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Edmund was the son of Edward the Elder and his last wife. He was said to be 18 when he became king in 939 so he was probably born in 920 or 921.
In 937 Edmund fought alongside his half-brother in the Battle of Brunanburh, in which Athelstan defeated a coalition assembled against him: the battle was a major step towards the unification of England and was commemorated in a celebratory poem preserved in the Anglo-Sax on Chronicle.
In 939 Edmund became king of Wessex and overlord of England, following the death of Athelstan, who had brought all England under his control. But his rule over Mercia and the north of England was quickly challenged. Olaf Guthfrithson, king of Dublin, invaded and seized control of York and the northern part of what had been the Viking kingdom there. In 940 Olaf Guthfrithson sought to extend his rule further south, into Mercia: he was driven back from Northampton, seized Tamworth in a bloody encounter, and was then besieged at Leicester by Edmund.
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Abt 920 - 946 (26 years)