had looked at several different potential brides, but she was politically the most appropriate for the 28-year-old king.

The reason for the country's dislike was the number of foreigners—called Savoyards because Beatrice's mother was from Savoy—that accompanied her. These included William of Savoy, who was made an advisor to Henry. Henry tried to make William the Bishop of Winchester to keep him close as an advisor, but there was resistance. (The chapter elected Ralph Neville instead.) Henry seemed to prefer to promote folk from the continent, and several of Eleanor's followers were given important positions in Henry's administration. This angered the English, who did not appreciate the foreign influence over Henry's policies.

The wedding took place on 14 January 1236 at Canterbury Cathedral (illustration is from a Matthew Paris manuscript), which was also the first time Eleanor had seen the groom. She wore a golden dress with sleeves lined with ermine. Immediately afterward the pair rode to London where she was crowned at Westminster Abbey, becoming Queen of England, Lady of Ireland, and Duchess of Aquitaine.

The couple seemed to truly love and trust each other. When Henry went to Gascony in 1253 to handle a rebellion, he left Eleanor as regent. She even acted as Lord Chancellor. This was the first and only time a woman was given the duties of Chancellor until 2016.

London's dislike of her might have had sound reasons, which we will explore tomorrow.

The Last Death of the Second Barons' War

This post is about Margaret of England (29 September 1240 – 26 February 1275), the daughter of King Henry III. She was in her 20s during the Second Barons' War, but was living in Scotland because she was married to King Alexander III of Scotland.

Life in Scotland wasn't pleasant for her. She was 11 and he was 10 when they were betrothed in York; they moved to Edinburgh a year later. Because they were considered too young for consummating the marriage, they were kept apart by Alexander's regency council, which made her lonely and upset. Her mother, Eleanor of Provence, sent her personal physician to check on her, and he stated that she was pale and depressed.

King Henry spoke to the regency council and came to an agreement. When the two were 14 years of age they were allowed to consummate the marriage, and Alexander would have power handed over to him when he turned 21. Life got better for her after that.

The story of the Second Barons' War has been covered in the past week here. At the Battle of Evesham, the chief instigator, Simon de Montfort, had been killed and hacked to pieces by the supporters of King Henry. Simon had been married to Henry III's sister, making him Margaret's uncle.

Margaret's older brother, Edward (later King Edward I) gave her an esquire as a gift. In the summer of 1273, some time after the Second Barons' War had been settled, Margaret was recovering after the birth of her son David (who did not survive to adulthood). On an outing near Perth with her confessor, several maidens and esquires, one of the retainers—the one gifted to her by Edward—went down to the river to wash his hands.

According to her confessor, she told her maidens to push him in "as a joke." The current was very strong, however, and he was swept away and drowned, as was the servant boy who jumped in to help save him. This was seen as regrettable, but the story persists that he was one of the men who had attacked and killed her uncle Simon, making this esquire the last casualty of the Second Barons' War. Whether the push was a prank or—as some surmise—a punishment will never be known.

Margaret died at the age of 34. Margaret's mother, Eleanor of Provence, lived much longer and had a lot more influence on the country of which she was queen but also was not always happy with her new country. We'll visit her story tomorrow.