The Fascinating History of My Direct Royal Ancestors and Their Descendants

By Charles Harding

The author traces his direct ancestors for 40 generations, commencing with Egbert Saxon, king of Wessex in generation 1. King Edward III is described in generation 18. He was the last monarch in the author’s Direct family tree. He and his wife, Philippa of Hanault, are the author’s 21 times great grandparents. The author narrates the history of his direct ancestors up to his grandparents in generation 39, from English royalty to Scottish nobility, ending with the Krio elite in the former British colony of Sierra Leone. This was as a result of the acting governor of Sierra Leone, the Scottish Kenneth Macaulay, the author’s 4 times great-grandfather, having a relationship with a liberated African, which led to the birth of the author’s 3 times great-grandmother Charlotte Macaulay, who was of mixed race. The book is an entertaining, fascinating and accessible piece of family history with a wide-ranging scope and engaging manner of dialogue, which will be of interest, not only to historians and genealogists, but also to non-fiction readers in general.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781528928816

Charles Harding

Charles Harding was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, but attended preparatory and public school in the UK. He obtained an economics degree from the University of Sierra Leone followed by an LLB honours degree at what is now University of West London. He was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1983. After pupillage, he practiced as a barrister in Freetown and later in the UK until 1992 when he successfully converted to a solicitor. In 1995 he established Charles Harding & Co Solicitors in Wembley. A family history enthusiast, he is the author of The Fascinating History of My Liberated Ancestors. Charles is married to Claudette and they have a son Michael.

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About the Author

Charles Harding was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, but attended preparatory and public school in the UK. He obtained an economics degree from the University of Sierra Leone followed by an LLB honours degree at what is now University of West London. He was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1983. After pupillage, he practiced as a barrister in Freetown and later in the UK until 1992 when he successfully converted to a solicitor. In 1995 he established Charles Harding & Co Solicitors in Wembley. A family history enthusiast, he is the author of The Fascinating History of My Liberated Ancestors. Charles is married to Claudette and they have a son Michael.

Copyright Information ©

Charles Harding 2022

The right of Charles Harding to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528921992 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528922432 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781528928816 (ePub e-book)

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First Published 2022

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Acknowledgement

I wish to thank the Church Missionary Society for granting me written permission to use material I have obtained from the CMS archive stored at the Cadbury research Library at the University of Birmingham. It was there that I saw original letters, reports and journals from both my great and twice great grandfather in their original handwriting. They were both employed by the CMS. I also wish to thank the British Library for giving me written permission to quote from their digitized old colonial newspapers stored in the British library, and to reproduce the newspaper photographs of my twice great grandmother. Thank you to Nigel Browne-Davies whose discovery of my ancestors’ Royal connection inspired me to write this book. My thanks also go to Andrew Macfarlane, the Site Owner of ‘macfarlane families and Connected Clans Genealogies’ for giving me permission to use his website. The names, titles, dates of birth and death of the majority of my earlier ancestors have been taken from his website and they indeed serve as corroborative evidence. Thankyou once again to my cousin Doctor Montgomery Harding who resided with our grandfather as a child, for providing me with information about him, which was corroborated by my nonagenarian uncle, Doctor Charles Harding. Thank you also to my numerous relatives I have interviewed over the years for confirmation regarding their family and ancestors, including my nonagenarian aunt Edna Milton-Cole who had compiled a family Tree encompassing most of the Reverend Henry Boston’s descendants, my three times great grandfather {1830-1874). My thanks to Janet Smith of Oakleaf Calligraphy for designing the Family Tree. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, Christine, another nonagenarian, for providing me with a plethora of information regarding my more recent ancestors. After discovering that my three times great grandfather, William Smith Junior was buried in the Isle of Jersey, I visited his grave in May 2015, and again in July 2015 taking with me this time my mother, my brother Geoffrey, my wife Claudette and my son Michael, to the grave in Almorah Cemetery in the Isle of Jersey to pay our respects to him.

Generation 1

Egbert Saxon, King of Wessex and England

So that I do not go into myth, I will commence my story with Egbert, Saxon King of Wessex and England, my 38 times great grandfather. Egbert was born around 771 AD and is reputed to be the first king of all England. His father was the king of Kent, so he was of royal blood.¹ Anglo Saxon England was divided into several Kingdoms during Egbert’s life, the most powerful being Mercia in middle England.

In 789 AD, Egbert fled to the Court of Emperor Charlemagne, king of the Frankish lands, and later joined his French army. A fifteenth century Chronicle held at Oxford University names Egbert’s wife as Redburga of France, a relative of the Emperor Charlemagne, and probably his niece or sister. The marriage was contracted whilst Egbert was taking refuge in Charlemagne’s Court in France. On the death of his adversary, Egbert returned from exile in France in 800 to claim the vacant throne of Wessex, and he became King of Wessex from 802 until his death.

