Edmund and Edward were sons of Edmund Ironside, exiles after Cnut the Great took their father’s crown in 1016. They ended up in Kiev, where Edward won the respect of Yaroslav the Wise, and after helping Andrew of Hungary to win the Hungarian throne, Edward was deemed the outstanding candidate to be heir to the ailing King Edward the Confessor.

Edward the Exile died almost immediately after returning home, so Edward the Confessor lay dying in 1066, he nominated Harold Godwinson in Edward’s place, only for William of Normandy to defeat Harold at Hastings. The English nobles declared loyalty to Edward’s son Edgar, but William prevailed, though his son Henry I still found it prudent to marry Edgar’s niece, Matilda.

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