Hello and welcome to the History of England episode 12, the last King in Yorfick. One of the

comments I got sent recently was that maybe I could try and go a little bit

more slowly in this to allow people to absorb the information I'm giving. So

this is my first week doing this, I'm going to speak very slowly and if it

means everybody gets bored you can just tell me to speed up again. And thank

you by the way Stephen, I really enjoyed getting your email. Last week we talked

about Athos Dan the glorious. This week it's the turn of his brother Edmund the

magnificent Edmund the just and Edmund the deed doer. Athos Dan ended his

reign on a high but pretty much as soon as he died Humpity fell off the wall

and Edmund was to spend a fair proportion of his unfortunately short life

putting him back together again. Edmund was born in 922 and therefore was just

24 when his brother died. His life and his reign was short but by the time he

died in 945 after a six-year reign Humpity had indeed been put back where he

belonged. The first thing Edmund actually did was to get married to somebody

called Elkworth. We know very little about her except that she was later declared

a saint and that she was the mother of Edwy and Edgar and died young in 944.

Edmund immediately remarried but there were to be no more children. While

Edmund was getting hitched North Embryer and the Norseman were again causing

problems. Olaf Guthrathson had been decisively defeated by Athos Dan at his

fifteen-year-old brother Edmund at the Battle of Brunenburg in 937 and he'd

fled on his ships all the way back to Dublin. But when he heard of Athos Dan's

death he clearly felt he should have another go and he set sail for North Embryer

...