Editing Eadwig (section)

== Background ==
In the ninth century [[Anglo-Saxon England]] came under increasing attack from [[Viking]] raids, culminating in invasion by the Viking [[Great Heathen Army]] in 865. By 878, the army had overrun the kingdoms of [[Northumbria]], [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglia]], and [[Mercia]], and nearly conquered [[Wessex]], but in that year the West Saxons achieved a decisive victory at the [[Battle of Edington]] under King [[Alfred the Great]]. By 883, [[Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians]], had accepted Alfred's overlordship, and in the 880s and 890s the Anglo-Saxons ruled Wessex and western Mercia, but the rest of England was under [[Vikings|Viking rule]].{{sfn|Keynes|Lapidge|1983|pp=9, 12–13, 23, 37–38}} Alfred died in 899 and was succeeded by his son, [[Edward the Elder]]. In the 910s, Edward and [[Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians]], who was his sister and Æthelred's widow, conquered Viking-ruled eastern Mercia and East Anglia. Æthelflæd died in 918 and the Mercians installed her daughter [[Ælfwynn]] as the second Lady of the Mercians, but Edward seized her and established full control over Mercia. When he died in 924, he controlled all of England south of the [[Humber]].{{sfn|Miller|2011}}

Edward was succeeded by his eldest son [[Æthelstan]], who may have been king only of Mercia at first, but ruled the whole of his father's realm by the next year. In 927, he conquered [[Northumbria]] and thus became the first king of all of England.{{sfn|Foot|2011}} He died in October 939 and was succeeded by his half-brother and Eadwig's father, [[Edmund I|Edmund]], who was the first king to succeed to the throne of all England. He almost immediately lost control of the north when [[Anlaf Guthfrithson]], the Viking king of Dublin, crossed the sea to become [[Scandinavian York|king of York]] (southern Northumbria). He then invaded Mercia and Edmund was forced to surrender north-east Mercia to him, but Guthfrithson died in 941. By 944, York was ruled by two Viking kings, [[Anlaf Sihtricson]] and [[Ragnall Guthfrithson]], and in that year Edmund expelled them and recovered full control of England. On 26 May 946, he was stabbed to death trying to protect his [[Dish-bearers and butlers in Anglo-Saxon England|seneschal]] from attack by a convicted outlaw at [[Pucklechurch]] in [[Gloucestershire]], and as his sons Eadwig and [[Edgar, King of England|Edgar]] were young children, their uncle [[Eadred]] became king.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2004a|2a1=Stenton|2y=1971|2pp=357–358}}

Like Edmund, Eadred inherited the kingship of the whole of England but soon lost it when York accepted a Viking leader as king. The sequence of events is unclear, but Eadred, Anlaf Sihtricson and [[Erik Bloodaxe]] ruled the kingdom of York at different periods until its magnates expelled Erik, and Northumbria became permanently part of England. Eadred then appointed [[Osulf I of Bamburgh|Osulf]], the Anglo-Saxon ruler of [[Bamburgh]] (northern Northumbria), as the earl of all Northumbria.{{sfn|Williams|2004b}} Eadred died on 23 November 955, and Eadwig succeeded at the age of around fifteen.{{sfn|Keynes|2004}} He was the first king since the early ninth century not to face the threat of imminent foreign invasion,{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=364}} although this could not have been known at the time. In his will Eadred left 1600 pounds{{efn|In this period a pound was not a coin but a unit of account equivalent to 240 pence.{{sfn|Naismith|2014a|p=330}} }} to be used for protection of his people from famine or to buy peace from a heathen army, showing that he did not regard England as safe from attack.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=1995|1p=132|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2p=555}}