understandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are not
much susceptible of speculative instruction, Alfred endeavoured to
convey his morality by apologues, parables, stories, apophthegms,
couched in poetry; and besides propagating among his subjects former
compositions of that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue [z], he
exercised his genius in inventing works of a like nature [a], as well
as in translating from the Greek the elegant fables of Aesop. He also
gave Saxon translations of Orosiuss and Bedes histories; and of
Boethius concerning the consolation of philosophy [b]. And he deemed
it nowise derogatory from his other great characters of sovereign,
legislator, warrior, and politician, thus to lead the way to his
people in the pursuits of literature.
[FN [z] Asser. p. 13. [a] Spellman, p. 124. Abbas Rieval, p. 355.
[b] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4. Brompton, p. 814.]
Meanwhile, this prince was not negligent in encouraging the vulgar and
mechanical arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closer,
connexion with the interests of society. He invited, from all
quarters, industrious foreigners to repeople his country, which had
been desolated by the ravages of the Danes [c]. He introduced and
encouraged manufactures of all kinds; and no inventor or improver of
any ingenious art did he suffer to go unrewarded [d]. He prompted men
of activity to betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into
the most remote countries, and to acquire riches by propagating
industry among their fellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion
of his own revenue for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he
constantly employed in rebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces,
and monasteries [e]. Even the elegancies of life were brought to him
from the Mediterranean and the Indies [f]; and his subjects, by seeing
those productions of the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the
virtues of justice and industry, from which alone they could arise.
Both living and dead, Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than
by his own subjects, as the greatest prince after Charlemagne that had
appeared in Europe during several ages, and as one of the wisest and
best that had ever adorned the annals of any nation.
[FN [c] Asser. p. 13. Flor. Wigorn. p. 588. [d] Asser. p. 20. [e]
Asser. p. 20. W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 4. [f] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap.
4.]
Alfred had, by his wife, Ethelswitha, daughter of a Mercian earl,
three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Edmund, died without
issue, in his fathers lifetime. The third, Ethelward, inherited his
fathers passion for letters, and lived a private life. The second,
Edward, succeeded to his power; and passes by the appellation of
Edward the Elder, being the first of that name who sat on the English
throne.
[MN Edward the Elder. 901.]
This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, though
inferior to him in knowledge and erudition [g], found, immediately on
his accession, a specimen of that turbulent life to which all princes
and even all individuals were exposed, in an age when men, less
restrained by law or justice, and less occupied by industry, had no
aliment for their inquietude, but wars, insurrections, convulsions,
rapine, and depredation. Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King
Ethelbert, the elder brother of Alfred, insisted on his preferable
title [h]; and arming his partisans, took possession of Winburne,
where he seemed determined to defend himself to the last extremity,
and to await the issue of his pretensions [i]. But when the king
approached the town with a great army, Ethelwald, having the prospect
of certain destruction, made his escape, and fled first into Normandy,
thence into Northumberland; where he hoped that the people, who had
been recently subdued by Alfred, and who were impatient of peace,
would, on the intelligence of that great princes death, seize the
first pretence or opportunity of rebellion. The event did not
disappoint his expectations: the Northumbrians declared for him [k];
and Ethelwald having thus connected his interests with the Danish
tribes, went beyond sea, and collecting a body of these freebooters,
he excited the hopes of all those who had been accustomed to subsist
by rapine and violence [l]. The East Anglian Danes joined his party:
the Five-burgers, who were seated in the heart of Mercia, began to put
themselves in motion; and the English found that they were again
menaced with those convulsions, from which the valour and policy of
Alfred had so lately rescued them. The rebels, headed by Ethelwald,
made an incursion into the Counties of Gloucester, Oxford, and Wilts;
and having exercised their ravages in these places, they retired with
their booty, before the king, who had assembled an army, was able to
approach them. Edward, however, who was determined that his
preparations should not be fruitless, conducted his forces into East
Anglia, and retaliated the injuries which the inhabitants had
committed, by spreading the like devastation among them. Satiated
with revenge, and loaded with booty, he gave orders to retire: but the
authority of those ancient kings, which was feeble in peace, was not
much better established in the field; and the Kentish men, greedy of
more spoil, ventured, contrary to repeated orders, to stay behind him,
and to take up their quarters in Bury. This disobedience proved in the
issue fortunate to Edward. The Danes assaulted the Kentish men; but
met with so vigorous a resistance, that, though they gained the field
of battle, they bought that advantage by the loss of their bravest
leaders, and among the rest, by that of Ethelwald, who perished in the
action [m]. The king, freed from the fear of so dangerous a
competitor, made peace on advantageous terms with the East Angles [n].
[FN [g] W. Malmes lib. 2. cap. 5 Hoveden, p. 421. [h] Chron. Sax. p.
99, 100. [i] Ibid. p. 100. H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 352. [k] Chron.
Sax. p. 100. H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 352. [l] Chron. Sax. p. 100.
Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 24. [m] Chron. Sax. p. 101.
Brompton, p. 832. [n] Chron. Sax. p. 102. Brompton, p. 832. Matth.
West. p. 181.]
In order to restore England to such a state of tranquillity as it was
then capable of attaining, nought was wanting but the subjection of
the Northumbrians, who, assisted by the scattered Danes in Mercia,
continually infested the bowels of the kingdom. Edward, in order to
divert the force of these enemies, prepared a fleet to attack them by
sea; hoping that, when his ships appeared on their coast, they must at
least remain at home, and provide for their defence. But the
Northumbrians were less anxious to secure their own property, than
greedy to commit spoil on their enemy; and concluding, that the chief
strength of the English was embarked on board the fleet, they thought
the opportunity favourable, and entered Edwards territories with all
their forces. The king, who was prepared against this event, attacked
them on their return at Tetenhall, in the county of Stafford, put them
to rout, recovered all the booty, and pursued them with great
slaughter into their own country.
