Editing Edmund Blackadder (section)

===Edmund, Lord Blackadder (Elizabethan England)===

[[Image:BA2adder.jpg|thumb|Edmund, [[Lord Blackadder]] (Series 2)]]

Edmund, Lord Blackadder, is the next-seen member of the dynasty, appearing in [[Elizabethan England]]. He is the central character of ''Black Adder II'' and is a [[aristocracy|nobleman]] in the court of [[Elizabeth I of England]]. Although his "great-grandfather" was Prince Edmund, he is much more intelligent, charismatic, acerbic, handsome and respected than his ancestor. Despite that fact, Edmund's aristocratic title has lowered; he is now simply a lord, rather than a prince. His main concerns are pleasing his [[Queenie (Blackadder)|Queen]] ([[Miranda Richardson]]), a childish, spoiled tyrant who usually threatens to execute anyone who displeases her, usually by decapitation, and in outwitting his various contemporary rivals, usually in the form of [[List of Blackadder characters#Melchett|Lord Melchett]] ([[Stephen Fry]]), for her favour. At the end of "Blackadder II", specifically the final episode, "Chains", Blackadder and Melchett are captured by two guards on the orders of the psychopathic Prince Ludwig the Indestructible of Germany ([[Hugh Laurie]]) who Blackadder had met in the past while Ludwig was disguised as a waitress named "Big Sally". The two men are confined to a dungeon with Ludwig giving Queenie a week to decide who she will rescue. When Queenie ignores the two of them in favour of holding a big costume party, Blackadder and Melchett work together to outwit the two guards after Ludwig has departed to infiltrate the palace, arriving in time to expose Ludwig, who then attempts to flee, prompting Blackadder to throw a dagger at Ludwig that presumably either kills him or leaves him badly wounded. However, after the end credits have aired, it is shown that Ludwig has returned and murdered Blackadder, the real Queenie, Melchett, Nursie, Percy and Baldrick. Ludwig then poses as Queenie after the assassination.

The character shift from Prince Edmund in the first series to Lord Blackadder in the second is credited to the involvement of [[Ben Elton]], who joined as the show's co-writer alongside [[Richard Curtis]]. The latter Edmund became the ''de facto'' archetype; nearly all subsequent Blackadders in the series were modelled after Edmund, Lord Blackadder - the exception being Ebenezer Blackadder, who initially began as the nicest man in England to the point of naivete but who gradually fell back into the standard persona after being abused by almost everyone around him.