Topzle Topzle

Edgar, King of England

Updated: Wikipedia source

Edgar, King of England

Edgar (or Eadgar), c. 944 – 8 July 975, also known as Edgar the Peacemaker and the Peaceable, was King of the English from 959 until his death in 975. He became king of all England on his brother Eadwig's death. He was the younger son of King Edmund I and his first wife, Ælfgifu. A detailed account of Edgar's reign is not possible, because only a few events were recorded by chroniclers and monastic writers, who were more interested in recording the activities of the leaders of the church. Edgar mainly followed the political policies of his predecessors, but there were major changes in the religious sphere. The English Benedictine Reform, which he strongly supported, became a dominant religious and social force. It is seen by historians as a major achievement, and it was accompanied by a literary and artistic flowering, mainly associated with Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester. Monasteries aggressively acquired estates from lay landowners with Edgar's assistance, leading to disorder when he died and former owners sought to recover their lost property, sometimes by force. Edgar's major administrative reform was the introduction of a standardised coinage in the early 970s to replace the previous decentralised system. He also issued legislative codes which mainly concentrated on improving procedures for enforcement of the law. England had suffered from Viking invasions for over a century when Edgar came to power, but there were none during his reign, which fell in a lull in attacks between the mid-950s and the early 980s. After his death the throne was disputed between the supporters of his two surviving sons; the elder one, Edward the Martyr, was chosen with the support of Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Three years later Edward was murdered; he was succeeded by his younger half-brother, Æthelred the Unready. Later chroniclers presented Edgar's reign as a golden age when England was free from external attacks and internal disorder, especially compared with Æthelred's disastrous rule. Modern historians see Edgar's reign as the pinnacle of Anglo-Saxon culture, but they disagree about his political legacy, and some see the disorders following his death as a natural reaction to his overbearing control.

Infobox

Reign
1 October 959 – 8 July 975
Coronation
11 May 973
Predecessor
Eadwig
Successor
Edward the Martyr
Born
943/944England
Died
8 July 975 (aged 31/32)
Burial
Glastonbury Abbey
Spouses
mw- Æthelflæd Wulfthryth Ælfthryth
Issue
Edward the Martyr Edith of Wilton Edmund Æthelred the Unready
House
Wessex
Father
Edmund I
Mother
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury

Tables

· External links
Regnal titles
Regnal titles
Edgar, King of England House of WessexBorn: c. 944 Died: 8 July 975
Regnal titles
Preceded byEadwig
Preceded byEadwig
Edgar, King of England House of WessexBorn: c. 944 Died: 8 July 975
Preceded byEadwig
Edgar, King of England House of WessexBorn: c. 944 Died: 8 July 975
King of the English 959–975
Edgar, King of England House of WessexBorn: c. 944 Died: 8 July 975
Succeeded byEdward the Martyr
Edgar, King of England House of WessexBorn: c. 944 Died: 8 July 975
Regnal titles
Preceded byEadwig
King of the English 959–975
Succeeded byEdward the Martyr