All the rest of Edwards reign was a scene of continued and successful
action against the Northumbrians, the East Angles, the Five-burgers,
and the foreign Danes who invaded him from Normandy and Britany. Nor
was he less provident in putting his kingdom in a posture of defence,
than vigorous in assaulting the enemy. He fortified the towns of
Chester, Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Buckingham, Towcester, Maldon,
Huntingdon, and Colchester. He fought two signal battles at Temsford
and Maldon [o]. He vanquished Thurketill, a great Danish chief, and
obliged him to retire with his followers into France, in quest of
spoil and adventures. He subdued the East Angles, and forced them to
swear allegiance to him; he expelled the two rival princes of
Northumberland, Reginald and Sidroc, and acquired, for the present,
the dominion of that province: several tribes of the Britons were
subjected by him; and even the Scots, who, during the reign of Egbert,
had, under the conduct of Kenneth their king, increased their power by
the final subjection of the Picts, were nevertheless obliged to give
him marks of submission [p]. In all these fortunate achievements he
was assisted by the activity and prudence of his sister, Ethelfleda,
who was widow of Ethelbert, Earl of Mercia, and who, after her
husbands death, retained the government of that province. This
princess, who had been reduced to extremity in childbed, refused
afterwards all commerce with her husband; not from any weak
superstition, as was common in that age, but because she deemed all
domestic occupations unworthy of her masculine and ambitious spirit
[q]. She died before her brother; and Edward, during the remainder of
his reign, took upon himself the immediate government of Mercia, which
before had been entrusted to the authority of a governor [r]. The
Saxon Chronicle fixes the death of this prince in 925 [s]: his kingdom
devolved to Athelstan, his natural son.
[FN [o] Chron. Sax. p. 108. Flor. Wigorn. p. 601. [p] Chron. Sax. p.
110. Hoveden, p. 421. [q] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 5. M. West. p.
182. Ingulph. p. 28. Higden, p. 261. [r] Chron. Sax. p. 110.
Brompton, p. 831. [s] Page 110.]
[MN Athelstan 925.]
The stain in this princes birth was not, in those times, deemed so
considerable as to exclude him from the throne; and Athelstan, being
of an age, as well as of a capacity fitted for government, obtained
the preference to Edwards younger children, who, though legitimate,
were of too tender years to rule a nation so much exposed both to
foreign invasion and to domestic convulsions. Some discontents,
however, prevailed on his accession; and Alfred, a nobleman of
considerable power, was thence encouraged to enter into a conspiracy
against him. This incident is related by historians with
circumstances, which the reader, according to the degree of credit he
is disposed to give them, may impute either to the invention of monks,
who forged them, or to their artifice, who found means of making them
real. Alfred, it is said, being seized upon strong suspicions, but
without any certain proof, firmly denied the .conspiracy imputed to
him; and in order to justify himself, he offered to swear to his
innocence before the pope, whose person, it was supposed, contained
such superior sanctity, that no one could presume to give a false oath
in his presence, and yet hope to escape the immediate vengeance of
heaven. The king accepted of the condition, and Alfred was conducted
to Rome; where, either conscious of his innocence, or neglecting the
superstition to which he appealed, he ventured to make the oath
required of him before John, who then filled the papal chair. But no
sooner had he pronounced the fatal words, than he fell into
convulsions, of which three days after he expired. The king, as if
the guilt of the conspirator were now fully ascertained, confiscated
his estate, and made a present of it to the monastery of Malmesbury
[t]; secure that no doubts would ever thenceforth be entertained
concerning the justice of his proceedings.
[FN [t] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 6. Spell. Conc. p. 407.]
The dominion of Athelstan was no sooner established over his English
subjects, than he endeavoured to give security to the government, by
providing against the insurrections of the Danes, which had created so
much disturbance to his predecessors. He marched into Northumberland;
and finding that the inhabitants bore with impatience the English
yoke, he thought it prudent to confer on Sithric, a Danish nobleman,
the title of king, and to attach him to his interests, by giving him
his sister, Editha, in marriage. But this policy proved by accident
the source of dangerous consequences. Sithric died in a twelvemonth
after; and his two sons by a former marriage, Anlaf and Godfrid,
founding pretensions on their fathers elevation, assumed the
sovereignty without waiting for Athelstans consent. They were soon
expelled by the power of that monarch; and the former took shelter in
Ireland, as the latter did in Scotland; where he received, during some
time, protection from Constantine, who then enjoyed the crown of that.
kingdom. The Scottish prince, however, continually solicited, and
even menaced by Athelstan, at last promised to deliver up his guest;
but secretly detesting this treachery, he gave Godfrid warning to make
his escape [u]; and that fugitive, after subsisting by piracy for some
years, freed the king by his death from any farther anxiety.
Athelstan, resenting Constantines behaviour, entered Scotland with an
army; and ravaging the country with impunity [w], he reduced the Scots
to such distress, that their king was content to preserve his crown,
by making submissions to the enemy. The English historians assert
[x], that Constantine did homage to Athelstan for his kingdom; and
they add, that the latter prince, being urged by his courtiers to push
the present favourable opportunity, and entirely subdue Scotland,
replied, that it was more glorious to confer than conquer kingdoms
[y]. But those annals, so uncertain and imperfect in themselves, lose
all credit when national prepossessions and animosities have place:
and on that account, the Scotch historians, who, without having any
more knowledge of the matter, strenuously deny the fact, seem more
worthy of belief.
[FN [u] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 6. [w] Chron. Sax. p. 111. Hoveden, p.
422. H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 354. [x] Hoveden, p. 422. [y] Wm.
Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 6. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 212.]
Constantine, whether he owed the retaining of his crown to the
moderation of Athelstan, who was unwilling to employ all his
advantages against him, or to the policy of that prince, who esteemed
the humiliation of an enemy a greater acquisition than the subjection
of a discontented and mutinous people, thought the behaviour of the
English monarch more an object of resentment than of gratitude. He
entered into a confederacy with Anlaf, who had collected a great body
of Danish pirates, whom he found hovering in the Irish seas; and with
some Welsh princes, who were terrified at the growing power of
Athelstan: and all these allies made by concert an irruption with a
great army into England. Athelstan, collecting his forces, met the
enemy near Brunsbury, in Northumberland, and defeated them in a
general engagement. This victory was chiefly ascribed to the valour
of Turketul, the English chancellor: for in those turbulent ages no
one was so much occupied in civil employments, as wholly to lay aside
the military character [z].
[FN [z] The office of chancellor among the Anglo-Saxons resembled more
that of a secretary of state, than that of our present chancellor.
See Spellman, in voce CHANCELLARIUS.]
