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Offa of Mercia (died 796) -

Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom that is today known as the Midlands of England. Ruling this kingdom from 757 until his death in 796 was Offa, King of Mercia.

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Ecgberht (770– 839) -

Ecgberht, or Egbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from 519 until England was unified by Aethelstan in 927.

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Aethelwulf (died 858) -

King of Wessex from 839 to 858, Aethelwulf was the son of Ecgberht and father of Alfred the Great. Aethelwulf was a fierce warrior, and in 851 defeated a formidable Danish Viking army at the Battle of Aclea in present-day Surrey.

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Aethelbald (834–860) -

The second of five sons of King Aethelwulf, Aethelbald was King of Wessex from 855 to 860. A religious man, Aethelbald made a pilgrimage to Rome and upon his return promptly forced his father to abdicate.

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Aethelberht (died 865) -

Aethelberht was crowned King of Wessex upon the death of his brother Aethelbald. He ruled the kingdom from 860 until his death in 865. Wessex came under attack from Danish army raids during his reign, invasions that included the sacking of Winchester.

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Aethelred I (837–871) -

Aethelred succeeded his elder brother Aethelberht to take the Wessex crown, and ruled the kingdom from 865 until his death in 871. His accession coincided with the arrival of the Viking Great Heathen Army in England. Over the next five years, this coalition of Scandinavian warriors would launch a series of attacks across the country, including a full-scale assault on Wessex. Aethelred joined his brother Alfred in an attempt to repel the invaders.

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Alfred the Great (848–899) -

Alfred the Great was King of the West Saxons from 871 to c. 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 until his death in 899. During his reign, he spent several years fighting Viking invasions and by doing so became the dominant ruler in England, establishing Saxon Christian rule over first Wessex, and then on to most of the country.

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Edward the Elder (c. 874–924) -

Alfred's successor was his son, known as Edward the Elder. He was was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. After pushing the Danes out of southeast England and the Midlands, Edward was able to unite the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia.

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Athelstan (c. 894–939) -

Upon his death, Edward's son Athelstan became King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927. His name is forever associated with the Battle of Brunanburh, where he fought and defeated a Viking fleet landed off the coast of Kent in what is believed to be "the first naval battle in recorded English history." The battle is often cited as the point of origin for English nationalism, with Athelstan becoming the first king of all England.

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Edmund I (921–946) -

Edmund succeeded his half brother Athelstan to become King of the English from 939 until his death in 946. A veteran of the historic Battle of Brunanburh, Edmund was killed in a brawl, his two sons, Eadwig and Edgar, both considered too young to succeed him.

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Eadred (c. 923–955) -

Instead, Edmund's successor was his brother Eadred. King of the English from 946 until his death, Eadred was also adept at expelling Norsemen from his kingdom, his greatest victory being that of ridding York of its last Scandinavian king, the fearsome sounding Eric Bloodaxe. He was succeeded successively by his nephews, Eadwig and Edgar, the sons of Edmund I.

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Eadwig (c. 940–959) -

Crowned at 16 to become King of the English from 955 until his death in 959, Eadwig apparently had to be dragged from his bed by Bishop Dunston to rejoin his coronation ball after having left the ceremony to cavort with a noblewoman and her daughter. He died aged 20, his rule having lasted just four years.

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Edgar the Peaceful (c. 943–975) -

Eadwig's brother Edgar was crowned King of the English in 959 and soon became known as Edgar the Peaceful, his reign noted for its relative stability. Indeed, Edgar was instrumental in bringing together six kings of Britain, including the King of Scots, King of Strathclyde, and various princes of Wales, who in turn signaled their allegiance to Edgar by rowing him in his state barge across the River Dee.

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Edward the Martyr (c. 962–978) -

Though the eldest son of Edgar the Peaceful, Edward was not his father's acknowledged heir, that honor instead bestowed upon the younger brother, Aethelred. Nevertheless, Edward became King of the English in 975. He was murdered at Corfe Castle in Dorset in 978 by followers of Aethelred, thus becoming in the eyes of many a martyr after being seen as a victim of his scheming stepmother, the Queen Dowager Aelfthryth.

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Aethelred II the Unready (968–1016) -

Upon Edward's death, the English crown was passed to Aethelred, who was king from 978 to 1013, and again from 1014 until his death in 1016. His pitiful resistance against the Danish earned him the epithet "unready." In fact, he briefly fled to Normandy after Danish sovereign Sweyn Forkbeard was pronounced King of England in 1013. Forkbeard died shortly afterwards, allowing Aethelred to return and resume his reign, the remainder of which was marred by a constant state of war with Forkbeard's son Cnut.

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Edmund Ironside (c. 990–1016) -

The son of Aethelred, Edmund Ironside's reign as King of the English was also scarred by conflict. His moniker, "Ironside," was given to him because of his valor in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut the Great. Eventually, Edmund made a pact with Cnut to divide the kingdom between them, with the exception of Wessex. A condition of this arrangement was that when one of the kings died, the other would take all of England. By the end of 1016, Edmund was dead, most likely assassinated.

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Cnut (c. 990–1035) -

Edmund's demise paved the way for Cnut, or Canute, to become King of the English, from 1016 until his death in 1035. The story of King Cnut attempting to resist the incoming tide as a demonstration to his subjects that as a king he was not a god, is one of the most famous legends surrounding the Danish monarch.

