Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Documentary Evidence
- Part II Edgar before 549
- 3 Eadwig and Edgar: Politics, Propaganda, Faction
- 4 Edgar, Chester, and the Kingdom of the Mercians, 957–9
- 5 Edgar's Path to the Throne
- Part III Edgar, 959–975
- Part IV Edgar and the Monastic Revival
- Index
3 - Eadwig and Edgar: Politics, Propaganda, Faction
from Part II - Edgar before 549
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Documentary Evidence
- Part II Edgar before 549
- 3 Eadwig and Edgar: Politics, Propaganda, Faction
- 4 Edgar, Chester, and the Kingdom of the Mercians, 957–9
- 5 Edgar's Path to the Throne
- Part III Edgar, 959–975
- Part IV Edgar and the Monastic Revival
- Index
Summary
THE difficulty with Edgar's regime is not just that so little is known about it, but that the monastic memory of him sought to plug a gaping hole by imposing its own image. In some ways Edgar was similar to Edward the Confessor – an iconic figure representing a golden age and ‘the good law’. The aim of this chapter is to shed light on comparatively neglected aspects of Edgar's rule – on the principals at court and the relations between the nobility and the king.
A great deal of the politics of Edgar's reign has its roots in the years immediately preceding, and the issue must first be touched on. Eadwig's rule very quickly came under a type of damnatio memoriae: it clearly became politic under Edgar to mount a campaign against his predecessor. In his Preface to the English translation of the Benedictine Rule (written c. 970–3), Bishop Æthelwold wrote
It was not before long his brother ‘Eadwig’ ended the time of this transitory life, who through the ignorance of childhood dispersed his kingdom and divided its unity, and also distributed the lands of the holy churches to rapacious strangers.
This, of course, represents the earliest of many character attacks on Eadwig and the basis for the much-repeated assertion by medieval writers that Eadwig was no friend of the church. This accusation was developed by later writers, some of whom tended to portray Eadwig as being hostile to monasticism as a whole. William of Malmesbury followed this line and made Eadwig responsible for the introduction of secular canons at Malmesbury as well as at other houses.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Edgar, King of the English 959–975New Interpretations, pp. 83 - 103Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008