There is a circumstance not unworthy of notice, which historians
relate, with regard to the transactions of this war. Anlaf, on the
approach of the English army, thought that he could not venture too
much to ensure a fortunate event; and, employing the artifice formerly
practised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemys camp in
the habit of a minstrel. The stratagem was for the present attended
with like success. He gave such satisfaction to the soldiers who
flocked about him, that they introduced him to the kings tent; and
Anlaf, having played before that prince and his nobles during their
repast, was dismissed with a handsome reward. His prudence kept him
from refusing the present; but his pride determined him, on his
departure, to bury it, while he fancied that he was unespied by all
the world. But a soldier in Athelstans camp, who had formerly served
under Anlaf, had been struck with some suspicion on the first
appearance of the minstrel; and was engaged by curiosity to observe
all his motions. He regarded this last action as a full proof of
Anlafs disguise; and he immediately carried the intelligence to
Athelstan, who blamed him for not sooner giving him information, that
he might have seized his enemy. But the soldier told him, that, as he
had formerly sworn fealty to Anlaf, he could never have pardoned
himself the treachery of betraying and ruining his ancient master; and
that Athelstan himself, after such an instance of his criminal
conduct, would have had equal reason to distrust his allegiance.
Athelstan, having praised the generosity of the soldiers principles,
reflected on the incident, which he foresaw might be attended with
important consequences. He removed his station in the camp; and as a
bishop arrived that evening with a reinforcement of troops, (for the
ecclesiastics were then no less warlike than the civil magistrates,)
he occupied with his train that very place which had been left vacant
by the kings removal. The precaution of Athelstan was found prudent:
for no sooner had darkness fallen, than Anlaf broke into the camp, and
hastening directly to the place where he had left the kings tent, put
the bishop to death before he had time to prepare for his defence [a].
[FN [a] W. Malmes. lib. 2 cap. 6. Higden, p. 263]
There fell several Danish and Welsh princes in the action of Brunsbury
[b]; and Constantine and Anlaf made their escape with difficulty,
leaving the greater part of their army on the field of battle. After
this success, Athelstan enjoyed his crown in tranquillity; and he is
regarded as one of the ablest and most active of those ancient
princes. He passed a remarkable law, which was calculated for the
encouragement of commerce, and which it required some liberality of
mind in that age to have devised: that a merchant, who had made three
long sea-voyages on his own account, should be admitted to the rank of
a Thane or Gentleman. This prince died at Gloucester in the year 941
[c], after a reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by Edmund, his
legitimate brother.
[FN [b] Brompton, p. 839 Ingulph. p. 29 [c] Chron. Sax. p. 114.]
[MN Edmund 941.]
Edmund, on his accession, met with disturbance from the restless
Northumbrians, who lay in wait for every opportunity of breaking into
rebellion. But marching suddenly with his forces into their country,
he so overawed the rebels, that they endeavoured to appease him by the
most humble submissions [d]. In order to give him a surer pledge of
their obedience, they offered to embrace Christianity; a religion
which the English Danes had frequently professed, when reduced to
difficulties, but which, for that very reason, they regarded as a
badge of servitude, and shook off as soon as a favourable opportunity
offered. Edmund, trusting little to their sincerity in this forced
submission, used the precaution of removing the Five-burgers from the
towns of Mercia, in which they had been allowed to settle; because it
was always found, that they took advantage of every commotion, and
introduced the rebellious, or foreign Danes, into the heart of the
kingdom. He also conquered Cumberland from the Britons; and conferred
that territory on Malcolm, King of Scotland, on condition that he
should do him homage for it, and protect the north from all future
incursions of the Danes.
[FN [d] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7. Brompton, p. 857]
Edmund was young when he came to the crown; yet was his reign short,
as his death was violent. One day as he was solemnizing a festival in
the county of Gloucester, he remarked, that Leolf, a notorious robber,
whom he had sentenced to banishment, had yet the boldness to enter the
hall where he himself dined, and to sit at table with his attendants.
Enraged at this insolence, he ordered him to leave the room; but on
his refusing to obey, the king, whose temper, naturally choleric, was
inflamed by this additional insult, leaped on him himself, and seized
him by the hair: but the ruffian, pushed to extremity, drew his
dagger, and gave Edmund a wound, of which he immediately expired.
This event happened in the year 946, and in the sixth year of the
kings reign. Edmund left male issue, but so young, that they were
incapable of governing the kingdom; and his brother, Edred, was
promoted to the throne.
[MN Edred 946.]
The reign of this prince, as those of his predecessors, was disturbed
by the rebellions and incursions of the Northumbrian Danes, who,
though frequently quelled, were never entirely subdued, nor had ever
paid a sincere allegiance to the crown of England. The accession of a
new king seemed to them a favourable opportunity for shaking off the
yoke; but on Edreds appearance with an army, they made him their
wonted submissions; and the king having wasted the country with fire
and sword, as a punishment for their rebellion, obliged them to renew
their oaths of allegiance; and he straight retired with his forces.
The obedience of the Danes lasted no longer than the present terror.
Provoked at the devastations of Edred, and even reduced by necessity
to subsist on plunder, they broke into a new rebellion, and were again
subdued; but the king, now instructed by experience, took greater
precautions against their future revolt. He fixed English garrisons
in their most considerable towns; and placed over them an English
governor, who might watch all their motions, and suppress any
insurrection on its first appearance. He obliged also Malcolm, King
of Scotland, to renew his homage for the lands which he held in
England.
Edred, though not unwarlike, nor unfit for active life, lay under the
influence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered over
his conscience to the guidance of Dunstan, commonly called St.
Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, whom he advanced to the highest
offices, and who covered, under the appearance of sanctity, the most
violent and most insolent ambition. Taking advantage of the implicit
confidence reposed in him by the king, this churchman imported into
England a new order of monks, who much changed the state of
ecclesiastical affairs, and excited, on their first establishment, the
most violent commotions.
