Edmund Plantagenet

Prince Edmund Plantagenet, Duke of Edinburgh (1461-1498), nicknamed The Black Adder, is the titular protagonist of the first series of The Black Adder.
He was the son (possibly step-son) of King Richard IV and, as a Prince of the Realm, was second in the line of succession to the Throne of England.
He also served for a time as the Archbishop of Canterbury and, for only 30 seconds before his death, was the King of England after he and his family had been unintentionally poisoned by Percy, ending his reign before it could even begin.
He was played by Rowan Atkinson.
== The Black Adder ==
Set in the Middle Ages, the series is written as a secret history. It opens on 21st August 1485, the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field, which in the series is won not by Henry Tudor (as in reality) but by Richard III. King Richard III, played by Peter Cook, is presented as a good king who doted on his nephews, contrary to the Shakespearan view of him as a hunchbacked, infanticidal monster.
After his victory in the battle, Richard III is then unintentionally killed by Lord Edmund Plantagenet; Richard borrows Edmund's horse, which he thinks is a stray. Not recognizing the king, Edmund thinks Richard is stealing it and cuts his head off. The late King's nephew, Richard, Duke of York (played by Brian Blessed) who is Lord Edmund Plantagenet's father, is then crowned as Richard IV. Lord Edmund himself did not take part in the battle after arriving late, but later claims to have killed 450 peasants and several nobles, one of whom had actually been killed by his brother in the battle.
King Richard IV of England and XII of Scotland and his Queen Gertrude of Flanders have two sons; Prince Harry and his younger brother Prince Edmund. Of the two, Harry is by far his father's favourite, the King barely acknowledging his second son's existence. It is a running joke throughout the series that Edmund's father cannot even remember his name.
Using this premise, the series follows the fictitious reign of Richard IV (1485-98) through the experiences of Prince Edmund, who self-styles himself as "The Black Adder", and his two sidekicks - the imbecilic Lord Percy Percy the Duke of Northumberland (Tim McInnerny), and Baldrick (Tony Robinson), a more intelligent servant of no status.
By the end of the series, events converge with accepted history, when King Richard IV and his entire family are poisoned, allowing Henry Tudor to take the throne as King Henry VII. He then rewrites history, presenting Richard III as a monster, and eliminating Richard IV's reign from the history books. In reality, Richard, Duke of York one of the 'Princes in the Tower' was only twelve years old (and perhaps two years dead) when the Battle of Bosworth Field took place in 1485, and was thus too young to have had two adult sons.
In 1492, Edmund was slated to be married to the Spanish Infanta as part of his father's political machinations. However, changes in the political climate led to his eventual marriage to the eight-year-old Princess Leia of Hungary. Since Edmund dies in 1498, Leia is only 14 when Edmund dies.
==Gallery==
PrinceEdmund.jpg
== Licensing ==
This article contains content derived from the Blackadder Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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