Link to the Youtube video and the rest of the series!

Second Episode of Siggie presenting her take on the history of the monarchs of England in the context of her favorite topic….herself. Here she discusses the second king of England, Edmund I the Magnificent.

Yeah all right, so we’re talking about the early Kings of England, the Wessex 

kings. In the last video that I did,  I was talking about King Edmund the

First. His father was King Edward of Wessex, and he had a couple of sons.

King Edmund the First, I said had gotten his ass kicked by Vikings in the last video.

That’s true. He did. Basically, he waited for this guy Olaf, who was

the Norse king of Dublin. He occupied Northumbria, raided the Midlands. That’s

all Northern England. Edmund recovered all of this, but basically he waited for

Olaf to die, and then he drove out a couple of other guys and he captured

some area called Strathclyde. He  gave it to Malcolm the First, the king of

Scots, in exchange for military support. So basically, he got a good

relationship going with Scotland. He was basically protecting the borders 

of England and you know keeping  everything calm and

quiet. 

Now here’s the thing. His name was Edmund the Magnificent. I don’t know if

I’d go so far to call him “magnificent.” Yeah, he did a few things. His reign is

considered to be the beginning of the 10th Century Monastic Revival in England.

That’s something that’s important, but you know, I mean to call him “magnificent”…

He had to wait for this dude Olaf to die and then he’s like… “Oh, okay. I’ll take it

back now. Yeah, you guys are not here. Get out of here. I don’t need you. You know,

this is mine now.” Anyway, it’s kind of tragic. Apparently,

there was an exiled thief that ended up killing this guy, Edmund the First, and

that was it. So, he died, I think, in his mid-20s.

He had a couple of, you know, successes. But, you know, he had a lot of struggles

and had a tragic ending. I want to know why all of these guys are named “E”

something. Edmund, Edward, Eadred, Aethelstan. Apparently, Edmund had a couple of kids,

but they were like you know five years old or something when he got tragically

murdered. So, they were too young to become the next king. So, his brother,

Eadred, took over. I don’t feel like talking about him right now because this

is already so many facts to know, to memorize, to spew out… I’m making

myself dizzy. We’ll talk about it next time.

(Stay tuned for Episode 3: “The Wessex and Danish Kings: from Edward to Cnut”)