Edward the Elder

King Edward the Elder was born in about 871 AD, the son of King Alfred the Great. He became King of Wessex on his father's death in 899, and exceeded Alfred's military achievements, restoring the Danelaw to Saxon rule and reigning in Mercia from 918, after the death of his sister, Ethelfleda. He spent his early reign fighting his cousin Aethelwald[?], son of Ethelred I. He had about eighteen children from his three marriages, and may have had an illegitimate child, too. He died in about 924, and was buried at Winchester. This portrait is imaginary and was drawn together with portraits of other Anglo-Saxons monarchs by an unknown artist on the 18th century.