Edgar the Aetheling, or Edgar II, is the English king that few people have heard of, and yet he was king at a time which schoolchildren are talked about. Edgar was the immediate predecessor to William the Conqueror in 1066, and came right after Harold Godwinson, yet he is missed out of most school text books.

Edgar is thought to have been born in 1051 in Hungary, and was son of Edward the Exile and Agatha, a Hungarian princess. The suffix Aetheling, was Saxon for prince.

Edgar was born into the line of Cerdic, the original 6th century King of Wessex, and as such had a claim to be heir to the English throne. His grandfather was King Edmund II (Edward Ironside), and his great grandfather was Ethelred the Unready. With the death of Edward Ironside, his Danish rival, King Canute, had taken the throne and had sent Edward's two sons, Edward and Edmund to be killed in Sweden, though they both survived, although exiled to continental Europe. Thus it was in Hungary that Edward, now known as the Exile found himself.

In 1057, when Edgar was six years of age, Edward the Confessor was informed that his nephew, Edward the Exile was alive. To Edward the Confessor this was great news as it meant that there was now an obvious Saxon-English line of succession to the throne. So no choice would have to be made between Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy for the English throne. Edward the Exile and his family were thus recalled to England.

Edward the Exile though died within two days of his return to England and so Edgar became heir to the throne of England. As a six year old, Edgar grew up in his great-uncle's court, alongside his sisters Margaret and Cristina.

When Edward the Confessor died in 1066, Edgar should have been king, despite being only fifteen, but the Witenagemot, the court of the realm elected Harold Godwinson king. Harold was seen as the only man who could stand up against William of Normandy. This was obviously a mistake as on the 14th October 1066, King Harold II was defeated at the Battle of Hastings. At this point school history books state that William of Normandy became King William I of England. Yet this is not true.

On the 14th October the London Witenagemot proclaimed the new king to be King Edgar II, Edgar was king at the age of fifteen. The Witenagemot was heavily influenced by the words of the Archbishops Ealdred of York and Stigand of Canterbury, and support from the Earls Morcar and Edwin. Edgar though had no army and no real

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