From the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, there had been
monasteries in England; and these establishments had extremely
multiplied, by the donations of the princes and nobles; whose
superstition, derived from their ignorance and precarious life, and
increased by remorse for the crimes into which they were so frequently
betrayed, knew no other expedient for appeasing the Deity than a
profuse liberality towards the ecclesiastics. But the monks had
hitherto been a species of secular priests, who lived after the manner
of the present canons or prebendaries, and were both intermingled, in
some degree, with the world, and endeavoured to render themselves
useful to it. They were employed in the education of youth [e]: they
had the disposal of their own time and industry: they were not
subjected to the rigid rules of an order: they had made no vows of
implicit obedience to their superiors [f]: and they still retained the
choice, without quitting the convent, either of a married or a single
life [g]. But a mistaken piety had produced in Italy a new species of
monks called Benedictines; who, carrying farther the plausible
principles of mortification, secluded themselves entirely from the
world, renounced all claim to liberty, and made a merit of the most
inviolable chastity. These practices and principles, which
superstition at first engendered, were greedily embraced and promoted
by the policy of the court of Rome. The Roman pontiff, who was making
every day great advances towards an absolute sovereignty over the
ecclesiastics, perceived that the celibacy of the clergy alone could
break off entirely their connexion with the civil power, and depriving
them of every other object of ambition, engage them to promote, with
unceasing industry, the grandeur of their own order. He was sensible,
that so long as the monks were indulged in marriage, and were
permitted to rear families, they never could be subjected to strict
discipline, or reduced to that slavery under their superiors, which
was requisite to procure to the mandates issued from Rome, a ready and
zealous obedience. Celibacy, therefore, began to be extolled, as the
indispensable duty of priests; and the pope undertook to make all the
clergy throughout the western world renounce at once the privilege of
marriage: a fortunate policy; but at the same time an undertaking the
most difficult of any, since he had the strongest propensities of
human nature to encounter, and found, that the same connexions with
the female sex, which generally encourage devotion, were here
unfavourable to the success of his project. It is no wonder
therefore, that this master-stroke of art should have met with violent
contradiction, and that the interests of the hierarchy, and the
inclinations of the priests, being now placed in this singular
opposition, should, notwithstanding the continued efforts of Rome,
have retarded the execution of that bold scheme, during the course of
near three centuries.
[FN [e] Osberne in Anglia Sacra, tom. 2. p. 92. [f] Osberne, p. 91.
[g] See Whartons notes to Anglia Sacra, tom. 2. p. 91. Gervase, p.
1645. Chron Wint. MS. apud Spell. Conc. p. 434.]
As the bishops and parochial clergy lived apart with their families,
and were more connected with the world, the hopes of success with them
were fainter; and the pretence for making them renounce marriage was
much less plausible. But the pope, having cast his eye on the monks
as the basis of his authority, was determined to reduce them under
strict rules of obedience, to procure them the credit of sanctity by
an appearance of the most rigid mortification, and to break off all
their other ties which might interfere with his spiritual policy.
Under pretence, therefore, of reforming abuses, which were, in some
degree, unavoidable in the ancient establishments, he had already
spread over the southern countries of Europe the severe laws of the
monastic life, and began to form attempts towards a like innovation in
England. The favourable opportunity offered itself, (and it was
greedily seized,) arising from the weak, superstition of Edred, and
the violent impetuous character of Dunstan.
Dunstan was born of noble parents in the west of England; and being
educated under his uncle Aldhelm, then Archbishop of Canterbury, had
betaken himself to the ecclesiastical life, and had acquired some
character in the court of Edmund. He was, however, represented to
that prince as a man of licentious manners [h]: and finding his
fortune blasted by these suspicions, his ardent ambition prompted him
to repair his indiscretions by running into an opposite extreme. He
secluded himself entirely from the world; he framed a cell so small,
that he could neither stand erect in it nor stretch out his limbs
during his repose; and he here employed himself perpetually either in
devotion or in manual labour [i]. It is probable, that his brain
became gradually crazed by these solitary occupations, and that his
head was filled with chimeras, which, being believed by himself and
his stupid votaries, procured him the general character of sanctity
among the people. He fancied that the devil, among the frequent
visits which he paid him, was one day more earnest than usual in his
temptations; till Dunstan, provoked at his importunity, seized him by
the nose with a pair of red-hot pincers, as he put his head into the
cell; and he held him there till that malignant spirit made the whole
neighbourhood resound with his bellowings. This notable exploit was
seriously credited and extolled by the public: it is transmitted to
posterity by one who, considering the age in which he lived, may pass
for a writer of some eloquence [k]; and it ensured to Dunstan a
reputation which no real piety, much less virtue, could, even in the
most enlightened period, have ever procured him with the people.
[FN [h] Osberne, p. 95 Matth West, p. 187. [i] Osberne, p. 96. [k]
Osberne, p. 97.]
Supported by the character obtained in his retreat, Dunstan appeared
again in the world; and gained such an ascendant over Edred, who had
succeeded to the crown, as made him not only the director of that
princes conscience, but his counsellor in the most momentous affairs
of government. He was placed at the head of the treasury [l], and
being thus possessed both of power at court, and of credit with the
populace, he was enabled to attempt with success the most arduous
enterprises. Finding that his advancement had been owing to the
opinion of his austerity, he professed himself a partisan of the rigid
monastic rules; and after introducing that reformation into the
convents of Glastonbury and Abingdon, he endeavoured to render it
universal in the kingdom.
[FN [1] Ibid. p. 102. Wallingford, p. 541.]
The minds of men were already well prepared for this innovation. The
praises of an inviolable chastity had been carried to the highest
extravagance by some of the first preachers of Christianity among the
Saxons: the pleasures of love had been represented as incompatible
with Christian perfection; and a total abstinence from all commerce
with the sex was deemed such a meritorious penance, as was sufficient
to atone for the greatest enormities. The consequence seemed natural,
that those, at least, who officiated at the altar should be clear of
this pollution; and when the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was
now creeping in [m], was once fully established, the reverence to the
real body of Christ in the eucharist bestowed on this argument an
additional force and influence. The monks knew how to avail
themselves of all these popular topics, and to set off their own
character to the best advantage. They affected the greatest austerity
of life and manners: they indulged themselves in the highest strains
of devotion: they inveighed bitterly against the vices and pretended
luxury of the age: they were particularly vehement against the
dissolute lives of the secular clergy, their rivals: every instance of
libertinism in any individual of that order was represented as a
general corruption: and where other topics of defamation were wanting,
their marriage became a sure subject of invective, and their wives
received the name of CONCUBINE, or other more opprobrious appellation.
