Princes Edward and Edwin in Ladoga and Kyiv, and a theory of British monks on Valaam

In the late tenth century England found itself in a very precarious position, aggravated by the unceasing raids of the Vikings. By 1016, fifty years before the Norman Conquest, it had been wholly conquered by the Vikings.

After the Danish conquest, Cnut of the House of Knýtlinga, son of the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, came to rule in England. The new king wished to destroy the remnants of the Wessex dynasty and resolved to send the infant princes Edward and his brother Edwin away to Denmark, where they might be done away with quietly, without undue publicity. But the sons of King Edmund Ironside were saved. Their father's supporters carried them off to Ladoga and to Kyiv.

After Kyiv, the English princes would settle in Hungary. Edward, heir to the English crown, would receive the byname the Exile.

It has been suggested that the ancient monastery on Valaam, on Lake Ladoga, was founded by British or Celtic monks. This might explain the very name, which resembles those of many ancient English places beginning with “Llan”, from the Celtic “Alan”, a monastery. Such is the name of the monastery at the mouth of the longest river in Britain, the Severn: “Lladoga” and “Llandarf”. It is thought that this may derive from “Llandogalf”, a monastery in a bay. Indeed, the Valaam Monastery too stands in the continuation of the Gulf of Finland. But this is only a theory.