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Harold I (died 1040) -

Cnut's illegitimate son Harold, also known as Harold Harefoot due to his prowess as a hunter, was King of the English from 1035 to 1040. The rightful heir, his half-brother Harthacnut, was in Denmark fighting to defend his Danish kingdom. Harold died just five years into his reign. A vengeful Harthacnut later had his body disinterred and beheaded, the dismembered cadaver being tossed into the River Thames. Subsequently recovered by fishermen, Harold's body was reburied at St. Clement Danes in London.

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Harthacnut (1018–1042) -

Harthacnut arrived back in England as king. But just two years into his reign, he died suddenly at a wedding while toasting the health of the bride, probably as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. Harthacnut was the last Danish king to rule England.

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Edward the Confessor (c. 1003–1066) -

Upon Harthacnut's death, his half-brother, Edward, restored the rule of the House of Wessex to the English throne. Known as Edward the Confessor for his pious and religious character, he was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings, and the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1044 to 1066.

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Harold II (c. 1022–1066) -

The last crowned Anglo-Saxon king was Harold Godwinson, better known as Harold II. Despite having no royal bloodline, he was elected king after the death of Edward the Confessor by the Witan, a council of leading nobles and religious leaders. Harold famously met his end during the Battle of Hastings after confronting William I of Normandy—the renowned "Conqueror." His death ended the reign of the English Anglo-Saxon kings and marked the beginning of the Normans.

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William II (c. 1056–1100) -

William I was succeeded by his surviving son, William II. Also known as William Rufus for his ruddy appearance and red hair, William was not a popular king. He was an uncultivated man who never married, nor did he have children. He was killed by a stray arrow while out hunting, probably accidently though some have suggested he was deliberately targeted on the instruction of his younger brother, Henry.

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Henry I (c. 1068–1135) -

Henry I, also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 until his death in 1135. After the death of his brother William II, Henry seized the throne. Henry's heir apparent, William Adelin, was one of those who drowned after the White Ship sank in the Channel during a trip from France to England on November 25, 1120. After Henry died of food poisoning, his daughter, Matilda, was brushed aside as a possible successor, as she was considered a woman unfit to rule by the Anglo-Norman court because of her marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou.

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Stephen (c. 1092–1154) -

The throne instead was offered to Stephen, a grandson of William I. King of England from 1135 until his death in 1154, Stephen was seen as weak and indecisive, a monarch incapable of stemming the constant raids orchestrated by the Scots and the Welsh. Furthermore, King Henry's daughter Matilda, previously passed over for the top job, was bent on revenge: a 15-year civil war known as The Anarchy broke out after she invaded from Anjou in 1139. Eventually as a compromise, it was agreed that Matilda's son, Henry Plantagenet, would succeed the throne when Stephen died.

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John (1166–1216) -

Stephen indeed was succeeded by the Plantagenet king Henry II ,who in turn was succeeded by Richard I, known as Lionheart. Claiming the throne after Richard I was his brother John, King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. A cruel, self-indulgent man who made few friends, John was compelled by furious land barons to sign the Magna Carta, which reinstated the rights of all his subjects. John has often been called the "worst English king."

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Edward II (1284–1327) -

While John's successors Henry III and Edward I are held in high regard for, respectively, promoting medieval architecture and uniting the knights, clergy, and nobility, as well as the Lords and Commons together for the first time, Edward II, who was King of England from 1307 until he was overthrown in 1327, was a weak and incompetent monarch. He was beaten by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, a humiliating defeat that further fueled criticism of his reign. Edward was deposed by his wife, Isabella, and her lover Roger Mortimer, and died in Berkley Castle in Gloucestershire, most likely murdered on the orders of the new regime.

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Richard II (1367–1400) -

Edward II was succeeded as king by his son, Edward III, after which Richard II stepped into the role. Richard II ruled England from 1377 before he too was deposed, in 1399. Widely seen as an extravagant, unjust, and faithless man whose unpredictable acts of revenge and tyranny turned his subjects against him, Richard was toppled from power by Henry of Lancaster (the future Henry IV). He died in Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire in 1400, probably from deliberate starvation.

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Henry VI (1421–1471) -

Henry IV and Henry V ruled England admirably before Henry VI came to the throne at the age of just nine months. Henry inherited the long-running Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). As that conflict ended, the House of York challenged Henry's right to the throne, and England was plunged into civil war in what became known as the War of the Roses. One day after the Yorkists won the decisive Battel of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471, Henry VI was deposed and imprisoned. He was murdered in the Tower of London on May 21.

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Edward V (1470–1483) -

Henry VI's successor, Edward IV, did himself no favors with his lack of moral authority, and even his contemporaries disapproved of him. His sudden death in April 1483 was succeeded by his minor son, Edward V, at the tender age of 13. Edward's reign, however, lasted just two months—the shortest-lived monarch in English history. Edward and his younger brother Richard were both murdered in the Tower of London, probably on the orders of Richard Duke of Gloucester, the future Richard III.

Sources: (History) (Historic UK) (BBC) (Medievalists.net)

See also: Absurdly short reigns in royal history

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