The secular clergy, on the other hand, who were numerous and rich, and
possessed of the ecclesiastical dignities, defended themselves with
vigour, and endeavoured to retaliate upon their adversaries. The
people were thrown into agitation; and few instances occur of more
violent dissensions, excited by the most material differences in
religion, or rather by the most frivolous: since it is a just remark,
that the more affinity there is between theological parties, the
greater commonly is their animosity.
[FN [m] Spell. Conc. v. i. p. 452.]
The progress of the monks, which was become considerable, was somewhat
retarded by the death of Edred, their partisan, who expired after a
reign of nine years [n]. He left children; but as they were infants,
his nephew, Edwy, son of Edmund, was placed on the throne.
[FN [n] Chron. Sax. p. 115.]
[MN Edwy. 955.]
Edwy, at the time of his accession, was not above sixteen or seventeen
years of age, was possessed of the most amiable figure, and was even
endowed, according to authentic accounts, with the most promising
virtues [o]. He would have been the favourite of his people, had he
not unhappily, at the commencement of his reign, been engaged in a
controversy with the monks, whose rage, neither the graces of the body
nor virtues of the mind could mitigate, and who have pursued his
memory with the same unrelenting vengeance which they exercised
against his person and dignity during his short and unfortunate reign.
There was a beautiful princess of the royal blood, called Elgiva, who
had made impression on the tender heart of Edwy; and as he was of an
age when the force of the passions first begins to be felt, he had
ventured, contrary to the advice of his gravest counsellors, and the
remonstrances of the more dignified ecclesiastics [p], to espouse her;
though she was within the degrees of affinity prohibited by the canon
law [q]. As the austerity affected by the monks made them
particularly violent on this occasion, Edwy entertained a strong
prepossession against them; and seemed, on that account, determined
not to second their project of expelling the seculars from all the
convents, and of possessing themselves of those rich establishments.
War was therefore declared between the king and the monks; and the
former soon found reason to repent his provoking such dangerous
enemies. On the day of his coronation, his nobility were assembled in
a great hall, and were indulging themselves in that riot and disorder,
which, from the example of their German ancestors, had become habitual
to the English [r]; when Edwy, attracted by softer pleasures, retired
into the queens apartment, and in that privacy gave reins to his
fondness towards his wife, which was only moderately checked by the
presence of her mother. Dunstan conjectured the reason of the kings
retreat; and carrying along with him Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury,
over whom he had gained an absolute ascendant, he burst into the
apartment, upbraided Edwy with his lasciviousness, probably bestowed
on the queen the most opprobrious epithet that can be applied to her
sex, and tearing him from her arms, pushed him back, in a disgraceful
manner, into the banquet of the nobles [s]. Edwy, though young, and
opposed by the prejudices of the people, found an opportunity of
taking revenge for this public insult. He questioned Dunstan
concerning the administration of the treasury during the reign of his
predecessor [t]; and when that minister refused to give any account of
money expended, as he affirmed, by orders of the late king, he accused
him of malversation in his office and banished him the kingdom. But
Dunstans cabal was not inactive during his absence; they filled the
public with high panegyrics on his sanctity; they exclaimed against
the impiety of the king and queen; and having poisoned the minds of
the people by these declamations, they proceeded to still more
outrageous acts of violence against the royal authority. Archbishop
Odo sent into the palace a party of soldiers, who seized the queen,
and, having burned her face with a red-hot iron, in order to destroy
that fatal beauty which had seduced Edwy, they carried her by force
into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile [u]. Edwy, finding
it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce, which was
pronounced by Odo [w]; and catastrophe, still more dismal, awaited the
unhappy Elgiva. That amiable princess, being cured of her wounds, and
having even obliterated the scars with which Odo had hoped to deface
her beauty, returned into England, and was flying to the embraces of
the king, whom she still regarded as her husband; when she fell into
the hands of a party, whom the primate had sent to intercept her.
Nothing but her death could now give security to Odo and the monks;
and the most cruel death was requisite to satiate their vengeance.
She was hamstringed; and expired a few days after at Gloucester, in
the most acute torments [x].
[FN [o] H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 356. [p] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.
[q] Ibid. [r] Wallingford, p. 542. [s] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.
Osberne, p. 83, 105. M. West. p. 195, 196. [t] Wallingford, p. 542.
Alur. Beverl. p. 112. [u] Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1644. [w]
Hoveden, p. 425. [x] Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1645, 1646.]
The English, blinded with superstition, instead of being shocked with
this inhumanity, exclaimed that the misfortunes of Edwy and his
consort were a just judgment for their dissolute contempt of the
ecclesiastical statutes. They even proceeded to rebellion against
their sovereign; and having placed Edgar at their head, the younger
brother of Edwy, a boy of thirteen years of age, they soon put him in
possession of Mercia, Northumberland, East Anglia; and chased Edwy
into the southern counties. That it might not be doubtful at whose
instigation this revolt was undertaken, Dunstan returned into England,
and took upon him the government of Edgar and his party. He was first
installed in the see of Worcester, then in that of London [y], and on
Odos death, and the violent expulsion of Brithelm, his successor, in
that of Canterbury [z]; of all which he long kept possession. Odo is
transmitted to us by the monks under the character of a man of piety;
Dunstan was even canonized: and is one of those numerous saints of the
same stamp who disgrace the Romish calendar. Meanwhile the unhappy
Edwy was excommunicated [a], and pursued with unrelenting vengeance;
but his death, which happened soon after, freed his enemies from all
further inquietude, and gave Edgar peaceable possession of the
government [b].
[FN [y] Chron. Sax. p. 117. Flor Wigorn. p. 605. Wallingford, p. 544
[z] Hoveden p. 425. Osberne, p. 109. [a] Brompton, p. 863. [b] See
note [B] at the end of the volume.]
[MN Edgar.]