References

  1. Ealdorman was the second rank of the lay aristocracy below the king. They governed large areas as the king's local repre
  2. Manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are conventionally labelled ASC A to H.
  3. Edgar is "King of the English" in two charters of 958, S 674 and S 679, but the style was probably copied from another c
  4. For the Regularis Concordia, see the 'Religion' section below
  5. A mancus was an amount of gold in weight, coin or value worth 30 pence.
  6. Edgar's charters are listed with comments in Keynes's "A Conspectus of the Charters of King Edgar 957–975".
  7. Horizontal coin types have the moneyer's name horizontally on the reverse in two lines. Common horizontal types in Edgar
  8. The full name of the Regularis Concordia is given in the title of Thomas Symons's 1953 edition: Regularis Concordia Angl
  9. For Edgar's coronation, see the 'Events in 973' section below.
  10. He may have been the Thored who became ealdorman of York by 979.
  11. The historian Dorothy Whitelock comments on the poem commemorating Edgar's death that it is "of a quality to make one gl
  12. In a sample of around thirty academic works on the period, none of them gave him the byname "Peaceful" in the index, and
  13. Blair 2005, p. 582.
  14. The British Monarchy
    https://www.thebritishmonarchy.co.uk/post/kings-of-england-before-1066
  15. Smithsonian Magazine
    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-viking-mystery-59648019/
  16. Williams 2014.
  17. Yorke 2008, p. 143.
  18. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 9, 12–13, 23, 37–38.
  19. Miller 2011.
  20. Foot 2011.
  21. Williams 2004a.
  22. Williams 2004b.
  23. Stafford 2014, pp. 156–157.
  24. Williams 2004b; Lapidge 2009, p. 85; Stafford 1981, p. 25.
  25. Keynes 1994, pp. 185–186; Keynes 2002, table XXXIa (6 of 6).
  26. Williams 2004b; Keynes 2004.
  27. Stenton 1971, p. 364.
  28. Williams 2014; Kelly 1996, p. 56.
  29. Hart 1966, pp. 231–232.
  30. Fleming 1991, p. 31.
  31. Keynes 2004.
  32. Thacker 1988, pp. 43, 51–52.
  33. Lapidge 1988, p. 98; Gretsch 1999, p. 239.
  34. Yorke 1988b, p. 80; John 1966, pp. 159–160.
  35. Keynes 1999, pp. 476–477; Lewis 2008, p. 106.
  36. Wickham 2009, p. 19.
  37. Williams 1999, p. 87.
  38. Snook 2015, pp. 154–155.
  39. Snook 2015, p. 155.
  40. Keynes 2008a, p. 30.
  41. Stafford 2004a; Keynes 2002, 13, table XXXIb.
  42. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 70–71; Harmer 1914, pp. 66–68; Charter S 1211.
  43. Stafford 1989, p. 48; Yorke 1988b, p. 78; Howlett 2011, p. 2730; Charter S 633.
  44. Williams 1999, p. 92.
  45. Williams 1982, p. 148 and n. 29; Williams 2004c.
  46. Keynes 2008a, pp. 30–31; Abels 2004.
  47. Keynes 2003a, p. xxi.
  48. Stenton 1971, pp. 364–365; Keynes 2008a, p. 30.
  49. Lewis 2008, p. 106.
  50. Miller 2014a, pp. 155–156; Naismith 2021, p. 234.
  51. Winterbottom & Lapidge 2011, pp. xiii, 75.
  52. Keynes 2004; Yorke 1988b, p. 78.
  53. Keynes 2004; Williams 2014.
  54. Swanton 2000, pp. xxi–xxviii.
  55. Whitelock 1979, pp. 224–225; Biggs 2008, pp. 129–131; Yorke 1988b, p. 78.
  56. Williams 2014; Yorke 1988b, p. 78; Keynes 1999, p. 478.
  57. Keynes 1999, p. 478.
  58. Keynes 2008a, p. 8.
  59. Biggs 2008, pp. 124–125.
  60. Keynes 2004; Whitelock 1979, p. 920.
  61. Keynes 1999, pp. 478–479; Keynes 2008b, pp. 64–65.
  62. Keynes 1980, p. 69 n. 135; Kelly 2009, p. 240; Woodman 2012, p. 113.
  63. Blunt, Stewart & Lyon 1989, pp. 278–280; Naismith 2017, p. 207.
  64. Williams 2014; Campbell 1962, p. 55.
  65. Lavelle 2008, pp. 29–30; Williams 2014.
  66. Woodman 2012, p. 115; Stenton 1971, p. 436; Charter S 679.
  67. Hutchinson 1949, pp. 37, 49, 53.
  68. Thomson & Winterbottom 1999, pp. 139–140; Hart 2007.
  69. Yorke 2008, p. 144.
  70. Williams 2003, p. 3.
  71. Yorke 2008, p. 144; Williams 2014; Darlington & McGurk 1995, p. 417; Mynors, Thomson & Winterbottom 1998, p. 261.
