Ælfweard, king of the English

Ælfweard (904 – 2 August 924) was the second son of Edward the Elder, the eldest born to his second wife Ælfflæd. No known children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfweard_of_Wessex

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%...

ÆLFWEARD (-Oxford 2 Aug 924, bur Winchester Cathedral). "Ælfweard filius regis" subscribed two charters of King Edward dated 909, in both of which he was named third in the list of subscribers after "Æthelweard frater regis" and "Æthelstan filius regis"[1662]. The Book of Hyde names "Ethelwardum…et Edwynum" as the two sons of King Eadweard by his first wife "Elfelmi comitis filia Elfleda"[1663]. According to William of Malmesbury, he was "deeply versed in literature"[1664]. William of Malmesbury says that "King Edward therefore dying, was shortly followed by his legitimate son Ælfweard"[1665], which could be interpreted as indicating that Ælfweard briefly succeeded his father as king before his own early death, although the more likely interpretation of the text is simply that Ælfweard died soon after his father. At another point in his narrative, Malmesbury asserts that Ælfweard's half-brother Æthelstan succeeded "as his father had commanded in his will"[1666], which appears to exclude the possible accession of Ælfweard. Florence of Worcester records that King Eadward left his kingdom to "Æthelstano filio", and that not long afterwards "filius eius Ælfwardus" died "apud Oxenafordam"[1667]. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the death in 924 of "his [King Edward's] son Ælfweard…at Oxford" 16 days after his father died and his burial at Winchester[1668].

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Kingship and death

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply states that Ælfweard died soon after his father's death on 17 July 924 and that they were buried together at Winchester Cathedral. Manuscript D of the Chronicle specifies that he outlived his father by only 16 days. No reign is explicitly attributed to him here. However, a list of West-Saxon kings in the 12th-century Textus Roffensis[1] mentions him as his father's successor, with a reign of four weeks.[2] He is also described as king in the New Minster Liber Vitae,[3] a 11th-century source based in part on earlier material.[4] On the other hand, William of Malmesbury, relying on a poem, related that Edward's eldest son (by his first wife Ecgwynn), Athelstan, succeeded directly under the terms of King Alfred's will (since lost).[5] The poem had once been considered a near-contemporary authority, but Michael Lapidge has shown this to be based on a misunderstanding of William's reference to "a certain obviously ancient book".[6]

This conflicting documentation has led to alternative interpretations, some modern historians concluding that he had succeeded his father in preference to his older half-brother Athelstan, while others maintain that Athelstan was the only heir to his father.[5] Alternatively, a divided rule has been suggested, since the so-called Mercian register of the Chronicle reports that Athelstan became king of the Mercians, and William of Malmesbury, though denying a reign for Ælfweard, reports that Athelstan was educated at the Mercian court of his aunt Æthelflæd.[2][5][7] By this theory, Ælfweard would have succeeded his father in Wessex and Athelstan in Mercia, the latter only acquiring Wessex following his brother's death shortly thereafter.

If king, Ælfweard was probably never crowned, dying 2 August 924 at Oxford. Athelstan himself was not crowned king of the Anglo-Saxons until 4 September 925 more than a year later.

Notes

  1. ^ (Rochester, Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5, fols. 7v-8r).

  2. ^ a b Yorke, Bishop Æthelwold. p. 71.

  3. ^ f. 9v, cited by Yorke.

  4. ^ Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.

  5. ^ a b c Williams, "Some Notes", pp. 149-50.

  6. ^ Lapidge, "Some Latin poems as evidence for the reign of Athelstan." 50-1.

  7. ^ Walker, Mercia and the Making of England. p. 127.

Ælfweard, King of England (1)

M, #106615, d. 1 August 924

Last Edited=3 Dec 2005

    Ælfweard, King of England was the son of Eadweard I, King of Wessex and Ælflæd (?). (1) 

He died on 1 August 924 at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. (1) He was buried at Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, Hampshire, England. (1)

Forrás / Source:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p10662.htm#i106615

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Ethelweard was born in Wessex around the year 904. He did not have a long reign. According to one version of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, Ethelweard was appointed king on 17 July 924 after the death of his father, Edward the Elder. He died sixteen days later on 2 August 924. Some claim that he was killed on the orders of his half-brother Athelstan, who became the next king. Ethelweard never married. He was buried at Winchester.