In 825 AD, the battle of Ellandune took place near Swindon, which was arguably the most significant battle in Anglo-Saxon times. Egbert defeated Beornwulf of Mercia in the battle so much so that Mercia could no longer retain their commanding influence over Southern England. In 829, Egbert invaded Mercia, forcing Wiglaf the Mercian King into exile, and proclaiming himself King of England south of the Humber. This victory gave him access to the mint of London. He minted new coins with his image as king. In the same year, he led a large army into Northumbria and made King Eanred pay tribute. In 830, Egbert successfully conquered North Wales.

The Vikings (Danish and Norwegian raiders), began to invade England via the coast of Northumbria in 793. In 835, the Vikings raided the Isle of Sheppey. Egbert led an army against them in the North Devon Coast. In 838, Egbert defeated them in Cornwall. Nevertheless, by the time Egbert died in 839, the Vikings were carrying out raids more frequently.

Egbert’s marriage to Redburga² produced two sons and a daughter. When Egbert died in 839, he left land in his will only to the male members of his family, so that the estates should not be lost to the Royal house through marriage.³ Not only was Egbert buried in Winchester Cathedral, but so were his son Ethelwolf, his grandson, Alfred the Great, and his great grandson, Edward the Elder. Winchester was therefore held in high esteem by the Anglo-Saxon royals. Egbert was called ‘Bretwalda’, meaning, ruler of Britain, or ‘wide ruler’. He was succeeded on the throne of Wessex by his eldest son Ethelwolf, my 37 times great grandfather, whose mother was Redburga.

Generation 2

Ethelwolf, King of Wessex and

England (795–858)

Ethelwolf was born around 795 AD, when his father, Egbert, was seeking refuge in the Frankish court of Charlemagne. Ethelwolf, which name means ‘noble wolf’, was the commander of the Wessex army which conquered Kent in 825 AD, under the authority of his father. In 839, he succeeded his father, Egbert, as king of England when he was crowned at Kingston-Upon-Thames.

There were frequent Viking invasions (Danes from Denmark, or Norse from Norway into Wessex) during Ethelwolf’s reign. In 851, King Ethelwolf and his son, Ethelbald, defeated the Vikings in Surrey. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles stated that he inflicted ‘the greatest slaughter of a heathen army’ that was ever heard of to that present day.¹

During his reign, the Kingdom of Wessex remained supreme over the Kingdom of Mercia. A strong alliance was formed when Ethelwolf’s daughter, Ethelswith, married the Mercian King Burgred in 853.

In 855, Ethelwolf went on a pilgrimage to Rome for a year just after donating by Charter a tenth of his personal wealth and property to his subjects, known as the Decimation Charters. The pilgrimage of itself was not that unusual, as other monarchs particularly in other parts of the world had done so before him. He was accompanied in this pilgrimage by his youngest and favourite son, Alfred. Some thought that in embarking on this pilgrimage, Ethelwolf was deserting his kingdom at a time of great danger. Before his return to England in 856, in a move that took most of his subjects by surprise, Ethelwolf met and married, as his second wife, Judith, the daughter of Charles II, The Bald, King of the West Frank, and made her his queen. Most of his subjects did not approve. In his absence, Ethelwolf’s eldest surviving son, Ethelbald, by his first wife, Osburge, took over. That was the arrangement. However, when Ethelwolf returned in 856, Ethelbald usurped the throne, and refused to surrender his power, because he genuinely believed that his father intended to make his best-loved son, Alfred, heir to Wessex instead of him. After all, Ethelbald’s elder brother had died which left him next in line to the throne. He would not allow his younger brother to take that right away from him. Ethelwolf accepted Ethelbald’s demands, simply to avoid bloodshed. But Ethelwolf continued to rule Kent and other eastern provinces until his death.

Ethelwolf died on 13th January 858, and his body was eventually moved to Winchester Cathedral after being at first buried in Steyning, Sussex. Ethelwolf and his first wife, Osburge, were my 37 times great grandparents. Osburge, who died around 854, before Judith came on the scene, was the daughter of a Kentish nobleman named Oslac from the Isle of Wight. Osburge bore five sons for Ethelwolf, four of whom were to reign in turn after Ethelwolf, including Alfred the Great.² Ethelwolf’s second wife, Judith, had no children.

The silver penny was virtually the only coin that was used in middle and later Anglo-Saxon England. Both King Egbert, after he had gained control of Kent, and King Ethelwolf, used a mint in Canterbury and another one in Rochester for their coins.

In the summer of 1780, an enamelled gold finger ring, specially made for King Ethelwolf, was found in a cart at Laverstock, Wiltshire. Another ring belonging to Ethelwolf’s daughter, Ethelswith, was later found in a field near Sherburn in Yorkshire in 1870. The natural habitat of both rings is now The British Museum.

