encouragement of learning, was his own example, and the constant
assiduity with which, notwithstanding the multiplicity and urgency
of his affairs, he employed himself in the pursuits of knowledge. He
usually divided his time into three equal portions: one was employed in
sleep, and the refection of his body by diet and exercise; another, in
the despatch of business; a third, in study and devotion; and that he
might more exactly measure the hours, he made use of burning tapers of
equal length, which he fixed in lanterns,[*] an expedient suited to that
rude age, when the geometry of dialling, and the mechanism of clocks and
watches, were totally unknown. And by such a regular distribution of his
time though he often labored under great bodily infirmities,[**]
this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six battles by sea and
land,[***] was able, during a life of no extraordinary length, to
acquire more knowledge, and even to compose more books, than most
studious men, though blessed with the greatest leisure and application,
have, in more fortunate ages, made the object of their uninterrupted
industry.
[* Asser. p. 20. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4. Ingulph. p. 870.]
[** Asser. p.4, 12, 13, 17, J W. Malms, lib. iv. cap. 4.]
[*** Asser. p. 13.]
Sensible that the people, at all times, especially when their
understandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are not
much susceptible of speculative instruction, Alfred endeavored to convey
his morality by apologues, parables, stories, apothegms, couched in
poetry; and besides propagating among his subjects former compositions
of that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue,[*] he exercised
his genius in inventing works of a like nature,[**] as well as in
translating from the Greek the elegant Fables of Æsop. He also gave
Saxon translations of Orosius’s and Bede’s histories; and of Boethius
concerning the consolation of philosophy.[***] 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.
[* Spelruan, p. 124.]
[** Abbas Rieval. p. 355.]
[*** W. Malms, lib. ii. 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
connection with the interests of society. He invited, from all quarters,
industrious foreigners to re-people his country, which had been
desolated by the ravages of the Danes.[*] He introduced and encouraged
manufactures of all kinds, and no inventor or improver of any ingenious
art did he suffer to go unrewarded.[**] 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.[***]
Even the elegances of life were brought to him from the Mediterranean
and the Indies;[****] 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.
[* Asser. p. 13. Flor. Wigorn. p. 588.]
[** Asser. p. 20.]
[*** Asser. p. 20. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 4.]
[**** W. Malms, lib. ii. 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 father’s lifetime. The third, Ethelward, inherited his father’s
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.
EDWARD THE ELDER.
This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, though
inferior to him in knowledge and erudition,[*] 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 out wars, insurrections, convulsions, rapine, and
depredation.
[* W. Malms, lib. ii cap. 4, Hoveden, p. 421.]
Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King Ethelbert, the elder
brother of Alfred, insisted on his preferable title;[*] 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.[**] 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
prince’s death, seize the first pretence or opportunity of rebellion.
The event did not disappoint his expectations: the Northumbrians
declared for him,[***] 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.[****]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 99, 100.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 100. H. Hunting, lib. v. p.
352.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 100. H. Hunting, lib. v. p.
352.]
[**** Chron. Sax. p. 100. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de
Burgo, p. 24.]
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 valor and policy of Alfred had so lately rescued them.
The rebels, headed by Ethelwald, made an incursion into the counties
of Glocester, 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.[*] The king, freed from the fear of so dangerous a competitor,
made peace on advantageous terms with the East Angles.[**]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 101. Brompton, p. 832.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 102. Brompton, p. 832. M 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 favorable, and entered Edward’s 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 Edward’s 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 Brittany. 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.[*]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 10, Flor. Wigorn. p. 6.]
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.[*] 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 husband’s 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.[**]
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 intrusted to the authority of a governor.[***] The Saxon
Chronicle fixes the death of this prince in 925 his kingdom devolved to
Athelstan, his natural son.
[* Chron. Sax. p. 110. Hoveden, p. 421.]
[** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 5. M. West. p. 182.
Ingulph. p. 28. Higgen p. 261.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 110. Brompton, p. 831.]
ATHELSTAN.
{925.} The stain in this prince’s 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 Edward’s 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,[*] secure that no doubts would ever thenceforth be
entertained concerning the justice of his proceedings.
[* W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 6. Spel. Concil. p. 407.]
The dominion of Athelstan was no sooner established over his English
subjects, than he endeavored 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 father’s elevation, assumed the sovereignty, without waiting
for Athelstan’s 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;[*] and that
fugitive, after subsisting by piracy for some years, freed the king, by
his death, from any further anxiety. Athelstan, resenting Constantine’s
behavior, entered Scotland with an army, and ravaging the country with
impunity,[**] 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,[***] 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 favorable opportunity, and entirely
subdue Scotland, replied, that it was more glorious to confer than
conquer kingdoms.[****]
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 111. Hoveden, p. 422. H. Hunting, lib. v.
p. 354.]