  72. Williams 2014; Hart 2007.
  73. Hart 1992, p. 586; Darlington & McGurk 1995, p. 417.
  74. Brooks 1984, pp. 249–250.
  75. Yorke 2004c; Hollis 2004, pp. 318–319.
  76. Yorke 2004a; Yorke 2004b.
  77. Hollis 2004, pp. 32, 311; Insley 2012, p. 86; Ortenberg 2002, p. 57.
  78. Yorke 2008, p. 150; Yorke 2003, pp. 108–109.
  79. Winterbottom 2007, pp. 299–301.
  80. Yorke 2008, p. 146.
  81. Yorke 2008, pp. 148, 157.
  82. Stafford 2004b.
  83. Yorke 2008, pp. 147–149; Rumble 2002, pp. 93–94.
  84. Stafford 2001, pp. 164–165.
  85. Williams 2014; Stafford 2004b.
  86. Williams 2014; Stafford 2004b; Stafford 2001, p. 164.
  87. Yorke 2008, pp. 146–147.
  88. Yorke 1988a, pp. 3, 10.
  89. Brooks 1984, p. 247.
  90. Thacker 1992, p. 244.
  91. Keynes 1999, p. 480.
  92. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 122–123, 177–179, 199.
  93. Yorke 1995, p. 131.
  94. Yorke 2008, pp. 149–150; Hart 2005.
  95. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 181–182.
  96. Keynes 2008a, p. 53.
  97. Stenton 1971, p. 539; Keynes 2008a, p. 10.
  98. Darlington & McGurk 1995, p. 427.
  99. Huscroft 2019, pp. 161–162.
  100. Stenton 1971, pp. 562–563; Giles 1849, p. 263.
  101. Naismith 2014a, p. 330.
  102. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 72–73.
  103. Owen-Crocker & Schneider 2013, pp. vi, 89 (figure 1.8), 175–176; Charter S 690.
  104. Keynes 1980, pp. 69, 76.
  105. Snook 2015, pp. 160, 168, 187–188.
  106. Keynes 2013, p. 97.
  107. Keynes 1980, pp. 70–79; Kelly 2000, pp. cxv–cxxxi; Snook 2015, pp. 169–170.
  108. Keynes 2008a, pp. 14–16, 19–20.
  109. Keynes 1994, pp. 182, 190–191; Snook 2015, pp. 161–162.
  110. Keynes 2013, p. 97; Keynes 2008a, p. 22.
  111. Keynes 2008a, p. 12.
  112. Keynes 2008b, pp. 60–63.
  113. Keynes 2008b, pp. 64–80.
  114. Keynes 2013, pp. 175–179.
  115. Keynes 2008a, pp. 25–26.
  116. Wormald 1999, pp. 313, 378; Whitelock 1979, pp. 431–437; Robertson 1925, pp. 16–39.
  117. Huscroft 2019, p. 154.
  118. Wormald 1999, pp. 316–317.
  119. Blair 2005, p. 442.
  120. Wormald 1999, p. 315.
  121. Keynes 1999, pp. 480–481; Robertson 1925, p. 27.
  122. Trousdale 2013, p. 295.
  123. Wormald 1999, p. 318.
  124. Hadley 2000, p. 105.
  125. Molyneaux 2015, p. 122.
  126. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 48–49.
  127. Keynes 2008a, p. 25.
  128. Wormald 1999, p. 317.
  129. Wormald 1999, pp. 125–126.
  130. Wormald 1999, pp. 126–127.
  131. Keynes 1999, p. 481.
  132. Molyneaux 2015, p. 221.
  133. Wormald 1999, pp. 129–130; Whitelock 1979, p. 251 and n. 14.
  134. Wormald 1999, pp. 131–132.
  135. Wormald 1999, p. 135.
  136. "Record SF-2E735D"
    https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/799708
  137. Naismith 2021, p. 386.
  138. Naismith 2017, p. 182.
  139. Naismith 2017, p. 260.
  140. Naismith 2017, p. 180.
  141. Blunt, Stewart & Lyon 1989, pp. 157, 171, 195.
  142. Blunt, Stewart & Lyon 1989, pp. 10–19.
  143. Naismith 2017, pp. 189, 207, 210.
  144. Naismith 2017, p. 195.
  145. Naismith 2017, p. 15.
  146. Blunt, Stewart & Lyon 1989, pp. 236–237.
  147. Naismith 2017, p. 181.
  148. Naismith 2017, p. 252.
  149. Naismith 2017, pp. 260, 728–729 (coins 1764–1770); Giles 1849, p. 264.
  150. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 116–117.
  151. Naismith 2014b, pp. 80, 82.
  152. Roach 2016, p. 28.
  153. Naismith 2014b, p. 40.
  154. Miller 2001, pp. 95, 105; Karkov 2008, p. 224; Charter S 745, London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian A, viii, fol. 2v
  155. Lewis 2008, pp. 104–105, 122; Charter S 667.
  156. Roach 2016, p. 35.
  157. Wollasch 1999, pp. 173–174; Blair 2005, p. 346.
  158. Stenton 1971, pp. 365, 367.
  159. Keynes 2008a, p. 42.
  160. Stenton 1971, p. 367.
  161. Keynes 2008a, p. 29.
  162. Blair 2005, pp. 342, 351.
  163. Yorke 2004d; Whitelock, Brett & Brooke 1981, pp. 109–113.
  164. Miller 2001, pp. 95–111; Karkov 2008, pp. 234–235; Charter S 745.
