Alfred

From the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Edmund II "Ironside":

b. c. 993
d. Nov. 30, 1016
EDMUND IRONSIDE Edmund II, King of the English from April 23 to Nov. 30, 1016, surnamed "Ironside" for his staunch resistance to a massive invasion led by the Danish king Canute.
The son of King Ethelred II the Unready (reigned 978-1016), Edmund defied his father's orders by marrying (1015) the widow of one of the Danish lords then occupying English territory. Nevertheless, when Canute invaded England later in 1015, Edmund raised an army in northern England and ravaged regions that would not rally to his cause.

Upon Ethelred's death (April 1016), a small number of councillors and citizens of London proclaimed Edmund as their ruler, but a larger body of nobles at Southampton declared for Canute. Edmund then launched a series of offensives against his rival. He recovered Wessex and relieved London of a siege before being decisively defeated by Canute at Ashington, Essex, on October 18. In the ensuing peace settlement, Edmund retained Wessex, while Canute held the lands north of the River Thames. After Edmund died (probably of natural causes), Canute became sole ruler of England.

In the Chaplin and Skinner family book there is the following story concerning Edmund Ironside and the Skinners:

'The earliest wills registered at Lincoln are in 1515; and the will of Robert Skynner (as it was then spelt) bears the date 1535; and the registers of Bolingbroke, commencing 1561, have the marriage of Vincent Skynner, 1569; and frequent entries of the name, sometimes registered as a Christian-name, in other families. Among the many branches of the family (for there are sixteen different coats of arms assigned to them of which I have copies) it may be said in support of the old pedigree, that the tradition exists that they were established by the munificence of the Conqueror whom they claim as kinsman.

The following very ancient account of the Conqueror's mother may well be considered with reference to such claim [no source is given]: -

"Edmund Ironside," says a Saxon genealogist, "had two sons, Edwin and Edward, and an only daughter, whose name does not appear in history because of her wilful conduct, seeing that she formed a most imprudent alliance with the King's Skinner, that is, 'Master of the Robes.' The King in his anger banished the skinner from England, with his daughter. They both went to Normandy, where they lived on public charity, and had successively three daughters. Having one day come to Falaise to beg at Duke Richard's door, the Duke, struck with the beauty of the woman and her children, asked who she was. "I am an Englishwoman," she said, "of the Royal Blood." The Duke, on this answer, treated her with honour, took the skinner into his service, and had one of his daughters brought up in the Palace. She was Arlotte, or Charlotte, the mother of the Conqueror.'

This is a nice story but it does seem terribly unlikely. Duke Richard (if Richard 1 of Normandy, was according to this research the great grandfather of this daughter. Wouldn't she have gone to see him anyway, rather than live in poverty in Falaise? It seems to be generally accepted that William the Conqueror's mother was a village girl (called Arlette!), but it would be incredible for history not to have noticed that she was an Englishwoman of the royal blood. And Charlotte's alleged brother Sir Robert de Skynnere of Normandy has not yet been tracked down. Another problem is that Edmund Ironside died when he was only 23, and it is difficult to imagine that he could have had a daughter old enough to get into this kind of trouble while he lived! Supposing that her father was born in 990 and that she was born when he was 17, ie in 1007, she would herself have been 17 in 1024. But he was no longer in a position to banish her, being already dead! Also, her own daughter would not have been 17 by 1041, yet William was born in about 1028.

There are many references to William the Conqueror in the encyclopaedia, eg:

"William was the elder of two children of Robert I of Normandy and his concubine Herleva, or Arlette, the daughter of a burgher from the town of Falaise. In 1035 Robert died when returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and William, his only son, whom he had nominated as his heir before his departure, was accepted as duke by the Norman magnates and his feudal overlord, King Henry I of France. William and his friends had to overcome enormous obstacles. His illegitimacy (he was generally known as the Bastard) was a handicap, and he had to survive the collapse of law and order that accompanied his accession as a child.