Generation 3

Alfred the Great, King of England (849–899)

The children of King Ethelwolf by his first wife, Osburge, were Ethelstan, King of Kent, from 839, who died in the early 850s; Ethelbald, King of Wessex, from 858 till he died in 860; Ethelbert, King of Kent and Wessex, who ruled from 860 till his death in 865; the only daughter was Ethelswith who married Burgred, King of Mercia in 853 and the two much younger sons, Ethelred, King of Wessex from 865 to 871 and finally, Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and King of England from 871 to 899. What is clear is that it was Ethelwolf who laid the foundation for the success of his beloved son Alfred, my 36 times great grandfather.

Alfred, the youngest and last of the siblings to succeed to the Kingship, was born in 849 in Wantage which is a historical town which was formerly in Berkshire but is now located in Oxfordshire.

In 866, the Vikings seized York and established their own kingdom in the southern part of Northumbria. Two years after this incident, in 868, Alfred diplomatically married Ealhswith, who was descended from Mercian kings through her mother, Eadburh.

In 871, Alfred and his elder brother, King Ethelred, defeated the Danes at the battle of Ashdown in Berkshire. Later that same year when Ethelred died, he succeeded his brother as king at the age of twenty-one. However, despite their success at Ashdown, the Danes continued to invade Wessex.¹

In early 878, the Danes seized Chippenham in Wiltshire. Alfred withdrew to Somerset tidal marshes where legend has it that he allegedly burned some cakes which he had been asked to look after by an old peasant woman who had given him shelter. She was obviously unaware of his identity, as she scolded him severely on her return for letting the cakes burn in the fire.²

In May 878, Alfred again defeated the Danes in the battle of Edington. But Alfred realised that he could not drive the Danes out of the rest of England, so he shrewdly made a peace agreement with the Danes in 878 which was later known as the Treaty of Wedmore, and Guthrum the Danish King was baptised as a Christian with Alfred standing as his sponsor/godfather. Under the peace agreement, Guthrum agreed to leave Wessex and settle in East Anglia.

In 884, Alfred defeated the Danes in Rochester, and in 885, he imposed rules on South Wales. In 886, he consolidated the peace treaty with the Danes, whereby England was divided by a line being drawn between the River Thames and the Tees, with the North and the East declared to be Danish territory. This treaty enabled Alfred to have control of areas of West Mercia and Kent which were outside the boundaries of Wessex. Moreover, Alfred had married one of his daughters, Ethelflaed, to the Ealdorman of Mercia to further strengthen his alliances against the Danes.

During his reign, Alfred reorganised his army, making them more efficient, and he built a series of fortified settlements across the south of England.

Winchester was already protected by Roman Walls. Alfred also established a strong navy for use against the Danish invaders by building more ships. He was very pious and religious, and he was known for being a just king. He believed, as did many others at the time, that the invasion by the Vikings was a punishment by God for bad behaviour. He believed that the way to combat this was through education. He therefore invited learned men to assist him in developing his kingdom. He learned Latin in his late thirties. He also arranged for the translation of books from Latin to Anglo-Saxon (Old English) in 887 AD, so that the common man would understand. Indeed, Alfred himself participated and assisted in the translation of the books from Latin to English. He also told Monks to begin writing the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles during his reign in 890, which became the greatest source of information about Anglo-Saxon England.

In 893, the Welsh Scholar, Asser, who was also the Bishop of Sherborne, wrote an extensive biography on Alfred entitled ‘the life of Alfred’ (the Great), which contained valuable information about Alfred and his family.

Alfred died on 26th October 899 aged fifty. He was buried at Winchester, which was then the Capital of England. His wife, Ealhswith, is also buried there. The inscription on the coins being circulated during his reign referred to him as ‘King of the English’.

Despite suffering from terrible illness throughout his life, which has been diagnosed in recent times as being possibly Crohn’s disease, in view of the symptoms he was having, Alfred is the only monarch known as ‘The Great’. This was because of his courageous defence of his kingdom against an obviously stronger enemy; because he possessed the shrewdness and wisdom to declare a peace treaty with the Vikings; because he carried out reforms, such as promoting learning and literacy; because it was he who ordered the compilation of the invaluable Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and because he was simply a legend.

A famous statute was erected in 1901 in Winchester to celebrate the millennium of Alfred’s death. Alfred and Ealhswith (my 36 times great grandmother who died apparently in 905 AD), had two sons and three daughters who survived to adulthood. The middle daughter became abbess of Shaftesbury Abbey, a Nunnery which was founded by Alfred the Great in about 888. The other two daughters were married to the ruler of Mercia and the Count of Flanders respectively. Alfred’s second son was Edelweard, but his heir and eldest son who succeeded him to the throne was Edward ‘the Elder’, my 35 times great grandfather.

