BOOK of Scotland, who visited him, he not only gave the VI. county of Louth, but one hundred ounces of gold, many silken ornaments, and rings, with pre

Edgar.

973.

cious stones. 44

pure

THE person of Edgar was small and thin; and Kenneth one day remarked, that it was wonderful that so many provinces should obey a man so insignificant. These words were carried to the king. He led Kenneth apart into a wood, and bad him take one of two swords which he produced. "Our arms shall decide which ought to obey the other; for it will be base to have asserted that at a feast, which you cannot support with your sword." Kenneth confused, recollected his hasty remark, and apologised for it as a joke. There is such an energy and a magnanimity in this incident, that if Edgar had attained his power at a later age, or had possessed better counsellors, he might have displayed a nobler character.

45

EDGAR was twice married. By his first wife, Elfleda the Fair, daughter of Ordmer, he had Edward, his successor, and a daughter, who became a nun. Elfrida, whom he had made the widow of Athelwold 6, that had deceived him, bore him two sons; Edmund, who died before him; and Ethelred, who also obtained the

crown.

EDGAR'S reign has been celebrated as the most glorious of all the Anglo-Saxon kings. No

44 Matt. West. says, Louth was given on condition that Kenneth should come every year to Edgar's principal feasts. The king gave him several houses for his entertainment during his journey.

45 Malmsb. 59.

46 The Saxon Chron. MS. Tib. B. 4. dates Edgar's marriage with Elfrida in 965.

VI.

975.

other sovereign indeed, converted his prosperity CHA P. into such personal pomp; but no other sove- Edgar. reign was more degraded in his posterity. With his short life, for he died at thirty-two, the gaudy pageantry ceased; and all the dominion in which he had so ostentatiously exulted, vanished from his children's grasp. His eldest son

perished by the scheme of his beloved Elfrida; his youngest reigned only to show, that one weak reign is sufficient to ruin even a brave and great people.

The son

EDGAR made kings his watermen. of his love five times bought his kingdom from Danish rovers, was the fool of traitors, and surrendered his throne to a foreign invader. Of Edgar's grandsons, one perished violently soon after his accession. The other was the last of his race who ruled the Anglo-Saxon nation.

BOOK
VI.
Edward
the
Martyr.

975.

CHAP. VII.

EDWARD the Martyr, or EDWARD the Second of the ANGLO-
SAXON Kings.

DUNSTAN had used the power of Edgar to
plant England with the new monks, and to
exclude from their seats the ancient clergy; but
he had not reconciled all the nation to the se-
verity of the measure, or to his own administration;
for on Edgar's death an attempt was made to
humble his power, and to restore the clergy.
As Edward appeared subservient to the views of
Dunstan, his accession was disputed. Some chose
him, and others Ethelred. But Edward had been
named by his father as successor, and Dunstan
took the shortest road to his object. He and
Oswald assembled their ecclesiastical friends and
some Duces, and crowned Edward. 2 Edward, like
all the kings since Athelstan, was very young at his

accession.

a

1

THE quarrel between the two systems grew more vehement. The governor of Mercia turned out all the monks. 3 The governor of East Anglia supported them. Many tumults ensued. The clergy got hold of the monastic possessions, which they distributed to the governors in return for their protection.

6

Flor. Wig. 361. Mailros, 151.

2 Hist. Rames. 413. Mailros, 151. Eadmer, Vit. D. 220. 3 Ingulf, 54. Malmsb. 61.

4 Hist. Rames, 412.

5 Multus inde tumultus in omni angulo Angliæ factus est. Ingulf, 54.

6 Ingulf, 54. One author says, he cannot express the sufferings of the monks. Hist. Rames. 412.

VII.

ELFRIDA opposed Dunstan. She joined the CHAP. party of the clergy, and endeavoured to bias Edward the minds of the great in favour of her son Ethelred.

THOUGH Dunstan had got Edward crowned, he could not recover the alienated minds of the nobility. He attempted to govern them by the influence of superstition. He forcibly expelled the clergy, who had been reinstated; and to quiet the discontents at his violence, he convened a synod at Winchester. While the opinions were forming, and the assembly expected his answer to a peculiar appeal which had been made to him, the crucifix in the wall became vocal. It commended the former proceedings: it forbad a change. "What wish ye more?" exclaimed Dunstan, immediately; "the divine voice determines the affair."

THIS artifice, for, unless we believe it to have been a miracle, no other name can be given to it, did not fully succeed. It was followed by another event, which, taken in conjunction with the preceding, leads the impartial mind to the strongest suspicion of its having been a scheme of the most atrocious nature. The candid historian will always

7 Malmsb. 61. Brompton, 870. Gervase, 1647. Osberne, 112. Eadmer, 219. The two latter place it under Edgar's reign, which is less probable than the chronology of the others, because Edgar's attachment to Dunstan and power made such aids useless. Whatever affects the character of Dunstan, Mr. Lingard wishes to believe a mere popular tale. If Dunstan's enemies had written his life, Mr. Lingard's incredulity would be a fair exertion of cautious though arbitrary pyrrhonism. But all that we know of Dunstan comes from his friends and panegyrists. It is our moral sympathies that have improved, not our historical evidence that has diminished.

the

Martyr.

975.

Edward

the Martyr.

975.

BOOK regret when the nature of the incidents compel him VI. to infer bad motives. But some facts justify the imputation; and the following events, unless extreme charity can believe them to have been accidental, or credulity can suppose them to have been miraculous, announce premeditated plans of the most flagitious nature. A council of the nobles was summoned at Calne. It was managed that the king should be absent, on account of his age. While the senators of England were conversing unsuspectingly on the question then agitated, and were reproaching Dunstan, he gave a short reply, which ended with these remarkable words: " I confess that I am unwilling to be overcome. I commit the cause of the church to the decision of Christ."

As these words, which of themselves imply all that we would impute, were uttered, the floor and its beams and rafters gave way, and precipitated the company with the ruins to the earth below. The seat of Dunstan only was unmoved. Many of the nobles were killed upon the spot; the others were grievously hurt by wounds which kept them long confined. If no other achievement had revealed Dunstan's character, would not this be sufficient to startle the unprejudiced reader into a doubt of its sanctity? It was followed by another circumstance, which leaves us no alternative between the supposition of a purposed falsehood or an unworthy miracle.

ON the death of his friend and pupil Athelwold, the see of Winchester became vacant. As from the avowed dissatisfaction of the nobles, Dunstan's

* Malmsb. 61. Flor. Wig. 361. Sim. Dun. 160.