Edgar Ætheling

Edgar Ætheling was the last surviving male dynastic claimant of the old West Saxon royal house after the Norman Conquest. The son of Edward the Exile and grandson of Edmund Ironside, he was born in Hungary and returned to England with his family in 1057. After Harold II was killed at Hastings in October 1066, leading English magnates briefly recognised the young Edgar as king, but he was never crowned and submitted to William the Conqueror as Norman forces closed on London.

Edgar remained a focus for resistance because of his blood claim. He joined his mother and sisters in Scotland, where his sister Margaret married Malcolm III, and he was connected with northern rebellions against Norman rule before eventually reaching terms with William. His later career carried him between England, Scotland and continental politics; traditions also connect him with an eastern pilgrimage or crusading expedition. He was still alive in the 1120s, but the exact date of his death is unknown.

Nigel Tranter’s Margaret the Queen places Edgar within his sister Margaret’s Scottish career, while James Aitcheson’s Sworn Sword and The Splintered Kingdom, Griff Hosker’s Rebellion and Richard Cullen’s Winter Warrior use his claim as part of the unstable politics after 1066. Marc Morris discusses Edgar’s dynastic significance in The Norman Conquest and William I (Penguin Monarchs).