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Edgar.

973.

COURTIERS are busy to supplant, and Edgar soon CHAP. heard the truth. He dissembled his anger, and VI. announced to Athelwold his intention to see the lady. Alarmed at his danger, the nobleman entreated his wife to deform herself; but Elfrida was weary of domestic privacy, and, on the day of the royal visit, she added every charm of art to give brilliancy to her beauty. She excited Edgar's pas

sions. He caused Athelwold to be assassinated in a wood, and then married Elfrida. 30

Ar another time he had the brutality to violate a lady of noble birth, who used a nun's veil as an expected, but an unavailing protection. 31

A THIRD incident of his contempt for the welfare of others, when his own gratification was in question, has been recorded. Visiting at Andover, he commanded a nobleman to bring him his daughter, whose person had been praised to him, but the mother of the young lady sent her attendant to personate her daughter. For these actions Dunstan imposed only trifling penances on Edgar. 33

YET amid these defects, some traits of an enlarged and liberal policy appear, which reflect credit on Edgar or his ministers. The most im

30 Malmsb. 59. Bromton gives the incident more in detail, 865, 866.

31 Malmsb. 60. This was in his first wife's time. Eadmer Vit. Dunst. 219.

32 Malmsb. 60. This author's expressions, nam cæteris infamias magis resperserunt cantilenæ, p. 56., imply, that the Anglo-Saxon poets made Edgar's dissolute conduct the subject of their poetry.

33 As occasional fasting, and not to wear his crown for seven years. Malmsb. 60. Osb. 111. One part of the penance was artfully chosen to promote the monk's purposes. The king was to lavish his treasures upon a nunnery, to expel the clergy with new vigour, and to introduce monks. Osb.

Edgar.

973.

34

BOOK portant of these was his patronage of foreigners VI. and trade. People from Saxony, Flanders, and Denmark, frequently came to him ; whom he received so well as to excite a censure from one monkish chronicler, that he loved them too much, and from another, that they injured his people by the vices they imported. 36 He showed his care of trade by his exemplary punishment of the people of Thanet, who had seized and plundered some merchants coming from York. 37 His commuting the tribute from Wales into three hundred wolves' heads 38, in order to extirpate these animals from the country, was a scheme of sound wisdom and generous policy. His reformation of his coin was also intelligent. It had become so diminished in weight, by the fraud of clipping, that the actual value

34 Malmsb. 56. The Welsh Chronicle, MS. Cleop. B. 5. says: "Canys canneat agavas gwyr Denmarc ar drigaw yn yr ynys honn tra vynnynt y gan Edgar vrenhin Lloegyr." — Because to the men of Denmark leave was granted by Edgar king of England, on their request, to dwell in this island.

35 Extraneos huc adductos plus æquo diligens. Hunt. 356. 36 Malmsbury says: "A Saxonibus animorum inconditam ferocitatem, a Flandritis corporum enervem mollitiem, a Danis potationem discerent. Homines ante hæc in talibus integri et naturali simplicitate sua defensare, aliena non mirari,” p. 56. The Welsh Chronicle adds to the last passage quoted, another, which states, that the Danes became so numerous, that they were in every city and town in England; that they gave themselves up to such drinking and idolatry, that they could not be governed; and that this occasioned nails to be put in their cups, to mark the quantity they were to drink. MS. Cleop. B. 5. Malmsbury says of Dunstan, that he caused silver or gold nails to be put into the drinking vessels, to prevent drunkenness and quarrels, p. 56.

37 Matt. West. 374.

38 Malmsbury says, the tribute ceased on the fourth year, for want of wolves, p. 59.

was very inferior to the nominal; he therefore had CHA P. new coins made all over England. 39

HE is said to have stationed three fleets of 1200 ships each on the east, west, and south coasts of the island, for the defence of the kingdom. This, however, looks more like idle parade than public utility; for England was threatened with no foreign hostility in his reign, and one-third of the number would have guarded the coast. There was more true glory obtained by his practice, every spring and winter, of riding through his provinces, to examine the conduct of the powerful, to protect the weak, and to punish every violation of law. 41 This attention to the wants and relief of his people merits our applause; and whether Dunstan's solicitude for popularity 42, or the king's noble feelings occasioned the custom, it ought not to be mentioned without high praise. His vigilant police freed the kingdom from robbers. 43

EDGAR was generous to his friends. To Kenneth

39 Matt. West. 375. Dunstan may have influenced him in this law; for it is stated in his life, that finding three coiners of false money not punished on the appointed day, because it was Whitsunday, he ordered the day not to be regarded; "for,” said he, "coiners are thieves, and I know of no thieves more harmful. They disturb the country, and injure both rich and poor." Eadmer, p. 216.

40 Mailros, 150. Matt. West. makes 4800 ships, by adding a Northern fleet. Perhaps either number is an exaggeration. Malmsbury says, that every Easter they sailed round the island, p. 59.

41 Malmsb. 59. Mailros, 150. Matt. West. 375.

42 After Dunstan had become a metropolitan, he hastened to travel through every city in the kingdom, to preach to it; and such was his acuteness and eloquence, says his biographer, that nothing could be wiser, or more pleasant. Osberne, 110. 43 Malmsb. 59.

VI.

Edgar.

973.

Edgar.

BOOK of Scotland, who visited him, he not only gave the VI. county of Louth, but one hundred ounces of pure gold, many silken ornaments, and rings, with precious stones. 44

973.

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.

46

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.

EDGAR made kings his watermen. The son 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.

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