Editing Edmund I (section)

== Background ==
[[File:British Isles 10th century.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms in the tenth century|alt=Map of the British Isles in the tenth century. Edmund's territory at the beginning and end of his reign covered Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, York and Northumbria.]]

In the ninth century the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of [[Wessex]], [[Mercia]], [[Northumbria]] and [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglia]] came under increasing attack from [[Viking activity in the British Isles|Vikings]], culminating in invasion by the [[Great Heathen Army]] in 865. By 878, the Vikings had overrun East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, and nearly conquered Wessex, but in that year the West Saxons fought back under [[Alfred the Great]] and achieved a decisive victory at the [[Battle of Edington]].{{sfn|Keynes and Lapidge|1983|p=9}} In the 880s and 890s, the Anglo-Saxons ruled Wessex and western Mercia, but the rest of England was under Viking kings. Alfred constructed a network of fortresses, and these helped him to frustrate renewed Viking attacks in the 890s with the assistance of his son-in-law, [[Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians]], and his elder son [[Edward the Elder|Edward]], who became king when Alfred died in 899.{{sfn|Stenton|1971|pp=254–255, 259, 264–269}} In 909, Edward sent a force of West Saxons and Mercians to attack the Northumbrian Danes, and the following year the Danes retaliated with a raid on Mercia. While they were marching back to Northumbria, they were caught by an Anglo-Saxon army and decisively defeated at the [[Battle of Tettenhall]], ending the threat from the Northumbrian Vikings for a generation. In the 910s, Edward and [[Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians|Æthelflæd]], his sister and Æthelred's widow, extended Alfred's network of fortresses and conquered Viking-ruled eastern Mercia and East Anglia. When Edward died in 924, he controlled all England south of the [[Humber]].{{sfn|Miller|2004}}

Edward was succeeded by his eldest son [[Æthelstan]], who seized control of Northumbria in 927, thus becoming the first king of all England. He then styled himself in charters as king of the English, and soon afterwards [[Wales in the High Middle Ages|Welsh kings]] and the kings of [[Scotland in the High Middle Ages|Scotland]] and [[Kingdom of Strathclyde|Strathclyde]] acknowledged his overlordship. After this, he adopted more grandiose titles such as {{lang|la|Rex Totius Britanniae}} (king of the whole of Britain). In 934 he [[Æthelstan's invasion of Scotland|invaded Scotland]] and in 937 an alliance of armies of Scotland, Strathclyde and the Vikings invaded England. Æthelstan secured a decisive victory at the [[Battle of Brunanburh]], cementing his dominant position in Britain.{{sfn|Foot|2011a}}

[[Rule of Saint Benedict|Benedictine monasticism]] had flourished in England in the seventh and eighth centuries, but it severely declined in the late eighth and ninth centuries. By the time Alfred came to the throne in 871, monasteries and knowledge of [[Latin]] were at a low ebb, but there was a gradual revival from Alfred's time onwards.{{sfnm|1a1=Stenton|1y=1971|1pp=157–159|2a1=Blair|2y=2005|2pp=128–134, 347}} This accelerated during Æthelstan's reign, and two leaders of the later tenth-century [[English Benedictine Reform]], [[Dunstan]] and [[Æthelwold of Winchester|Æthelwold]], reached maturity in Æthelstan's cosmopolitan, intellectual court of the 930s.{{sfn|Blair|2005|p=350}}