This prince, who mounted the throne in such early youth, soon
discovered an excellent capacity in the administration of affairs; and
his reign is one of the most fortunate that we meet with in the
ancient English history. He showed no aversion to war, he made the
wisest preparations against invaders; and by his vigour and foresight
he was enabled, without any danger of suffering insults, to indulge
his inclination towards peace, and to employ himself in supporting and
improving the internal government of his kingdom. He maintained a
body of disciplined troops; which he quartered in the north, in order
to keep the mutinous Northumbrians in subjection, and to repel the
inroads of the Scots. He built and supported a powerful navy [c]; and
that he might retain the seamen in the practice of their duty, and
always present a formidable armament to his enemies, he stationed
three squadrons off the coast, and ordered them to make, from time to
time, the circuit of his dominions [d]. The foreign Danes dared not
to approach a country which appeared in such a posture of defence: the
domestic Danes saw inevitable destruction to be the consequence of
their tumults and insurrections: the neighbouring sovereigns, the King
of Scotland, the Princes of Wales, of the Isle of Man, of the Orkneys,
and even of Ireland [e], were reduced to pay submission to so
formidable a monarch. He carried his superiority to a great height,
and might have excited an universal combination against him, had not
his power been so well established as to deprive his enemies of all
hope of shaking it. It is said, that residing once at Chester, and
having purposed to go by water to the abbey of St. John the Baptist,
he obliged eight of his tributary princes to row him in a barge upon
the Dee [f]. The English historians are fond of mentioning the name
of Kenneth III, King of Scots, among the number: the Scottish
historians either deny the fact, or assert that their king, if ever he
acknowledged himself a vassal to Edgar, did him homage not for his
crown, but for the dominions which he held in England.
[FN [c] Higden, p. 265. [d] See note [C] at the end of the volume.
[e] Spell. Conc. p. 32. [f] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8. Hoveden, p.
406. H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 356.]
But the chief means by which Edgar maintained his authority, and
preserved public peace, was the paying of court to Dunstan and the
monks, who had at first placed him on the throne, and who, by their
pretensions to superior sanctity and purity of manners, had acquired
an ascendant over the people. He favoured their scheme for
dispossessing the secular canons of all the monasteries [g]; he
bestowed preferment on none but their partisans; he allowed Dunstan to
resign the see of Worcester into the hands of Oswald, one of his
creatures [h]; and to place Ethelwold, another of them, in that of
Winchester [i]; he consulted these prelates in the administration of
all ecclesiastical, and even in that of many civil affairs; and though
the vigour of his own genius prevented him from being implicitly
guided by them, the king and the bishops found such advantages in
their mutual agreement, that they always acted in concert, and united
their influence in preserving the peace and tranquillity of the
kingdom.
[FN [g] Chron. Sax. p. 117, 118. W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8. Hoveden,
p. 425, 426 Osberne, p. 112. [h] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.
Hoveden, p. 425.]
In order to complete the great work of placing the new order of monks
in all the convents, Edgar summoned a general council of the prelates
and the heads of the religious orders. He here inveighed against the
dissolute lives of the secular clergy; the smallness of their tonsure,
which, it is probable, maintained no longer any resemblance to the
crown of thorns; their negligence in attending the exercise of their
function; their mixing with the laity in the pleasures of gaming,
hunting, dancing, and singing; and their openly living with
concubines, by which it is commonly supposed he meant their wives. He
then turned himself to Dunstan, the primate; and in the name of King
Edred, whom he supposed to look down from heaven with indignation
against all those enormities, he thus addressed him: "It is you,
Dunstan, by whose advice I founded monasteries, built churches, and
expended my treasure in the support of religion and religious houses.
You were my counsellor and assistant in all my schemes: you were the
director of my conscience: to you I was obedient in all things. When
did you call for supplies which I refused you? Was my assistance ever
wanting to the poor? Did I deny support and establishments to the
clergy and the convents? Did I not hearken to your instructions, who
told me that these charities were, of all others, the most grateful to
my Maker, and fixed a perpetual fund for the support of religion? And
are all our pious endeavours now frustrated by the dissolute lives of
the priests? Not that I throw any blame on you; you have reasoned,
besought, inculcated, inveighed; but it now behoves you to use sharper
and more vigorous remedies; and conjoining your spiritual authority
with the civil power, to purge effectually the temple of God from
thieves and intruders [k]." It is easy to imagine that this harangue
had the desired effect; and that, when the king and prelates thus
concurred with the popular prejudices, it was not long before the
monks prevailed, and established their new discipline in almost all
the convents.
[FN [i] Gervase, p. 1646. Brompton, p. 864. Flor. Wigorn. p. 606.
Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p 27, 28. [k] Abbas Rieval. p. 360,
361. Spell. Conc. p. 476, 477, 478]
We may remark, that the declamations against the secular clergy are,
both here and in all the historians, conveyed in general terms; and as
that order of men are commonly restrained by the decency of their
character, it is difficult to believe that the complaints against
their dissolute manners could be so universally just as is pretended.
It is more probable that the monks paid court to the populace by an
affected austerity of life; and representing the most innocent
liberties, taken by the other clergy, as great and unpardonable
enormities, thereby prepared the way for the increase of their own
power and influence. Edgar, however, like a true politician,
concurred with the prevailing party; and he even indulged them in
pretensions, which, though they might, when complied with, engage the
monks to support royal authority during his own reign, proved
afterwards dangerous to his successors, and gave disturbance to the
whole civil power. He seconded the policy of the court of Rome, in
granting to some monasteries an exemption from episcopal jurisdiction;
he allowed the convents, even those of royal foundation, to usurp the
election of their own abbot: and he admitted their forgeries of
ancient charters, by which, from the pretended grant of former kings,
they assumed many privileges and immunities [l]
[FN [l] Chron. Sax. p. 118. W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8. Seldeni
Spicileg. ad Eadm. p. 149, 157.]
These merits of Edgar have procured him the highest panegyrics from
the monks, and he is transmitted to us, not only under the character
of a consummate statesman and an active prince, praises to which he
seems to have been justly entitled, but under that of a of a great
saint and a man of virtue. But nothing could more betray both his
hypocrisy in inveighing against the licentiousness of the secular
clergy, and the interested spirit of his partisans, in bestowing such
eulogies on his piety, than the usual tenour of his conduct, which was
licentious to the highest degree, and violated every law, human and
divine. Yet those very monks who, as we are told by Ingulf, a very
ancient historian, had no idea of any moral or religious merit, except
chastity and obedience, not only connived at his enormities, but
loaded him with the greatest praises. History, however, has preserved
some instances of his amours, from which, as from a specimen, we may
form a conjecture of the rest.
