Edgarthe Atheling

Edgar the Atheling, a Saxon prince of the 11th century, who was a kind of Young Pretender of his day. He was the son of the exiled son of Edmund Ironside, and was born in Hungary.

Edward the Confessor is supposed to have had some intention of making him his heir, but the intention was not carried out. Some partisans set him up in opposition against William, but he was soon subdued, and was, on the whole, kindly treated by the three successive Norman kings under whom he lived, though he joined in more than one revolt and fought against Henry I. at Tenchebrai. Much of his life was spent in Scotland, whose king, Malcolm, married Edgar's sister Margaret, and provided the brother with a refuge as often as he made England or Normandy too hot to hold him.

Edgar had some warlike qualities, and took part in a crusade, and he defeated the usurping king Donald Bane of Scotland, and put his nephew and namesake. Edgar on the throne. Little or nothing is known of his later life.