Edmund I of the Midlands, Northumbria, and Strathclyde (the last of which was ceded to Malcolm I of Scotland). Edmund was assassinated after six-and-a-half years as king, while attending Mass in Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire. He was initially succeeded by his brother Eadred, but his two sons – Eadwig and Edgar the Peaceful – both later came to the throne. Edmund came to the throne as the son of Edward the Elder, and therefore the grandson of Alfred the Great, great-grandson of Æthelwulf of Wessex and great-great grandson of Egbert of Wessex, who was the first of the house of Wessex to start dominating
Invasions of the British Isles time. However, Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington in 878. The resultant treaty gave the Danes control of northern and eastern England, with Alfred and his successors controlling Wessex. But the whole of England was unified with Norway and Denmark in the eleventh century, during the reign of the Danish king Cnut. When Cnut died, however, he was succeeded by the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor. Edward managed to reign until his death in 1066, when he was succeeded by the powerful Earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson. Harold's accession, however, was not