Edgar broke into a convent, carried off Editha, a nun, by force, and
even committed violence on her person [m]. For this act of sacrilege
he was reprimanded by Dunstan; and that he might reconcile himself to
the church, he was obliged not to separate from his mistress, but to
abstain from wearing his crown during seven years, and to deprive
himself so long of that vain ornament [n]; punishment very unequal to
that which had been inflicted on the unfortunate Edwy, who, for a
marriage which, in the strictest sense, could only deserve the name
of irregular, was expelled his kingdom, saw his queen treated with
singular barbarity, was loaded with calumnies, and has been
represented to us under the most odious colours. Such is the
ascendant which may be attained, by hypocrisy and cabal, over mankind.
[FN [m] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8. Osberne, p. 3. Diceto p. 457.
Higden, p. 265, 267, 266. Spell. Conc. p. 481. [n] Osberne, p. 111.]
There was another mistress of Edgar, with whom he first formed a
connexion by a kind of accident. Passing one day by Andover, he
lodged in the house of a nobleman, whose daughter, being endowed with
all the graces of person and behaviour, inflamed him at first sight
with the highest desire; and he resolved by any expedient to gratify
it. As he had not leisure to employ courtship or address for
attaining his purpose, he went directly to her mother, declared the
violence of his passion, and desired that the young lady might be
allowed to pass that very night with him. The mother was a woman of
virtue, and determined not to dishonour her daughter and her family by
compliance; but being well acquainted with the impetuosity of the
kings temper, she thought it would be easier, as well as safer, to
deceive than refuse him. She feigned therefore a submission to his
will; but secretly ordered a waiting maid, of no disagreeable figure,
to steal into the kings bed, after all the company should be retired
to rest. In the morning before daybreak, the damsel, agreeably to the
injunctions of her mistress, offered to retire; but Edgar, who had no
reserve in his pleasures, and whose love to his bedfellow was rather
inflamed by enjoyment, refused his consent, and employed force and
entreaties to detain her. Elfleda, (for that was the name of the
maid,) trusting to her own charms, and to the love with which, she
hoped, she had now inspired the king, made probably but a faint
resistance; and the return of light discovered the deceit to Edgar.
He had passed a night so much to his satisfaction, that he expressed
no displeasure with the old lady on account of her fraud; his love was
transferred to Elfleda; she became his favourite mistress; and
maintained her ascendant over him till his marriage with Elfrida [o].
[FN [o] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8. Higden, p. 268.]
The circumstances of his marriage with this lady were more singular
and more criminal. Elfrida was daughter and heir of Olgar, Earl of
Devonshire; and though she had been educated in the country, and had
never appeared at court, she had filled all England with the
reputation of her beauty. Edgar himself, who was indifferent to no
accounts of this nature, found his curiosity excited by the frequent
panegyrics which he heard of Elfrida; and reflecting on her noble
birth, he resolved, if he found her charms answerable to their fame,
to obtain possession of her on honourable terms. He communicated his
intention to Earl Athelwold, his favourite; but used the precaution,
before he made any advances to her parents, to order that nobleman, on
some pretence, to pay them a visit, and to bring him a certain account
of the beauty of their daughter. Athelwold, when introduced to the
young lady, found general report to have fallen short of the truth;
and being actuated by the most vehement love, he determined to
sacrifice to this new passion his fidelity to his master, and to the
trust reposed in him. He returned to Edgar and told him, that the
riches alone, and high quality of Elfrida, had been the ground of the
admiration paid her; and that her charms, far from being anywise
extraordinary, would have been overlooked in a woman of inferior
station. When he had, by this deceit, diverted the king from his
purpose, he took an opportunity, after some interval, of turning again
the conversation on Elfrida; he remarked, that though the parentage
and fortune of the lady had not produced on him, as on others, any
illusion with regard to her beauty, he could not forbear reflecting,
that she would, on the whole, be an advantageous match for him, and
might, by her birth and riches, make him sufficient compensation for
the homeliness of her person. If the king, therefore, gave his
approbation, he was determined to make proposals in his own behalf to
the Earl of Devonshire, and doubted not to obtain his, as well as the
young ladys consent to the marriage. Edgar, pleased with an
expedient for establishing his favourites fortune, not only exhorted
him to execute his purpose, but forwarded his success by his
recommendations to the parents of Elfrida; and Athelwold was soon made
happy in the possession of his mistress. Dreading, however, the
detection of the artifice, he employed every pretence for detaining
Elfrida in the country, and for keeping her at a distance from Edgar.
The violent passion of Athelwold had rendered him blind to the
necessary consequences which must attend his conduct, and the
advantages which the numerous enemies that always pursue a royal
favourite would, by its means, be able to make against him. Edgar was
soon informed of the truth; but before he would execute vengeance on
Athelwolds treachery, he resolved to satisfy himself with his own
eyes of the certainty and full extent of his guilt. He told him that
he intended to pay him a visit in his castle, and be introduced to the
acquaintance of his new married wife; and Athelwold, as he could not
refuse the honour, only craved leave to go before him a few hours,
that he might the better prepare every thing for his reception. He
then discovered the whole matter to Elfrida; and begged her, if she
had any regard either to her own honour or his life, to conceal from
Edgar, by every circumstance of dress and behaviour, that fatal
beauty, which had seduced him from fidelity to his friend, and had
betrayed him into so many falsehoods. Elfrida promised compliance,
though nothing was farther from her intentions. She deemed herself
little beholden to Athelwold for a passion which had deprived her of a
crown; and knowing the force of her own charms, she did not despair
even yet of reaching that dignity, of which her husbands artifice had
bereaved her. She appeared before the king with all the advantages
which the richest attire and the most engaging airs could bestow upon
her, and she excited at once in his bosom the highest love towards
herself, and the most furious desire of revenge against her husband.
He knew, however, how to dissemble these passions; and seducing
Athelwold into a wood, on pretence of hunting, he stabbed him with his
own hand, and soon after publicly espoused Elfrida [p].
[FN [p] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 426. Brompton, p.
865, 866. Flor. Wigorn. p. 606. Higd. p. 268.]
Before we conclude our account of this reign, we must mention two
circumstances which are remarked by historians. The reputation of
Edgar allured a great number of foreigners to visit his court; and he
gave them encouragement to settle in England [q]. We are told that
they imported all the vices of their respective countries, and
contributed to corrupt the simple manners of the natives [r]. But as
this simplicity of manners, so highly and often so injudiciously
extolled, did not preserve them from barbarity and treachery, the
greatest of all vices, and the most incident to a rude uncultivated
people, we ought perhaps to deem their acquaintance with foreigners
rather an advantage; as it tended to enlarge their views, and to cure
them of those illiberal prejudices and rustic manners to which
islanders are often subject.
