If Richard III wasn’t English because of his twelfth–generation Norman ancestry (Letters, 11 May) then neither were Harold Godwinson (half-Danish) nor Edward the Confessor (raised in his mother’s Norman homeland). The last English king was the Confessor’s half-brother, Edmund Ironside, who died in mysterious circumstances one thousand years ago this year, after just seven months on the throne, to be succeeded by the Danish King Canute.
Tim Lidbetter
London
• Two further corrections about the last English king: first, the Angevins (Plantagenets) were French, not Norman. Second, Edgar (Atheling) was chosen king after Hastings, was not deposed until December 1066, and so should count as the last English king (incidentally, he was still alive in the 1120s). Edgar was son of Edward the Exile and grandson of Edmund Ironside, who succeeded his father Ethelred (the Unready) in 1016. On grounds of primogeniture, Edgar’s claim to kingship was better than Edward the Confessor’s.
Peter McMullen
Harrow, Middlesex
• Congratulations on your extensive coverage of the very exciting county cricket match between Yorkshire and Surrey, which finished on Wednesday evening. Headline news for the record stand between Jonny Bairstow (198) and Joe Root (213), which then led to the nail-biting finale at Headingley in which last season’s county champions beat Surrey and the weather, with only a few overs remaining in the four-day match. Sound familiar? Well it shouldn’t because I had to buy another newspaper to read any of this.
Keith Flood
Ribchester, Lancashire
• David Cameron’s comments to the Queen on corruption (Report, 11 May) are somewhat ironic from the leader of a political party facing police investigations into allegations it breached election spending rules in 2015.
Margaret Phelps
Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