Generation 4

Edward the ‘Elder’, King of England (874–924)

Edward was born to King Alfred and Queen Ealhswith of Mercia in 874 AD. He was called ‘the Elder’ not because he was Alfred’s eldest son, but because historians wanted to distinguish him from the later King Edward, the Martyr. Edward was educated at Alfred’s court by tutors who taught him to read both ecclesiastical and secular prose in English, Old English Poetry and the Psalms. King Alfred allowed Edward to command an army against the Vikings in 893 at the battle of Farnham when he was nineteen years old.

When Alfred died in 899, the question arose as to whether either Edward the Elder, or Ethelwald should be king. Now Ethelwald was the son of Alfred’s elder brother, who was Ethelred I. The Witan in their wisdom elected Edward as king. The Witan was the term used to describe the council summoned by Anglo-Saxon kings, which consisted of aldermen, thanes, and bishops, to discuss royal grants, church matters, charters, taxation, customary law, defence and foreign policy. Edward was crowned on 8th June 900 at Kingston-Upon-Thames. Like his father before him, he was king of the Anglo-Saxons. However, Ethelwald retaliated by confiscating the crown estates at Christchurch and Wimborne in Dorset. When Edward raised an army and responded to the threat by marching to Banbury, his cousin, Ethelwald, escaped to the Vikings in Northumbria where he sought refuge. He returned to Wessex in 901 as the head of an army, and during the course of fighting at the battle of the Holme in 902, Ethelwald was killed, but the Danes won the war overall. Edward escaped unharmed, and later negotiated a treaty with the Vikings in 906. Ragnald arrived in Northumbria after a regime change, broke the treaty and captured the City of York.

Edward led a joint force from Wessex and Mercia and won a decisive victory against the Danes at the battle of Tattenhall in Staffordshire on 5th August 910. Edward and his sister, Ethelfleda, who was the widow of King Ethelred of Mercia, defeated the Danes in Wales and fortified the Severn area and Western Mercia. King Edward built a series of strong garrisons around London and Oxford to boost his campaign against the Danes. The boundaries of Wessex and Mercia were pushed further northwards, and by 918, Edward and his sister had managed to push the Vikings back across the Humber. His sister, Ethelfleda, who was known as the Lady of Mercia, died in June 918, and her daughter, Elfwina, succeeded her mother to become the Lady of Mercia. Although Wessex and Mercia were two separate territories, Edward ruled both.¹

In 920, the kings of the North met King Edward the Elder at Bakewell in Derbyshire, and fully recognised him as their Overlord. The rulers of Northumbria, York, Wales, Strathclyde and the Scots recognised Edward as Overlord. Edward took Manchester in 920, and the Scottish King Constantine submitted to him in 923.

Edward restructured the Church of Wessex by creating new Bishops of Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton. He was however not as devout as the other Monarchs of the House of Wessex.

Edward died at Farndon-on-Dee near Chester, of injuries sustained whilst leading an army to fight a Welsh-Mercian rebellion on 17th July 924. He was buried at the New Minster at Winchester, which he himself had founded.² He was succeeded by his eldest son Athelstan. Edward was married three times, and he had fourteen children. He married his first wife, Egwina, in 893. Their two children were Athelstan, who was born in 894 and became King of England after Edward’s death and a daughter, St Edith. Egwina had probably died by 900, because around this period, Edward married Elfleda, who was the daughter of Ethelhelm, the Ealdorman of Wiltshire. This second marriage produced eight children. In 919, Edward married again. His third wife, Eadgifu, who was my 35 times great grandmother, was the daughter of Sigehelm, Ealdorman of Kent. This marriage produced four further children, namely Edmund the Elder who was born in 921 and became King of England in 939 and was in fact my 34 times great grandfather; Eadred who also became King of England in 946 after his brother’s death; St Eadburh who became a Benedictine Nun at Nunnaminster in Winchester and a saint and finally, Eadgifu, whose existence is uncertain and could be the same person as her namesake mother.

Edward achieved as much as any Anglo-Saxon ruler, but his numerous achievements seem to have been ignored by historians, possibly because of their fascination with the accomplishments of his more famous father and also his courageous sister, Ethelfleda.

Generation 5

Edmund I, ‘The Magnificent’ King Of

England (921–946)

When Edward died in July 924, Ethelstan, the tall thirty years old son of his first wife, was accepted as king. In 927, he conquered the last remaining Viking Kingdom, York, making him the first true Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In 934, he invaded Scotland and forced Constantine II to submit to him. In 937, Athelstan defeated the Scots and Vikings at the Battle of Brunanburh when they invaded England. Athelstan arranged the marriages of four of his half-sisters to continental rulers, but he himself never married or had any children. He was very pious, and he oversaw the translation of the Bible into English.¹ After his death at Gloucester in 939, the Vikings seized back control of York.

