EDGAR, the second son of Edmund, private conduct was deeply marked by had so much more peaceable a reign vice and cruelty. He died in 975, than any of his predecessors, that he leaving by Ethelfleda, his first wife, has received the title of the Pacific. Edward, who succeeded him, and a Acting mainly by the direction of Dun-daughter, Edith; and by Elfritha, his stan, archbishop of Canterbury, he second wife, Ethelred, who also became preserved his states from war by ever king. shewing himself prepared for it, favoured the restoration of religious houses ruined in the troubled times of preceding kings, and greatly patronized the monastic rule; whence he is much praised by some writers, although his • Chronicle of the Princes of Wales. f He was released in 954, and retired to Oundle (the monastery founded by Wilfrid), where he died, in 955 or 956. From this time, Simeon of Durham remarks, there were no more kings in Northumbria; its rulers, though nearly independent, only had the title of duke, or count, or earl. Such was the title among his contemporaries of one whom comparatively recent writers describe as A.D. 959. Dunstan, who is the royal treasurer, is made bishop of London; and soon after is removed to Canterbury. a monster. He appears only to have carried out the recognised rule in separating Edwy and Elgiva; and though Osbern ascribes the death of the princess to him, Eadmer says that it was the act of the Mercian partisans of Edgar. Odo was the son of a Danish chief, and had been banished from his home in boyhood tor frequenting a Christian church. Some canons of his and a synodical epistle, which remain to us, have been pronounced " grave and pious compositions, very creditable to his memory." EDWARD II., CALLED THE MARTYR. AFTER a reign of less than four years, in which much that his father had done to establish the monastic rule was set aside, this unfortunate young prince was assassinated by the order of his step-mother, and he is retained in the calendar of the Anglican Church as a saint and martyr; his feast is celebrated on the 18th of March, and the translation of his remains from their private resting-place at Wareham to Shaftesbury on the 20th of June. His half-brother Ethelred succeeded him. driven out, and God's servants put down, whom King Edgar ordered the holy bishop Ethelwold to establish." A.D. 976. "This year was the great famine among the English nation." A.D. 978. "In this year all the chief witan of the English nation fell at Calne from an upper chamber, except the holy archbishop Dunstan, who alone supported himself upon a beam; and there were some grievously maimed, and some did not escape it with life." A.D. 979. "King Edward was slain at eventide at Corfes-geat on the 15th of the calends of April (March 18,) and then was he buried at Wareham, with of the Scots, Malcolm, king of Cumberland, Maccus, king of the Isles, and five Northman and British chiefs. 1 Corfe, in Dorsetshire, the residence of his stepmother, Elfritha. out any kind of kingly honours. There has not been done among the Angles a worse deed than this, since they first sought Britain. He was in life an earthly king; he is now after death a heavenly saint." ETHELRED II. " THE long reign of this prince, contemptuously styled "the Unready",' I was little else than a series of vain struggles with the Northmen, whom he alternately met in the field, bribed to retire, or attempted to cut off by assassination, but in all with equal want of success. He was obliged to take refuge in Normandy in 1013, and he only returned to die in England at the time that Canute was preparing the formidable armament with which he shortly after made himself master of the country. By his first wife, Elgiva, he left Edmund, who succeeded him; Edwy, put to death by Canute; Elfgina, married to Uhtred of Northumberland; Edgith, married to Edric Streona; and several other children. By his second wife, Emma, he had Edward (afterwards king), and Alfred, murdered in 1036 by Godwin; and Goda, first married to Drogo, count of Mantes, and afterwards to Eustace, count of Boulogne, whose visit to Eng; land in 1051 was attended by a fatal result to many of his party. A.D. 979. Ethelred is crowned at Kingston, on Sunday, May 4th ". and Goda, the Devonshire thane, slain, "This year was Watchet ravaged, and with him much slaughter made." The Northmen from Ireland levy a tribute on Wales. Archbishop Dunstan dies, May 195. The Northmen in Dublin said to pay tribute to Melaghlin (Malachy), A.D. 980. Southampton, Thanet, and Cheshire king of Ireland. ravaged by the Northmen. The Northmen in Ireland sustain a great defeat at Tara. Anlaf Cuaran goes on a pilgrimage to Hii, and dies there. A.D. 981. The coasts of Wales, Cornwall and Devon ravaged; Padstow is destroyed. " m Ethelred means noble counsel;" so that the appellation is literally, "The noble counsellor who cannot advise." Florence of Worcester says, 14th April, 978. His father, Elfhere, had long held the office, but Elfric was in league with the Northmen. He now made his peace, and thus obtained the post, which enabled him to do much mischief. P The cause of this is not known. This is called the