How King Edmund was killed by a robber; how Bishop Dunstan ill-used
King Edwy; how Archbishop Odo murdered the Queen; what Dunstan did to
please the people; how King Edgar caused the wolves to be destroyed;
and how his son, King Edward, was murdered by Queen Elfrida.
King Athelstane died soon after the battle of Brunanburgh.
His brother Edmund began his reign very well, and the English people
were in hopes that they should be at peace, and have time enough
to keep their fields in order, and improve their houses, and make
themselves as comfortable as they were when Alfred was king. But
Edmund was killed by a robber before he had been king quite six
years; and his brother Edred, who was made king when he died, was
neither so brave nor so wise as Edmund or Athelstane, and did not
manage the people nearly so well.
I am very sorry for the next king, whose name was Edwy. He was young
and good-natured, and so was his beautiful wife, whom he loved very
much; but they could not agree with a bishop called Dunstan, who was
a very clever and a very bold man, and wanted everybody in England,
even the king, to follow his advice in everything. Now the king and
queen did not like this, and would not do everything Dunstan wished,
and banished him from the country. But the friends whom he had left
behind him rose up against the poor king, and, in order to punish
him for not obeying Dunstan, one of them, the Archbishop Odo, was so
very wicked as to take the beautiful young queen, and beat her, and
burned her face all over with hot irons, to make her look ugly, and
then sent her away to Ireland. When she came back, she was so cruelly
treated that she died in great agony. The men who did this even took
away a part of his kingdom from Edwy, and gave it to his brother,
Edgar. Soon afterwards Edwy died, and Edgar became king of the whole
of England.
When Edgar grew up, he was a good king; but he was obliged to make
friends with Dunstan, who was very clever, and used to please and
amuse the people when he wanted them to do anything for him. He could
play on the harp very well; and he used to make a great many things
of iron and brass, which the people wanted very much, and gave them
to them; and as there were no bells to the churches before this time,
Dunstan had a great many made, and hung up in the church-steeples.
And the people began to forget how cruel he had been to King Edwy,
when he did so many things to please them.
I must tell you a little about King Edgar now. He went to every part
of the country to see if the people were taken care of. He saw that
all the ships that King Alfred and King Athelstane had built were
properly repaired, and built a great many new ones. There was so
little fighting in his time that he was called “The Peaceful”; yet
he made the kings of Scotland and the kings of Wales obey him; but
instead of taking money from them, as other kings used to do at that
time, he ordered them to send hunters into the woods, to catch and
kill the wolves and other wild beasts, which, as I told you before,
used to do a great deal of mischief in England. I have heard that he
made these kings send him three hundred wolves’ heads every year; so
at last all the wolves in England were killed, and the farmers could
sleep comfortably in the country, without being afraid that wild
beasts would come and kill them or their children in the night.
This was a very good thing; and Edgar did many other useful things
for England, but I am sorry to say, he did not always do what was
right, as you will know when you are old enough to read the large
History of England.
[Illustration: King Edward stabbed by order of Elfrida.]
When Edgar died, his eldest son, Edward, became king. Now the queen,
who was Edward’s stepmother, hated him, because she wanted her own
little son to be king. She therefore determined to have Edward
killed; and I will tell you how the wicked woman did it. Edward
was very fond of hunting; one day he was returning alone from the
chase, and being very hot and thirsty, he rode up to the gate of his
stepmother’s house at Corfe, and asked for some wine. The queen,
whose name was Elfrida, brought him some herself; and while he was
drinking it, she made a sign to one of her servants who stabbed
Edward in the back, so that he died almost directly. This cruel
murder of the young king, when he was off his guard, drinking his
wine, is said to have given rise to the custom among noblemen and
gentlemen of “pledging” each other, while drinking at feasts. One
about to drink would call on the guest next him, or on some friend
at the table, to pledge himself to protect him while in the act of
drinking, and he in turn would pledge himself to protect his friend
when the cup came to him. I need not tell you, I am sure, that after
such a wicked action Elfrida was very unhappy all her life, and
everybody hated her. The murdered young king was called Edward the
Martyr.