Edmund I, known as ‘the Elder’ or ‘the Magnificent’ was born in 921, the son of King Edward ‘the Elder’ and his third wife, Eadgifu. When he was sixteen, he fought with gallantry on the side of his elder half-brother King Athelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh. Edmund was crowned King of England on 29th November 939 at Kingston-Upon-Thames. He soon after married Aelfgith. Edmund and Aelfgith are my 34 times great grandparents.

When Athelstan died in 939, the Norse King of Dublin, Olaf Guthfrithson, occupied Northumbria and York from where he raided the Midlands. Edmund regained the Midlands after Olaf died in 942. He recovered Northumbria in 944, compelling Guthfrithson’s successor, the Norse King, to flee to Dublin. Edmund conquered Strathclyde in 945, and entrusted it to Malcolm I, King of Scotland in return for a mutual exchange of Military support and Malcolm agreeing to be Edmund’s vassal.

Edmund played a major role in the restoration of his nephew Louis IV to the throne of France after Louis had been captured in 945 and held captive by Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris. Edmund posed threats to the Duke which forced him to release his nephew later that year.

Edmund and Aelfgith had two children. Eadwig, born in 941, and Edgar, born in 943. Aelfgith was canonised as Saint Aelfgith, the founder of Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset. When Aelfgith died on 18th May 944, Edmund married Ethelflaed of Damerham, who was the daughter of Ealdorman Aelfgar of either Essex or Wiltshire, but the couple had no children.

Edmund only ruled for six years before he was tragically killed on the feast of St Augustine on 26th May 946, which was an annual festival celebrated by the Anglo-Saxons. Edmund had attended Mass at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. He became furious at seeing an outlaw in the crowd, one Leofa, whom he had expelled from the Kingdom a few years earlier, because he was a thief and a robber. King Edmund in his anger flung Leofa to the ground, and in the struggle that followed, Edmund was fatally stabbed by the outlaw. Leofa was then killed on the spot by one of those present. Another story goes that Edmund had drunk too much wine during the festivities and his intoxication accounted for his behaviour of attacking the outlaw himself. A third version is the conspiracy theory that Edmund was in fact killed through an assassination plot. Edmund was twenty-five years old when he was killed. King Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Eadred, since his two sons were too young to rule. Both of Edmund’s sons, Eadwig and Edgar, eventually succeeded to the throne as well.

Eadred was born in 923 and was crowned King of the English from 17th July 946 to 955. He was consecrated King of England by Archbishop Oda of Canterbury at Kingston-Upon Thames on 16th August 946. Eadred brought Northumbria permanently under English rule. The Northumbrian coinage bore his name, declaring his power in the region. He could be said to be the last of the great warrior kings of Wessex. He suffered from a digestive disorder that prevented him from properly digesting his food. He died at the age of thirty-two at Frome, Somerset on 23rd November 955. He was buried in the Old Minster in Winchester amongst his ancestors. There is no record of Eadred ever marrying, and he had no heirs. He was therefore succeeded by his nephew, Eadwig, the elder son of his elder brother, Edmund ‘the Elder’.

Generation 6

Edgar, ‘The Peaceful’ King of

England (943–975)

King Eadwig was about fifteen years old when he succeeded his uncle King Eadred to the throne in 955. There is a story told that during his coronation feast at Kingston, he sneaked out, and when St Dunstan, who was then the Abbot of Glastonbury, went to look for him, he was found enjoying himself with two women, a mother and daughter.¹ He soon afterwards married the younger of the two women, whose name was Aelfgifu. This story may however be highly exaggerated and biased, as it is told in ‘The life of St Dunstan’ and could therefore be a deliberate falsehood to emphasise the disagreement between Eadwig and the Church over his choice of bride. Moreover, Aelfgifu’s mother was later able to persuade Eadwig to strip Dunstan of all his possession and send him into exile.

Eadwig was handsome, generous with gifts, but unpopular with the Church and his subjects, carefree and incompetent. It came as no surprise therefore when in 957, both the Northumbrians and the Mercians renounced their allegiance to Eadwig in favour of his younger brother Edgar, who was born in 943, and who they proclaimed as their king. Eadwig could only rule over the Wessex region south of the River Thames. But the fact that it was Eadwig’s coins that were the country’s only currency until 959 suggests that Eadwig maintained overall authority.