[*** Hoveden, p. 422.]
[**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6. Anglia Sacra,
vol. i. p. 212.]
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.
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 behavior 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 hear Brunsbury,
in Northumberland, and defeated them in a general engagement. This
victory was chiefly ascribed to the valor 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.[*]
[* The office of chancellor, among the Anglo-
Saxons, resembled more that of a secretary of state than
that of our present chancellor See Spelman in voce
Cancellarius.]
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 insure a fortunate event, and employing the artifice formerly
practised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemy’s 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 king’s 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; Dut 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 Athelstan’s 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 Anlaf’s 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 soldier’s
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 reënforcement 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 king’s 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 king’s
tent, put the bishop to death, before he had time to prepare for his
defence.[*]
There fell several Danish and Welsh princes in the action of
Brunsbury;[**] 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 Glocester, in the year 94l,[***]
after a reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by Edmund, his
legitimate brother.
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 6. Higden, p. 263.]
[** Brompton, p. 839 Ingulph. p. 29.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 114]
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 endeavored to appease him by the most
humble submissions.[*]
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 7. Brompton, p 857.]
In order to give him the 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 favorable 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.
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 Glocester, 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 king’s 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.
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 favorable opportunity for shaking off the
yoke; but on Edred’s appearance with an army, they made him their wonted
submissions; and the king, having wasted the country with fire and
sword, as a punishment of 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 remorses 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 endeavored to render themselves useful
to it. They were employed in the education of youth;[*] 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 to their
superiors;[*] and they still retained the choice, without quitting the
convent, either of a married or a single life.[**]
[* Osberne in Anglia Sacra, tom. ii. p. 91.]
[** See Wharton’s notes to Anglia Sacra, tom. ii.
p. 91. Gervase, p 1645. Chron. Wint. MS. apud Spel. Concil.
p. 434.] 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 favorable opportunity offered itself, (and
it was greedily seized,) arising from the weak superstition
of Edred, and the violent, impetuous character of Dunstan.
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 a mistaken piety had produced in Italy a new species of monks,
called Benedictines; who, carrying farther the plan sible 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 connection 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
connections with the female sex, which generally encourage devotion,
were here unfavorable 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.
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;[*] 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 labor.[**] 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 neighborhood 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 elegance;[***]
and it insured 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.
[* Osberne, p. 95. M. West, p. 187.]
[** Osberne, p. 96.]
[*** Osberne, p. 97.]
Supported by the character obtained in his retreat, Dunstan appeared
again in the world; and gained such an ascendent over Edred who had
succeeded to the crown, as made him not only the director of that
prince’s conscience, but his counsellor in the most momentous affairs of
government. He was placed at the head of the treasury,[*] 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 endeavored to render it universal in the
kingdom.
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,[**] was once fully established, the reverence to the real
body of Christ in the eucharist bestowed on this argument an additional
force and influence.
[* Osberne, p. 102. “Wallingford,” p. 541,]
[** Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 452.]
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
vigor and endeavored 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.
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. He left children; but as they were infants, his
nephew Edwy, son of Edmund, was placed on the throne.
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.[*] He would have been the favorite 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,[**] to espouse her; though she was within
the degrees of affinity prohibited by the canon law.[***]
[* Chron. Sax. p, 115.]
[** H. Hunting, lib. v. p. 356.]
[*** W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 7.]
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;[*] when
Edwy, attracted by softer pleasures, retired into the queen’s 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 king’s 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.[**] 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;[***] 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 Dunstan’s 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 rod-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.[****] Edwy,
finding it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce,
which was pronounced by Odo;[*****] and a 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 Glocester in the most
acute torments.[******]
[* Wallingford, p. 542.]
[** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 7. Osberne, p. 83, 105. M. West.
p. 195, 196.]
[*** Wallingford, p. 542. Alured. Beverl. p. 112.]
[**** Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1644.]
[***** Hoveden, p. 425.]
[****** 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,[**] and, on Odo’s death, and
the violent expulsion of Brithelm, his successor, in that of
Canterbury;[***] 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,[****] 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.[*****] [2]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 117. Flor. Wigorn. p. 605.
Wallingford, p. 544]
[*** Hoveden, p. 425. Osberne, p. 109.]
[**** Brompton, p. 863.]
[***** See note B, at the end of the volume.]
EDGAR
{959.} 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 this vigor 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 an supported a powerful navy;[*] 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.[**] [3] 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 neighboring sovereigns, the king of
Scotland, the princes of Wales, of the Isle of Man, of the Orkneys, and
even of Ireland,[***] were reduced to pay submission to so formidable
a monarch. He carried his superiority to a great height, and might have
excited a universal combination against him, had not his power been so
well established, as to deprive his enemies of hopes 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.[****] 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.
