Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Documentary Evidence
- Part II Edgar before 549
- Part III Edgar, 959–975
- 6 The Women in Edgar's Life
- 7 Edgar, Albion and Insular Dominion
- 8 King Edgar and the Men of the Danelaw
- 9 The Pre-Reform Coinage of Edgar
- Part IV Edgar and the Monastic Revival
- Index
7 - Edgar, Albion and Insular Dominion
from Part III - Edgar, 959–975
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
- Part III Edgar, 959–975
- 6 The Women in Edgar's Life
- 7 Edgar, Albion and Insular Dominion
- 8 King Edgar and the Men of the Danelaw
- 9 The Pre-Reform Coinage of Edgar
- Part IV Edgar and the Monastic Revival
- Index
Summary
At this time, the name of Britaine, lay forgotten and growne quite out of use among the Inhabitants of this Island: remaining only in books, and not taken up in common speech. And hereupon it is, that Boniface the bishop of Mentz, descended from hence, called this our country, Saxony beyond the Sea. Howbeit, K. Eadred, about the yeare of our Lord, 948. used in some charters and Patents the name and title of King of Great Britain: like as Edgar in the yeare, 970. bare this stile also, The Monarch of all whole Albion.
ALBION, that ancient term of British geography, used from the time of Pliny onwards to designate the island of Britain, came of age in the seventeenth century. When James VI of Scotland acceded to the English throne in 1603 and created an island polity, Albion found its political meaning. Indeed, to judge from the output of British presses, it exploded into life. Drayton's Poly-Olbion, published in 1612, carried on its title page the personification of Albion, ‘th'Oceans Island’. In the following year James Maxwell celebrated in print the genealogy of ‘the infanta of Albion’, James I's daughter, while his Carolanna was published in 1619 ‘in honour of the immortall memory of our late good queen of Albion and Union’. The personified Albion featured in Jonson's masque for the Court at Twelfth Night 1623, New Albion served as a term for the American colonies and thereafter Albion provided a suitably grandiloquent style for kings, queens and princesses: thus Albion's Tears were shed for Queen Mary, Albion's elegy was addressed to Prince James and Albion's Blessing to William III.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Edgar, King of the English 959–975New Interpretations, pp. 158 - 170Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008