In 958, the marriage between Eadwig and Aelfgifu was dissolved by Archbishop Odo of Canterbury on the grounds of consanguinity, since they were too closely related.²

Eadwig died on 1st October 959 at Gloucester, still in his teens, in circumstances which remain unknown. He was buried in the New Minster at Winchester, which was founded by his grandfather, King Edward the Elder. His younger brother, Edgar, was accepted as King of the West Saxons, and as he was already King of the Mercians and Northumbrians, the Kingdom of the English was restored. He immediately recalled Dunstan from exile in Flanders and made him his adviser and eventually the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 961, Edgar married Ethelflaed, also spelt Ethelfelda, who was the daughter of Ealdorman Ordmaer. In 962, a son Edward was born to Edgar and Ethelflaed. Ethelflaed must have died or the couple separated soon afterwards because in 964, Edgar married Aelfthryth, also spelt Elfrida, the daughter of the Ealdorman Ordgar, the Earl of Devon, but her mother’s name is uncertain.³ Edgar and Aelfthryth are my 33 times great grandparents. Aelfthryth had been married before. She was born in 945 at Lyford Castle in Devonshire.

In 965, a son, Edmund, was born to Edgar and Aelfthryth, and in 966, another son, Ethelred, was born to them. In 970, their son Edmund died.

On 11th May 973, after fourteen years on the throne, Edgar and his wife, Aelfthryth, were crowned at Bath by Dunstan, who was then the Archbishop of Canterbury. Edgar was crowned as ‘King of all the English’ and Aelfthryth crowned as the first Queen. Edgar’s title had been used by previous Monarchs, but not as part of their Coronation. This was a second Coronation which was held at this period of Edgar’s reign when he was at the peak of his kingship in a ceremony using a new order of service, setting a precedent which remains in use till this day. The service which was prepared by Dunstan himself also included a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which forms the basis of the current day Coronation Ceremony. Just after the Ceremony in 973, Edgar received the submission of six sub-Kings of the North, including the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde, at Chester, where the kings pledged their faith to him. Later, Chronicles stated that there were eight sub-kings, not six, and that the kings themselves rowed King Edgar on a boat up the River Dee to the Monastery of St John, the Baptist. This show was meant to demonstrate the supremacy of the Saxons over the Celts of England, Scotland and Wales.

On 8th July 975, Edgar died at Winchester. He was buried at Glastonbury Abbey of St Dunstan and was succeeded by Edward, his son from his first marriage to Ethelflaed.

Edgar’s was the last reign of peace and harmony for the Saxons. He introduced Monastic reforms by establishing English Benedictine Monasteries across the country. He was fairly short in stature. Although he is alleged to have had an illegitimate daughter with a young Nun named Wulfthrith, Edgar is nevertheless regarded as a Saint by the Catholic Church.

Generation 7

Ethelred II ‘The Unready’, King of England (968–1016)

Richard I of France, Duke of Normandy (933–996)

Robert II ‘The Pious’, King of France (972–1031)

Edward the Martyr was born around 962. He was the eldest son of Edgar the Peaceful, King of England and Ethelflaed. Edward’s legitimacy was doubtful, so when his father died in 975, he was up against his younger half-brother, Ethelred, as candidate for the crown. Ethelred was undoubtedly legitimate, but he was only six or seven years old at the time. The nation was divided as to which of Edgar’s sons should become king, but Edward had more support, and he was accordingly crowned king at Kingston at the age of thirteen by the aged St Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who also personally backed Edward against his rival half sibling.

When King Edward came to the throne, there was great famine in the land. Some noblemen decided to aggressively attack the monasteries, destroying many of them. The monks were forced to flee for their lives. The king, however, stood side by side with Archbishop Dunstan in their defence of the church and monasteries. Some of the Noblemen therefore wanted to remove Edward and replace him with his younger brother, Ethelred, whose mother was in the forefront of this rebellion.

Edward did not appear to have any ill-will towards his step-mother, Aelfthryth, for attempting to claim the throne for her son Ethelred, so on 18th March 978, Edward decided to visit his half-brother, Ethelred, at Corfe, which was a castle and large estate in Purbeck Hills in Dorset where Ethelred was residing with his mother. According to the Chronicles, Aelfthryth sent her servants to meet Edward at the gates of the castle. Edward was presented with a cup to drink some mead after the long journey. He was then pulled from his horse and stabbed in his chest with a dagger causing him to fall to the ground. The horse bolted, dragging the dead king behind it, as his foot got caught in the stirrup when he fell. He was sixteen years of age. He was quickly buried in a churchyard at nearby Wareham on the orders of Aelfthryth. Ethelred was considered to be too young to be guilty of the offence, but his mother remains a suspect till this day. Edward was reburied in 981 at Shaftesbury Abbey which was founded by King Alfred The Great, his great great grandfather. Edward is still remembered as a saint and martyr, and his feast day is celebrated on 18th March, the anniversary of his death.

Ethelred, the unready, was born in 968. When he ascended the throne on 14th April 978, the monarchy was treated with much distrust and disloyalty as a result of the murder of his half-brother, Edward. Ethelred was therefore unable to build up a united defence when the Danes invaded in 980. He foolishly paid them large sums of money to go away, which only whetted their appetite to repeat the attack and come back for more. Ethelred acquired the epithet ‘the unready’ because of his repeated failure to follow wise counsel from his advisers, meaning ‘no counsel’ or that he was unwise. It is actually a pun on his name, Ethelred, which means ‘well-advised’.