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 favored their scheme for dispossessing the
secular canons of all the monasteries;[*****] 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; [******] and
to place Ethelwold, another of them, in that of Winchester;[*******] he
consulted these prelates in the administration of all ecclesiastical
and even in that of many civil affairs; and though the vigor 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.
[* Higden, p. 265.]
[** See note C, at the end of the volume]
[*** Spel. Concil. p. 432.]
[**** W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 406.
H. Hunting, lib. v.p. 356].
[***** Chron. Sax. p. 117, 118. W, Malms, lib. ii.
cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 425, 426. Osberne, p. 112.]
[****** W. Malms. lib. ii. cap. 8. Hoveden, p.
425.]
[******* Gervase, p. 1646. Brompton, p. 864, Flor.
Wigorn. p. 606. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 27, 28.]
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 endeavors 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.”[*]
[* Abbas Rieval. p. 360, 361. Spel. Concil. p.
476, 477, 478.]
It is easy to imagine that this harangue had the desired effect; and
that, when the king and prelates thus concurred with popular prejudices,
it was not long before the monks prevailed, and established their new
discipline in almost all the convents.
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.[*]
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 beseems to
have been justly entitled,--but under that 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 tenor 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.[**]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 118. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8.
Seldom Spicileg, ad Eadm. p. 149, 157.]
[** W. Malms, lib. ii cap. 8. Osberne, p. 3.
Diceto, p. 457. Higden, p. 265, 267, 268. Spel. Concil. p.
481.]
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;[*]
a 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 colors. Such is the
ascendant which may be attained, by hypocrisy and cabal, over mankind.
[* Osberne, p. 111.]
There was another mistress of Edgar’s, with whom he first formed a
connection 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 behavior, 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 dishonor her daughter and her family by compliance; but being
well acquainted with the impetuosity of the king’s 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 king’s 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 bed-fallow 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 favorite mistress,
and maintained her ascendant over him, till his marriage with
Elfrida.[*]
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. 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 honorable terms. He communicated his intention to Earl Athelwold, his
favorite, 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
any wise 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 lady’s,
consent to the marriage. Edgar, pleased with an expedient for
establishing his favorite’s 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 favorite, would, by
its means, be able to make against him. Edgar was soon informed of the
truth; but before he would execute vengeance on Athelwold’s 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 honor, 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 honor or his life, to conceal from Edgar, by every circumstance
of dress and behavior, 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 husband’s 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.[*]
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 426. Brompton, p.
865, 866. Flor. Wigorn. p. 606. Higden, 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.[*]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 116. H. Hunting, lib. v. p. 356. Brompton,
p. 865.]
We are told that they imported all the vices of their respective
countries, and contributed to corrupt the simple manners of the
natives;[*] 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.
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 of Athelstan, his predecessor,[**] 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.
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 8.]
[** W. Malms, lib. ii. 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.
EDWARD THE MARTYR
{957.} The succession of this prince, who was only fifteen years of age
at his father’s death, did not take place without much difficulty and
opposition. Elfrida, his step-mother, had a son, Ethelred, seven years
old, whom she attempted to raise to the throne: she affirmed that
Edgar’s 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;[*] he was approaching
to man’s estate, and might soon be able to take into his own hands the
reins of government; the principal nobility, dreading the imperious
temper of Clirida, were averse to her son’s 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, hud espoused the cause of Edward,
over whom he had already acquired a great ascendant;[**] and he was
determined to execute the will of Edgar in his favor. To cut off all
opposite pretensions, Dunstan resolutely anointed and crowned the young
prince at Kingston; and the whole kingdom, without further dispute,
submitted to him.[***]
[* Hoveden, p. 427. Eadmer p. 3.]
[** Eadmer, p. 3.]
[*** W. Malms, lib. ii 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 favorable 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 Edgar’s death, Alfere, duke of Mercia, expelled the
new orders of monks from all the monasteries which lay within his
jurisdiction;[***] 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 favor. 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
he nation.[****] 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.
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 123. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap.
9. Hoveden, p. 427 Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. p, 307.]
[**** W. Malms. lib. ii. 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.[*] 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;[**] 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 favorites of Heaven.
[* W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 9. Osberne, p. 112.
Gervase, p. 1647, Brompton, p. 870. Higden, p. 269.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 124. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap. 9.
Hoveden, p. 427. H. Hunting, lib. v. 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.[*]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 124.]
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 favor 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 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 Wereham by his servants.
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 gave him the appellation of _martyr_,
though his murder had no connection 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.