[FN [q] Chron. Sax. p. 116. H. Hunting. lib 5. p. 356. Brompton, p.
865. [r] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.]
Another remarkable incident of this reign was the extirpation of
wolves from England. This advantage was attained by the industrious
policy of Edgar. He took great pains in hunting and pursuing those
ravenous animals; and when he found that all that escaped him had
taken shelter in the mountains and forests of Wales, he changed the
tribute of money imposed on the Welsh princes by Athelstan, his
predecessor [s], into an annual tribute of three hundred heads of
wolves; which produced such diligence in hunting them, that the animal
has been no more seen in this island.
[FN [s] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 6. Brompton, p. 838.]
Edgar died after a reign of sixteen years, and in the thirty-third of
his age. He was succeeded by Edward, whom he had by his first
marriage with the daughter of Earl Ordmer.
[MN Edward the Martyr. 957.]
The succession of this prince, who was only fifteen years of age at
his fathers death, did not take place without much difficulty and
opposition. Elfrida, his stepmother, had a son, Ethelred, seven years
old, whom she attempted to raise to the throne: she affirmed that
Edgars marriage with the mother of Edward was exposed to insuperable
objections; and as she had possessed great credit with her husband,
she had found means to acquire partisans, who seconded all her
pretensions. But the title of Edward was supported by many
advantages. He was appointed successor by the will of his father [t]:
he was approaching to mans estate, and might soon be able to take
into his own hands the reins of government: the principal nobility,
dreading the imperious temper of Elfrida, were averse to her sons
government, which must enlarge her authority, and probably put her in
possession of the regency: above all, Dunstan, whose character of
sanctity had given him the highest credit with the people, had
espoused the cause of Edward, over whom he had already acquired a
great ascendant [u]; and he was determined to execute the will of
Edgar in his favour. To cut off all opposite pretensions, Dunstan
resolutely anointed and crowned the young prince at Kingston; and the
whole kingdom, without farther dispute, submitted to him [w].
[FN [t] Hoveden, p. 427. Eadmer, p. 3. [u] Eadmer, ex. edit.
Seldeni, p. 3. [w] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427.
Osberne, p. 113.]
It was of great importance to Dunstan and the monks, to place on the
throne a king favourable to their cause: the secular clergy had still
partisans in England, who wished to support them in the possession of
the convents, and of the ecclesiastical authority. On the first
intelligence of Edgars death, Alfere, Duke of Mercia, expelled the
new orders of monks from all the monasteries which lay within his
jurisdiction [x]; but Elfwin, Duke of East Anglia, and Brithnot, Duke
of the East Saxons, protected them within their territories, and
insisted upon the execution of the late laws enacted in their favour.
In order to settle this controversy, there were summoned several
synods, which, according to the practice of those times, consisted
partly of ecclesiastical members, partly of the lay nobility. The
monks were able to prevail in these assemblies; though, as it appears,
contrary to the secret wishes, if not the declared inclination, of the
leading men in the nation [y]: they had more invention in forging
miracles to support their cause; or having been so fortunate as to
obtain, by their pretended austerities, the character of piety, their
miracles were more credited by the populace.
[FN [x] Chron. Sax. p. 123. W. Malmes. lib. 2, cap. 9. Hoveden, p.
427. Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. p. 607. [y] W. Malmes. lib. 2.
cap. 9.]
In one synod, Dunstan, finding the majority of votes against him, rose
up and informed the audience, that he had that instant received an
immediate revelation in behalf of the monks: the assembly was so
astonished at this intelligence, or probably so overawed by the
populace, that they proceeded no farther in their deliberations. In
another synod, a voice issued from the crucifix, and informed the
members that the establishment of the monks was founded on the will of
Heaven, and could not be opposed without impiety [z]. But the miracle
performed in the third synod was still more alarming: the floor of the
hall in which the assembly met sunk of a sudden and a great number of
the members were either bruised or killed by the fall. It was
remarked, that Dunstan had that day prevented the king from attending
the synod, and that the beam, on which his own chair stood, was the
only one that did not sink under the weight of the assembly [a]. But
these circumstances, instead of begetting any suspicion of
contrivance, were regarded as the surest proof of the immediate
interposition of Providence in behalf of those favourites of Heaven.
[FN [z] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 9. Osberne, p. 112. Gervase, p.
1647. Brompton, p. 870. Higden, p. 269. [a] Chron. Sax. p. 124. W.
Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427. H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 357.
Gervase, p. 1647. Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. p. 607. Higden,
p. 269. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 29.]
Edward lived four years after his accession, and there passed nothing
memorable during his reign. His death alone was memorable and
tragical [b]: this young prince was endowed with the most amiable
innocence of manners; and as his own intentions were always pure, he
was incapable of entertaining any suspicion against others. Though
his step-mother had opposed his succession, and had raised a party in
favour of her own son, he always showed her marks of regard, and even
expressed, on all occasions, the most tender affection towards his
brother. He was hunting one day in Dorsetshire; and being led by the
chase near Corfe-castle, where Elfrida resided, he took the
opportunity of paying her a visit, unattended by any of his retinue,
and he thereby presented her with the opportunity which she had long
wished for. After he had mounted his horse, he desired some liquor to
be brought him: while he was holding the cup to his head, a servant of
Elfrida approached him, and gave him a stab behind. The prince,
finding himself wounded, put spurs to his horse; but becoming faint by
loss of blood, he fell from the saddle, his foot stuck in the stirrup,
and he was dragged along by his unruly horse till he expired. Being
tracked by the blood, his body was found, and was privately interred
at Wareham by his servants.
[FN [b] Chron. Sax. p. 124.]
The youth and innocence of this prince, with his tragical death, begat
such compassion among the people, that they believed miracles to be
wrought at his tomb; and they give him the appellation of Martyr,
though his murder had no connexion with any religious principle or
opinion. Elfrida built monasteries, and performed many penances, in
order to atone for her guilt; but could never, by all her hypocrisy or
remorses, recover the good opinion of the public, though so easily
deluded in those ignorant ages.