On 13th November 1002, St Brice’s Day, Ethelred ordered a massacre of the Danes throughout England in a single day, thereby shedding ‘rivers of blood’. The sister of the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard was one of the victims of the massacre. The Danish King carried out his threat to invade and conquer England. In 1009, a large army sent by King Sweyn of Denmark arrived in England to depose Ethelred. In 1013, the Danish King Sweyn I was proclaimed and accepted as King of England. Ethelred had fled to Normandy with his unpopular second wife Emma of Normandy to seek refuge with her relatives. Emma was thoroughly disliked by the English.

After Sweyn died in February 1014, Ethelred was invited by the Witan to return to England as King upon certain terms and conditions. This caused Canute, the son of Sweyn, to escape to Denmark where he reorganised his forces and with meticulous planning returned to England with a new army in 1015.

At the time of Ethelred’s death in London on 23rd April 1016, Sweyn’s son Canute was plundering England. Ethelred was buried at the old Cathedral of St Paul’s which was destroyed during the great fire of London.

Ethelred was married twice. His first wife, Aelgifu, also spelt Aelflead, or Elfleda, whom he married around 985, was the daughter of Thored, the Ealdorman of Northumbria. They had several children,¹ including Athelstan, born in 986, Egbert, born in 987, King Edmund Ironside, born in 988, Eldred, born in 990, Eadwig, Edgar, Edith, Aelgifu and Wulfhilda. Ethelred named all his sons after previous monarchs. Ethelred and Aelgifu (or Aelflead) are my 32 times great grandparents.

Ethelred’s second wife was Emma of Normandy.² She was the sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. The marriage which took place in 1002 produced two sons and a daughter. Namely, Edward the Confessor, born in 1004, Alfred and Goda.

Ethelred reigned for thirty-seven years, which was more than any other Anglo-Saxon King of England, and the next Monarch to reign longer than him was Henry III in the thirteenth century. Ethelred was succeeded by his son Edmund II, ‘Ironside’. Ethelred’s widow Emma of Normandy later married his Danish enemy, Canute. Emma died on 6th March 1052 during the reign of their son Edward, the Confessor.

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2.

The second branch from the tree of my direct ancestors stemming from this same generation is Richard I of Normandy, also known as ‘Richard, the Fearless’. He was born on 28th August 933 in Normandy as the eldest son of William Longsword. When his father died, Louis IV of France seized Normandy and installed Richard, who was only a boy at the time, in his father’s office. Louis kept Richard in confinement, but Richard escaped. He collaborated with the Norman and Viking leaders, drove Louis out of Rouen and regained Normandy in 947. He built a relationship with the church, restored their lands and Monasteries, and he managed to achieve peace generally throughout his reign. All his marriages established strong alliances. He was the third Duke of Normandy and Count of Rouen from 942 to 996.

His first marriage was to Emma, the daughter of Hugh ‘the Great’ of France and Hedwig Von Sachsen. She died in 968 bearing no children.

Richard also married Gunnor de Crepon, also spelt Gunnora, as his second wife. She was at first his mistress, but Richard married her to legitimise their children. Her marriage to Richard was therefore of great political importance in more than one aspect. Gunnor was born in 950. She was of noble Danish origin. Richard I was the Grandson of the famous Rollo. Richard I of Normandy and Gunnor of Denmark are also my 32 times great grandparents. The couple had several children, possibly eight, including their eldest son, Richard II, ‘The Good’, Duke of Normandy, who succeeded Richard to the throne in November 996. Secondly, Emma of Normandy who married both King Ethelred, the Unready, from 1002 to 1016, and Ethelred’s rival King Canute the Great in 1017;³ thirdly Robert who became Archbishop of Rouen and fourthly Mauger, the Count of Corbeil, amongst other children.

Richard had several mistresses, and is also known to have had several illegitimate children with some of them. He died of natural causes in Fecamp, France on 20th November 996. His grandfather Rollo was the first Duke of Normandy.

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3.

The third branch from the tree of my direct ancestors stemming from this same generation is Robert II, ‘The Pious’, King of France. Robert was born on 27th March 972 in Orleans, France, the son of Hugh Capet, King of France and founder of the Capetian dynasty, and Adelaide of Aquitaine. Robert’s father had him crowned as Successor at Orleans on 30th December 987, thereby confirming the House of Capet as rulers of France.

