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Eadweard I
Eadweard I
	Miniature from Matthew Paris's Historia Anglorum, c. 1253
Duke of Mercia (more...)
Reign	15 September 1066 – 11 March 1100
Predecessor	Wulfstan II
Successor	Beornwulf I of Mercia
Born	21 January 1048; Northamptonshire, Kingdom of England
Died	11 March 1100 (aged 52); Northamptonshire, Kingdom of England
Burial	Winchester Cathedral
House	House of Wulfing
Father	Unknown
Mother	Unknown

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Eadweard I (21 January 1048 – 11 March 1100) was Duke of Mercia from 26 September 1093 until his death in 1100. He became earl of Northamptonshire shortly before William the Conqueror's invasion of England and submitted. As his parents are unknown, the origin and how Eadweard became earl are also unknown. Some historians believe he was a distant cousin of king Harold Godwinson, others claim he was a Norman member of William the Conqueror's court. The most widely accepted claim, however, is that Eadweard was a minor Anglo-Saxon noble from Northamptonshire who rose to the status of earl just before the invasion.

He had three wives. His first wife, Octreda, bore five children, three of which reached adulthood. Octreda died in 1090 while pregnant with a sixth child. Eadweard then married Avice quickly afterward but she succumbed to smallpox a mere two months later. Two years later, he married the Franconian Heilwig and they remained married until Eadweard died. His second son to live to adulthood, Earl Rædwulf of Northamptonshire, was born to Heilwig.

He participated in the defensive war against the Norwegian king Harald IV, son of Harald Hardrada, in 1069 as a vassal of William I. In the aftermath, Eadweard conquered the lands around Northamptonshire and was crowned duke of Mercia in 1093.

In the aftermath of King Robert's death, a war of succession broke out between the Norwegian claimant Bodil of Essex and the Anglo-Norman Eadmund, and Anglo-Saxon Eorcenberht of Godwin between 1097 and 1109. Eadweard supported the Anglo-Norman Eadmund.

However, in 1100, Eadweard became ill with smallpox and quickly died.