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Edgar the Peaceful, or Edgar I (Old English: Eadgar; c. 7 August 943 - 8 July 975), also called the Peaceable, was king of England from 959 to 975. Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I. Accession Edgar was the son of Edmund I, grandson of Edward the elder, great-grandson of Alfred the Great, great-great grandson of Ethelwulf of Wessex, great-great-great grandson of Egbert of Wessex, and great-great-great-great grandson of Ealhmund of Kent. His cognomen, "The Peaceable", was not necessarily a comment on the deeds of his life, for he was a strong leader, shown by his seizure of the Northumbrian and Mercian kingdoms from his older brother, Eadwig, in 958. A conclave of nobles held Edgar to be king north of the Thames, and Edgar aspired to succeed to the English throne.[3] Government While Edgar was not a particularly peaceable man, his reign was peaceful. The Kingdom of England was well established, and Edgar consolidated the political unity achieved by his predecessors. By the end of his reign, England was sufficiently unified that it was unlikely to regress back to a state of division among rival kingships, as it had to an extent under the reign of Eadred. Blackstone mentions that King Edgar standardised measure throughout the realm.[4] Edgar and Dunstan Upon Eadwig's death in October 959, Edgar immediately recalled Dunstan (eventually canonised as St. Dunstan) from exile to have him made Bishop of Worcester (and subsequently Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury). Dunstan remained Edgar's advisor throughout his reign. Dead Man's Plack In 963 he reputedly killed his rival in love, Earl Æthelwald, near present-day Longparish, Hampshire,[5] an event commemorated in 1825 by the erection of Dead Man's Plack.[5] In 1875, Edward Augustus Freeman debunked the Æthelwald story as a "tissue of romance" in his Historic Essays,[6] but his arguments were rebutted by the naturalist William Henry Hudson in his 1920 book Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn.[3] Benedictine Reform The Monastic Reform Movement that restored the Benedictine Rule to England's undisciplined monastic communities peaked during the era of Dunstan, Æthelwold, and Oswald (historians continue to debate the extent and significance of this movement). Coronation at Bath (973) Edgar was crowned at Bath and anointed with his wife Ælfthryth, setting a precedent for a coronation of a queen in England itself.[7] Edgar's coronation did not happen until 973, in an imperial ceremony planned not as the initiation, but as the culmination of his reign (a move that must have taken a great deal of preliminary diplomacy). This service, devised by Dunstan himself and celebrated with a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, forms the basis of the present-day British coronation ceremony. The symbolic coronation was an important step; other kings of Britain came and gave their allegiance to Edgar shortly afterwards at Chester. Six kings in Britain, including the King of Scots and the King of Strathclyde, pledged their faith that they would be the king's liege-men on sea and land. Later chroniclers made the kings into eight, all plying the oars of Edgar's state barge on the River Dee. Such embellishments may not be factual, but the main outlines of the "submission at Chester" appear true. Death (975) Edgar died[why?] on 8 July 975 at Winchester and was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. He left two sons, the elder named Edward, who was probably his illegitimate son by Æthelflæd (not to be confused with the Lady of the Mercians), and Æthelred, the younger, the child of his wife Ælfthryth. He was succeeded by Edward. Edgar also had a possibly illegitimate daughter by Wulfthryth, who later became abbess of Wilton. She was joined there by her daughter, Edith of Wilton, who lived there as a nun until her death. Both women were later regarded as saints.[8][9] From Edgar’s death until the Norman Conquest, there was not a single succession to the throne that was not contested. Some see Edgar’s death as the beginning of the end of Anglo-Saxon England, followed as it was by three successful 11th century conquests - two Danish and one Norman. Appearance "[H]e was extremely small both in stature and bulk..." From the Gesta Regum Anglorum of William of Malmesbury (c.1080-1143). Notes ^ Jump up to: a b c Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma & Queen Edith, Blackwell 2001, pp. 324-325 Jump up ^ Stafford, op. cit., p. 91 ^ Jump up to: a b Hudson, William Henry (1920). Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn. Jump up ^ Blackstone, "Of the King's Prerogative" Bk. 1, Ch. 7 ^ Jump up to: a b "Deadman's Plack Monument - Longparish - Hampshire - England". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 8 September 2011. Jump up ^ Freeman, Edward Augustus (1875). Historic Essays. MacMillan & Co. pp. 10-25. Jump up ^ Honeycutt, Lois (2003). Matilda of Scotland: a Study in Medieval Queenship. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. p. 35. Jump up ^ Yorke, Barbara (2004). "Wulfthryth (St Wulfthryth) (d. c.1000), abbess of Wilton". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49423. Retrieved 17 November 2012. (subscription or UK public library membership required) Jump up ^ Williams, Ann (2004). "Edgar (called Edgar Pacificus) (943/4-975)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8463. Retrieved 16 May 2012. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: King Edgar or Eadgar I (c. 942 - July 8, 975) was the younger son of King Edmund I of England. He won the nickname, "the Peaceable", but in fact was a stronger king than his elder brother, Edwy, from whom he took the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia in 958. Edgar was acclaimed king north of the Thames by a conclave of Mercian nobles in 958, but officially succeeded when Edwy died in October 959. Immediately Edgar recalled Dunstan (eventually canonised as St. Dunstan) from exile and made him successively Bishop of Worcester, then of London and finally Archbishop of Canterbury, The allegation that Dunstan at first refused to crown Edgar because he disapproved of his way of life, is a discreet reference in popular histories to Edgar's mistress Wulfthryth, a nun at Wilton who bore him a daughter Eadgyth in 961. Dunstan remained Edgar's advisor throughout his reign, nevertheless. Edgar's reign was a peaceful one, and it is probably fair to say that it saw the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English at its height. Although other previous kings have been recorded as the founders of 'England', it was Edgar who consolidated this. By the end of Edgar's reign there was little chance of it receding back into its constituent parts, as it had begun to do during the reign of Edwy. The Monastic Reform Movement that restored the Benedictine Rule to England's undisciplined monastic communities saw its height during the time of Dunstan, Aethelwold and Oswald. However, the extent and importance of the movement is still debated amongst academics. Edgar was crowned at Bath, but not until 973, an imperial ceremony planned not as the initiation, but as the culmination of his reign, a move that must have taken a great deal of preliminary diplomacy. This service, devised by Dunstan himself, and celebrated with a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle forms the basis of the present-day British coronation ceremony. The symbolic coronation was an important step; other kings of Britain came and gave their allegiance to Edgar shortly afterwards at Chester. Six kings in Britain, including the kings of Scotland and of Strathclyde, pledged their faith that they would be the king's henchmen on sea and land. Later chroniclers made the kings into eight, all plying the oars of Edgar's state barge on the River Dee. Perhaps not, but the main outlines of the "submission at Chester" appear true. Edgar had several children. He died on July 8, 975 at Winchester, and was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. He left two sons, the eldest named Edward, the son of his first wife Ethelfleda (not to be confused with Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians), and Ethelred, the youngest, the child of his second wife Elfrida. He was succeeded by his oldest son, King Edward the Martyr. From Edgar’s death to the Norman Conquest there was not a single succession to the throne that was not contended. Although perhaps a simplification, Edgar’s death did seem to be the beginning of the end for Anglo-Saxon England that resulted in three 11th century successful conquests, two Danish and one Norman. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
William B.
