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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Edgar the Ætheling

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8391851911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 8 — Edgar the Ætheling

EDGAR, or Eadgar (c. 1050–c. 1130), called the Ætheling, was the son of Edward, a son of the English king Edmund Ironside, by his wife Agatha, a kinswoman of the emperor Henry II., and was born probably in Hungary some time before 1057, the year of his father’s death. After the death of Harold in 1066, Archbishop Aldred and the citizens of London desired to make him king, but on the advance of William, Edgar and his supporters made their submission. In 1068, after the failure of the first rising of the north, Edgar retired to Scotland, when his sister Margaret married the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore. Next year he returned to take part in the second rising, but, this proving no more successful than the first, he again took refuge in Scotland. In 1074 he went to Normandy and made peace with William. In the struggle between Henry I. and Robert of Normandy, Edgar sided with the latter. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Tinchebrai in 1106, but was subsequently released. The date of his death is uncertain, but he was certainly alive about 1125.