Editing Edmund I (section)

== Death and succession ==
On 26 May 946, Edmund was killed in a brawl at [[Pucklechurch]] in [[Gloucestershire]].{{sfn|Williams|2004}} According to the post-[[Norman Conquest|Conquest]] chronicler, [[John of Worcester]]:

{{Blockquote|While the glorious Edmund, king of the English, was at the royal township called Pucklechurch in English, in seeking to rescue his [[Dish-bearers and butlers in Anglo-Saxon England|steward]] from Leofa, a most wicked thief, lest he be killed, was himself killed by the same man on the feast of [[Augustine of Canterbury|St Augustine]], teacher of the English, on Tuesday, 26 May, in the fourth [[indiction]], having completed five years and seven months of his reign. He was borne to Glastonbury, and buried by the abbot, St Dunstan.{{sfn|Darlington and McGurk|1995|p=399}}}}

The historians Clare Downham and Kevin Halloran dismiss John of Worcester's account and suggest that the king was the victim of a political assassination, but this view has not been accepted by other historians.{{sfnm|1a1=Downham|1y=2003|1p=32, n. 51|2a1=Downham|2y=2007|2p=113|3a1=Halloran|3y=2015|3pp=120–129|4a1=Miller|4y=2014a|4p=165|5a1=Huscroft|5y=2019|5p=121}}

Like his son Edgar thirty years later, Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. The location may have reflected its spiritual prestige and royal endorsement of the monastic reform movement, but as his death was unexpected it is more likely that Dunstan was successful in claiming the body.{{sfn|Marafioti|2014|pp=54–55, 67–68}} His sons were still young children, so he was succeeded as king by his brother Eadred, who was in turn succeeded by Edmund's elder son Eadwig in 955.{{sfn|Huscroft|2019|pp=121–123}}