General Notes

REFN: 1428AN
REFN: P1428
Edgar the Peaceful, King of England
Born: 944
Acceded: 11 MAY 97 3, Bath Abbey
Died: 8 JUL 975, Winchester, England
Interred: Glastonbury Abbe y, Somerset
Notes:
Reigned 959-975. The first King of a united England. He al lowed his Danis
h
subjects to retain Danish laws. Edgar promoted a monastic rev ival and
encouraged traDe by reforming the currency. He improved defence by
organising
coastal naval patrols and a system for manning warships.
Although he suceeded on 1st October 959, he was not crowned until 973
because
St Duns tan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, disaproved of his way of life.
Father: , Ed mund I the Elder, King of England, b. 921
Mother: , AElfgifu (St.)
Married CI R 961 to , AEthelflaeda the Fair
Child 1: , Edward (St.) the Martyr, King of E ngland, b. 963
Associated with , Wulfryth (St), Abbess of Wilton
Child 2: , E adgyth (St.), Abbess of Barking, b. ABT 962
Married 964 to , Aelfthryth (Elfri da)
Child 3: , Edmund, b. CIR 965
Child 4: , AEthelred II the Unready, King o f England, b. ABT 968
EDGAR (r. 959-975)
Edgar, king in Mercia and the Danelaw from 957, succeeded his brother as k
ing of the English on Edwy's death in 959. His death probably prevented ci
vil war breaking out between the two brothers.
Edgar was a firm and capable ruler whose power was acknowledged by other r
ulers in Britain, as well as by Welsh and Scottish kings.
Edgar's late coronation in 973 at Bath was the first to be recorded in so
me detail; his queen Aelfthryth was the first consort to be crowned que
en of England.
Edgar was the patron of a great monastic revival which owed much to his as
sociation with Archbishop Dunstan. New bishoprics were created, Benedicti
ne monasteries were reformed and old monastic sites were re-endowed with r
oyal grants, some of which were of land recovered from the Vikings.
In the 970s and in the absence of Viking attacks, Edgar - a stern jud
ge - issued laws which for the first time dealt with Northumbria (par
ts of which were in the Danelaw) as well as Wessex and Mercia. Edgar's coi
nage was uniform throughout the kingdom. A more united kingdom based on ro
yal justice and order was emerging.
The Monastic Agreement (c.970) praised Edgar as 'the glorious, by the gra
ce of Christ illustrious king of the English and of the other peoples dwel
ling within the bounds of the island of Britain'.
After his death on 8 July 975, Edgar was buried at Glastonbury Abbey, Some
rset.
King Edgar or Eadgar I (c. 942 – July 8, 975) was the younger son of Ki
ng Edmund I of England. He won the nickname, "the Peaceable", but in fa
ct was a stronger king than his elder brother, Edwy, from whom he took t
he kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia in 958. Edgar was acclaimed king nor
th of the Thames by a conclave of Mercian nobles in 958, but officially su
cceeded when Edwy died in October 959. Immediately Edgar recalled Dunst
an (eventually canonised as St. Dunstan) from exile and made him successiv
ely Bishop of Worcester, then of London and finally Archbishop of Canterbu
ry, The allegation that Dunstan at first refused to crown Edgar becau
se he disapproved of his way of life, is a discreet reference in popular h
istories to Edgar's mistress Wulfthryth, (later a nun at Wilton) who bo
re him a daughter Eadgyth in 961. Dunstan remained Edgar's advisor through
out his reign, nevertheless.
Edgar's reign was a peaceful one, and it is probably fair to say that it s
aw the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English at its height. Although other pr
evious kings have been recorded as the founders of 'England', it was Edg
ar who consolidated this. By the end of Edgar's reign there was little cha
nce of it receding back into its constituent parts, as it had beg
un 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 Du
nstan, Aethel