The story of Edward is one of contradictions. There’s something about his rule that seems … complicated and requiring more nuance than many of our earlier rulers. Here we have a King that did what must have seemed impossible… he began his rule holding dominion over Wessex and Kent. Huge portions of his kingdom were in outright rebellion against him. Now at the end of his reign he holds all the Anglo Saxon land south of the humber, and has the submission of all the Welsh Kingdoms, Jorvik, the rest of Northumbria, Strathclyde, and the Scots.
There’s no way to look at that trajectory and not see an amazingly effective king.
But when we look at his rule, it also seems clear that many people around him didn’t seem to like him. Even before he became king, back when he was just Edward AEtheling, his Fyrd abandoned him while on campaign… and his rule was marked with one political crisis after another and his kingdom was constantly at war.
Edward was effective, but it also seems that there was just something about him that people didn’t like.
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