tribute of the black Pagans, in the Chronicle of the Princes of Wales. A.D. 991. "This year was Ipswich ravaged; and after that very shortly was Brihtnoth, the ealdorman, slain. "And in that year it was decreed that tribute, for the first time, should be given to the Danish-men, on account of the great terror which they Dunstan is retained in the Anglican calendar, his feast occurring on May 19, and eighteen churches exist dedicated to him. This fatal expedient had been proposed in 865, but whilst the matter was in debate the Northmen "stole away by night, and ravaged all Kent to the eastward;" and even Alfred, in the early part of his reign, paid money to induce the invaders to withdraw. Anlaf and Sweyn', from Norway, attack London, but are repulsed, Sept. 8. They ravage Kent and the south coast, "and at last they took to themselves horses, and rode as far as they would, doing unspeakable evil." They take up their winter quarters at Southampton, where a peace is made with them, receiving food and sixteen thousand pounds of money. "Then the king sent bishop Elphege and Ethelward the ealdorman after king Anlaf, and the while, hostages were delivered to the ships; and they then led Anlaf with much worship to the king at Andover. And king Ethelred received him at the bishop's hands, and royally gifted him. And then Anlaf made a covenant with him, even as he also fulfilled, that he never again would come hostilely to the English nation"." * Sweyn, surnamed Tveskjæg, or Forked Beard, was the father of Canute, who conquered England, and he himself had possession of a portion of it a short time before his death, so that he is sometimes considered as the first Danish king. Anlaf (also called Olaf, or Olaus) returned to Norway, where he zealously laboured to introduce Christianity, which occasioned a quarrel with his brother-in-law and former ally, Sweyn, by whom he was driven out and killed in the year 1000. His "And thence they went into Wihtland (the Isle of Wight), and there they roved about, even as they themselves would, and nothing withstood them; nor any fleet by sea durst meet them; nor land force either, went they ever so far up. Then was it in every ceased from their evil doings." wise a heavy time, because they never A.D. 1002. "Twenty-four thousand pounds was paid as tribute to the fleet, and peace made with them, on condition that they should cease from their evil doings." kinsman, known as Olaf the Saint, reconquered Norway, but was slain through the intrigues of Canute; another kinsman of Anlaf was Harold Hardrada, who fell at Stamford-bridge. See A.D. 1066. * Cumberland was then possessed by the Scots (see A.D. 945), and Anglesey in league with the Northmen. He abandoned the city after plundering it, and occupying it for a month or more. ... "but it availed nothing". "for this army went wheresoever itself would, and the forces did every kind of harm to the inhabitants; so that neither profited them, nor the home army, nor the foreign army.” The Northmen make the Isle of Wight their winter quarters, and send out plundering parties into Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. "And they went along Escesdun (Aston) to Cwichelm's-hlæw, and there abode, as a daring boast; for it had been often said, if they should reach Cwichelm'shlaw, that they would never again get to the sea: then they went homewards another way.” The Northmen gain a victory at Kennet, (near Marlborough,) and King Ethelred retires into Shropshire. "Then became the dread of the army so great, that no man could think or discover how they could be driven out of the land, or this land maintained against them; for they had every shire in Wessex sadly marked, by burning and by plundering. Then the king began earnestly with his witan to consider what might seem most advisable to them all, so that this land might be saved, before it was utterly destroyed. Then the king and his witan decreed for the behalf of the whole nation, though it was hateful to them all, that they needs must pay tribute to the army. Then the king sent to the army, and directed it to be made known to them, that he would that there should be a truce between them, and that tribute should be paid, and food given them. And then all that they accepted; and then were they victualled from throughout the English nation." A.D. 1007. "In this year was the tribute delivered to the army; it was 36,000 pounds." Edric Streona is appointed ealdorman of Mercia. That is, his Northman body-guard; but the instruction was exceeded, and women and children of their nation were also put to death. a Such is the contemporary account of this most atrocious and impolitic act. One of the sufferers was Gunhilda, the sister of Sweyn, on whom William of Malmesbury pronounces a warm eulogium. b Sec A.D. 992. e Now called Cuckamsley-hill, to the north of West Isley, in Berkshire, full 60 miles from the coast. It is traditionally said to have been the usual place of assembly of the people of Wessex. d That is, Edric the Acquirer, or, less favourably, the Rapacious. He is said to have belonged to the old royal family of the South Saxons, who were reduced to the rank of nobles by Egbert. |