[MR] Wikipedia: Death of Edmund I of England, and Strathclyde

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

On this day in 946 King Edmund I of England was murdered during mass at
Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. According to some chronicles, Edmund was
killed when he personally confronted a thief named Leofa who was trying to
steal from the church. Other accounts by John of Worcester and William of
Malmesbury claim Edmund was offed by Leofa at a banquet when the king
recognized the exiled thief. Recent scholarship by K. Halloran suggests
Edmund might have been the victim of a political hit job. No matter which
story you pick, Edmund was as dead as a mackerel.

More about Edmund I can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_I .

Please don't confuse Edmund I with Edmund the Martyr, a king of East Anglia
who met his end as a Viking archery target:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_the_Martyr .

What I find most interesting about Edmund I is that he conquered the
Kingdom of Strathclyde in 945. This country was a Brithonic/Welsh-speaking
kingdom centered on Glasgow. In exchange for a defensive alliance, Edmund
ceded Strathclyde to a Scottish king or warlord named Máel Coluim (or Malcolm;
there were a number of men with this name floating through Scottish history
at this time, just as there were are lots of Edmunds in England). Sometime
in the 11th century Strathclyde, which was probably by then a client state,
was incorporated into what became a united Scotland. Some of my real
ancestors came from Strathclyde, possibly the Earls of Lennox (from which
by tradition the Napiers are descended). Edmund's armies may have knocked
off some of my ancestors, though at this point I won't hold that against
him. This is, after all, history.

Strathclyde's history is as vague and confusing as Edmund's death, but you
can read a summary at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Strathclyde
. The take-away from this is that a small non-Gaelic, non-Pictish country
within Scotland somehow managed to keep its independence for such a long
time.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