  165. Karkov 2004, p. 85.
  166. Lapidge 1988, p. 101; Lapidge 1993, pp. 34–35.
  167. Cooper 2015, p. 1 n. 3.
  168. Keynes 1999, p. 481; Cooper 2015, p. 62.
  169. Molyneaux 2015, p. 174.
  170. Symons 1975, pp. 40–42; Cooper 2015, p. 48 n.3.
  171. Blair 2005, p. 352; Whitelock 1979, pp. 921–922.
  172. Cooper 2015, p. 64.
  173. Rumble 2008, p. 242.
  174. Naismith 2021, p. 313; Blair 2005, p. 350.
  175. Yorke 1988b, p. 81; Robertson 1956, pp. 92–95, 339–342; Charter S 806.
  176. Yorke 1988a, pp. 5–6.
  177. Fisher 1952, pp. 263–264; Fairweather 2005, pp. 103–104 (Book II, 7)
  178. Karkov 2004, p. 84.
  179. Keynes 1999, p. 479.
  180. Keynes 1999, p. 479; Keynes 2008a, pp. 3–4.
  181. Gransden 1992, p. 36.
  182. Nelson 1999, p. 96.
  183. Karkov 2004, p. 86.
  184. John 1982, p. 160.
  185. Wormald 1988, p. 32.
  186. Keynes 2003b, pp. 17–23; Lawson 2011, p. 115; Fairweather 2005, pp. 140–141, 354–355 (Book II, 50 and Book III, 50).
  187. Coatsworth 1988, p. 167; Foot 2000, pp. 151–152.
  188. Ridyard 1988, pp. 108–109, 119.
  189. Rollason 1989, p. 183; Lapidge 2003, pp. 492–497.
  190. Thacker 1988, pp. 52–53.
  191. Blair 2005, pp. 351–352.
  192. Lapidge 1993, p. 5.
  193. Keynes 1985, p. 147.
  194. Lapidge 1993, p. 31.
  195. Lapidge 1993, p. 31; Leonardi 1999, p. 191.
  196. Lapidge 1993, p. 35.
  197. Snook 2015, pp. 166–167.
  198. Lapidge 1993, pp. 35–36.
  199. Lapidge 1993, pp. 36–39.
  200. Lapidge 1993, p. 32.
  201. Wilson 1984, p. 153.
  202. Wilson 1984, p. 154.
  203. Hollis 2004, pp. 32, 311 n. 21; Insley 2012, pp. 86–87; Ortenberg 2002, p. 57.
  204. Rex 2007, pp. 43–44.
  205. Whitelock 1959, p. 79.
  206. Huscroft 2019, p. 126; Williams 2014.
  207. Charles-Edwards 2013, p. 539; Williams 2014.
  208. Williams 2014; Whitelock 1979, p. 228.
  209. Williams 2014; Darlington & McGurk 1995, pp. 425–427.
  210. Whitelock 1979, p. 225.
  211. Williams 2014; Jayakumar 2001, pp. 26–27.
  212. Lapidge 2009, pp. 102–103 and n. 39.
  213. Naismith 2014b, p. 39.
  214. Williams 2014; Yorke 2008, p. 147; Nelson 1977, p. 66.
  215. John 1966, pp. 278–279; Whitelock 1979, pp. 227–228.
  216. Stenton 1971, p. 368.
  217. Keynes 2008a, p. 48.
  218. Thomson & Winterbottom 1999, p. 141.
  219. Nelson 1977, pp. 66–70.
  220. Roach 2013, p. 204.
  221. Williams 2014; Whitelock 1979, p. 228; Cubbin 1996, p. xi.
  222. Whitelock 1979, p. 927; Williams 2014; Molyneaux 2011, p. 67.
  223. Charles-Edwards 2013, pp. 543–544; Darlington & McGurk 1995, pp. 423–425; Mynors, Thomson & Winterbottom 1998, pp. 239–2
  224. Darlington & McGurk 1995, pp. 423–425.
  225. Smyth 1984, p. 228; Barrow 2001, pp. 81–93; Williams 2014.
  226. Williams 1999, p. 88.
  227. Lewis 2008, p. 121.
  228. Roach 2013, pp. 52–53; Huscroft 2019, p. 134.
  229. Molyneaux 2011, pp. 70–71.
  230. Crick 2008, pp. 161–165.
  231. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 200, 212–213.
  232. Karkov 2008, p. 239.
  233. Yorke 2013, p. 255.
  234. Nelson 1999, p. 106.
  235. Marafioti 2014, p. 190 n. 112.
  236. Rollason 1989, pp. 140–141.
  237. Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church
    https://olol.org.au/saints/402-saint-edgar-the-peaceful-8-july
  238. Ridyard 1988, p. 154.
  239. Yorke 1988b, pp. 82–85.
  240. Keynes 2008a, pp. 52–53.
  241. Williams 2003, pp. 11, 149–150.
  242. Green 2017, p. 1.
  243. Roach 2013, p. 10.
  244. Ryan 2013, p. 311.
  245. Molyneaux 2015, pp. 182, 193.
  246. Keynes 1999, pp. 482–483.
  247. Snook 2015, p. 159.
  248. Stafford 1989, p. 50.
  249. Whitelock 1979, p. 228 n. 2.
  250. Salvador-Bello 2008, pp. 252–254; Whitelock 1979, pp. 225–228.
  251. Williams 2014; Darlington & McGurk 1995, p. 417.
  252. Historic UK
    https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Edgar-the-Peaceful/
  253. Abels 1988, p. 308.
  254. Miller 2014b, p. 163.
Image
Source: —
Tip: Wheel or +/− to zoom, drag to pan, Esc to close.