ABSTRACT
In 1054, a mission went to the continent to seek the return of Edward the Exile, the survivor of the two sons of Edmund Ironside, the Confessor’s elder half-brother, who had led the English resistance to Cnut until his death in 1016. The Exile and his brother had been taken abroad in infancy for safety, and his whereabouts were eventually traced to Hungary. He seems to have arrived in England in September 1057, but died in London, possibly but not certainly by murder, before he could meet his uncle. However, the Exile left a young son, Edgar, and two daughters, all of whom arrived safely at Edward’s court and remained alive. Edgar, the last representative of the male line of the West Saxon house, was accepted as Edward’s heir and accorded the style of atheling, but was destined never to reign.