Robert II divorced his first wife Susanne, or Rosala, Princess of Italy, whom he had married in 988, as the marriage which was arranged by his father remained childless. Robert was temporarily excommunicated by the Pope Gregory V when he married his second wife, Bertha, Princess of Burgundy in 996, on the grounds of consanguinity, because she was his cousin. However, because Bertha was childless, the marriage was annulled in 1001 and the excommunication lifted after lengthy negotiations with the new Pope Sylvester II.

Robert II married Constance Taillefer d’Arles in 1003. Constance was born in 986 in Toulouse, Aquitaine and died on 25th July 1032 in Melun, France. Her father was William I, Count of Provence, and her mother was Blanche d’Anjou. Robert II and Constance d’Arles are also my 32 times great grandparents. They had five children, including Hedwig, Countess of Auxerre, (1003–1063); Hugh, Co-King, (1007–1025); Henry I, future King of France (1008–1060); Adela, Countess of Flanders (1009–1079), who married Richard III of Normandy and Baldwin V of Flanders (1009–1063) and Robert, Duke of Burgundy (1011–1076).

Robert II attempted to invade Burgundy in 1003 but failed. However, he was eventually recognised as the Duke of Burgundy in 1016.

Robert II died on 20th July 1031 during a civil war with his sons. Constance and her sons had organised two rebellions against Robert, who died in the battlefield whilst trying to quell his family’s revolt against him, and he was succeeded by his son Henry. Although Robert had made Henry, his eldest surviving son, heir to the French throne, Constance wanted their younger son, Robert, to be king. She therefore constantly urged her two surviving sons into quarrelling with their father.

Robert II was a devout Catholic, musical composer and Chorister. He conducted Vespers and Matins himself, hence the name Pious, even though his private life did not seem pious.

Generation 8

Edmund II ‘Ironside’ King of England (988–1016)

Richard II ‘The Good’, Duke of Normandy (C.980–1026)

Henry I, King of France (1008–1060)

Edmund II, also known as Edmund Ironside, was born about 988, and he was the third child of Ethelred II and Aelfgifu (or Aelflaed). He was bestowed with the name ‘Ironside’, because of his persistent bravery in resisting Danish invasions, because of his enormous size and strength, and because he had the courage and effrontery to challenge King Canute, in Gloucester, to a duel in a single fight which King Canute declined due to Edmund’s size and strength.

Edmund only became King of England, because by 1014, his two older brothers had died, making him the oldest male heir to the throne. When Ethelred died on 23rd April 1016, the councillors and citizens of London proclaimed Edmund their ruler, crowning him King of England at the Old St Paul’s Cathedral, but a larger Body at Southampton, the English Witan, elected Canute King. Edmund then attacked Canute with his troops. He recovered Wessex and successfully defended London from an attack before he was finally defeated by Canute at the Battle of Assandun in Essex on 18th October 1016. Edmund retained Wessex, whilst Canute held the lands north of the River Thames.

Edmund disobeyed the commands and wishes of his father, King Ethelred, The Unready, by marrying Edith, the widow of Sigeferth, who was one of the Danish Lords occupying the English Territory in 1015. Edmund II and Edith, also spelt Ealdgyth or Eagwyth, are my 31 times great grandparents.

After Edmund died on 30th November 1016, in unknown circumstances, Canute became king of the whole of England. Edmund was peacefully buried near to his grandfather Edgar, ‘The Peaceful’, at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His reign for just 222 days was brief but impressive.

Canute immediately became ruthless. He gave lands and property belonging to Englishmen to his Danish followers and supporters as a reward for services rendered to him. He spearheaded the death of Edmund’s brother Eadwig, and he also ordered the death of several prominent Englishmen. Edmund’s infant sons, Edward and Edmund were first sent by Canute to be exiled to his half-brother Olof, the King of Sweden where the children were to be murdered. The two infant children were secretly escorted to Kiev, where Olof’s daughter, Ingigerd, was the queen. The two children were then sent to Hungary to escape the designs of Canute, where they were safely placed in the care of the King of Hungary, Stephen I. A move which King Canute was not expecting. The younger son Edmund died without issue, but Edward married Agatha, Princess of Hungary, by whom he had three children.

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2.

Richard II, who was the Count of Rouen and the Duke of Normandy, was also known as ‘Richard the Good’. He was the eldest son of Richard I, the Fearless, and Gunnora. He was the paternal grandfather of William, the Conqueror. Richard II succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy when his father died in 996. It is well-documented that when Richard I died in 996, Rodulf of Ivry, the uncle of Richard II became his Regent and took effective power during the first five years of his reign, together with his mother Gunnor which period was when Richard II was a minor. It was Rodulf who dealt with the Peasant’s Revolt in 996. Richard’s age is not documented. The reason may be that Richard II was still a minor when his father died.

In 1000 AD, Richard II gave permission to a great Viking army that had attacked Wessex a few times to land in Normandy. This action broke a treaty his father, Richard I, had made with the English not to aid the