He is said to have stationed three fleets of 1200 ships each on the east, west, and south coasts of the island for the defence of the kingdom (1). This, however, looks more like idle parade than public utility; for England was threatened with no foreign hostility in his reign, and one third of the number would have guarded the coast. There was more true glory obtained by his practice every spring and winter, of riding through his provinces, to examine the conduct of the powerful, to protect the weak, and to punish every violation of law (2). This attention to the wants and relief of his people merits our applause; and whether Dunstan's solicitude for popularity (3), or the king's noble feelings occasioned the custom, it ought not to be mentioned without high praise. His vigilant police freed the kingdom from robbers (4). Edgar was generous to his friends. To Kenneth of Scotland, who visited him, he not only gave the county of Louth, but one hundred ounces of pure gold, many silken ornaments and rings, with precious stones (5). The person of Edgar was small and thin; and Kenneth one day remarked that it was wonderful that so many provinces should obey a man so insignificant. These words were carried to the king. He led Kenneth apart into a wood, and bade him take one of two swords which he produced. "Our arms shall decide which ought to obey the other; for it will be base to have asserted that at a feast which you cannot support with your sword." Kenneth, confused, recollected his hasty remark, and apologised for it as a joke (6). There is such an energy and a magnanimity in this incident, that if Edgar had attained his power at a later age, or had possessed better counsellors, he might have displayed a nobler character. Abstracted from his vices, he may be ranked in the superior order of our Saxon sovereigns. 075. Edgar was twice married. By his first wife, Elfleda the Fair, daughter of Ordmer, he had Edward, his successor, and a daughter, who became a nun. Elfrida, whom he had made the widow of "for," said he, "coiners are thieves, and I know of no thieves more harmful. They disturb the country, and injure both rich and poor." Eadmer, p. 216. (1) Mailros, 150. Matt. West. makes 4800 ships, by adding a northern fleet. Perhaps either number is an exaggeration. Malmsbury says, that every Easter they sailed round the island, p. 59. (2) Malmsb. 59. Mailros, 150. Matt. West. 375. (3) After Dunstan had become a metropolitan, he hastened to travel through every city in the kingdom, to preach to it; and such was his acuteness and eloquence, says his biographer, that nothing could be wiser, or more pleasant. Osberne, 110. (4) Malmsb. 59. (5) Matt. West. says, Louth was given on condition that Kenneth should come every year to Edgar's principal feasts. The king gave him several houses for his entertainment during his journey. (6) Malmsb. 59. Athelwold (1), that had deceived him, bore him two sons; Edmund, who died before him; and Ethelred, who also obtained the crown. Edgar's reign has been celebrated as the most glorious of all the Anglo-Saxon kings. No other sovereign, indeed, enjoyed his prosperity with such personal pomp; yet no other sovereign was more degraded in his posterity. With his short life, for he died at thirty-two, the gaudy pageantry ceased; and all the dominion in which he had so ostentatiously exulted, vanished from his children's grasp. His eldest son perished by the scheme of his preferred Elfrida; his youngest reigned only to show, that one weak reign is sufficient to ruin even a brave and great people. It is an instance of the mutability of human greatness, that although Edgar made kings his watermen, yet the son of his beloved wife bought his kingdom five times from Danish rovers ; the favourites became traitors, and he surrendered his throne to a foreign invader. Of Edgar's grandsons one perished violently soon after his accession. The other was the last of his race who ruled the Anglo-Saxon nation (2). CHAPTER VII. Edward the Martyr, or Edward the Second of the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Dunstan had used the power of Edgar to plant England with the new monks, and to exclude from their seats the ancient clergy; but he had not reconciled all the nation to the severity of the measure or to his own administration; for on Edgar's death an attempt was made to humble his power, and to restore the clergy. As Edward appeared subservient to the views of Dunstan, his accession was disputed. Some chose him, and others Ethelred (3). But Edward had been named by his father as successor, and Dunstan took the shortest road to his object. He and Oswald assembled their ecclesiastical friends and some duces, and crowned (1) The Saxon Chron. MS. Tib. B. 4., dates Edgar's marriage with Elfrida in 965. Hearne places our illustrious Tom Thumb in this reign as an actual living character. He says, in his preface to Benedictus Abbas, "The History of Tom Thumb was certainly founded on some authentic history, as being nothing else, originally, but a description of King Edgar's dwarf. " (2) That Edgar was considered by the Anglo-Saxons as the greatest of their kings in power and dominion, we find from Elfric, who was nearly his contemporary. He calls Edgar, "of all the kings of the English nation, the most powerful. And it was the Divine will that his enemies, both kings and earls, who came to him desiring peace, should, without any battle, be subjected to him to do what he willed. Hence he was honoured over a wide extent of land." Wanl. 39. (3) Flor. Wig. 361. Mailros, 151. Edward (1). Edward, like all the kings since Athelstan, was very young at his accession. The quarrel between the two systems grew more vehement. The governor of Mercia turned out all the monks (2). The governor of East Anglia supported them (3). Many tumults ensued (4). The clergy got hold of the monastic possessions, which they distributed to the governors in return for their protection (5). Elfrida opposed Dunstan. She joined the party of the clergy, and endeavoured to bias the minds of the great in favour of her son Ethelred. : Though Dunstan had procured Edward's coronation, he could not recover the alienated minds of the nobility. He attempted to govern them by the influence of superstition. He had forcibly expelled the clergy who had been reinstated; but on Edgar's death they endeavoured to restore themselves and Elfere, the governor of Mercia, pulled down all the monasteries which had been built in that province. To appease these discontents, a synod was convened at Winchester. While the opinions were forming, and the assembly expected his answer to a peculiar appeal which had been made to him, the crucifix in the wall became vocal. It commanded the former proceedings it forbad a change (6). "What wish ye more?" exclaimed Dunstan, immediately; "the divine voice determines the affair (7)." This artifice, for, unless we believe it to have been a miracle, no other name can be given to it, did not fully succeed. It was followed by another event, which, taken in conjunction with the preceding, leads the impartial mind to the strongest suspicion of its having been a scheme of the most questionable character. The (1) Hist. Rames. 413. Mailros, 151. Eadmer, Vit. D. 220. (5) Ingulf, 54. One author says, he cannot express the sufferings of the monks. Hist. Rames. 412. (6, Malmsbury, p. 61. Gervase gives the words, "absit ut hoc fiat, absit ut hoc fiat," 1647. So Osberne, p. 112. (7) We have this speech of Dunstan in Eadmer's life of him, p. 219. Wh. Ang. Sax. He and Osberne place it under Edgar's reign, which is less probable than the chronology of the others, because Edgar's attachment to Dunstan and power made such aids useless. Whatever affects the character of Dunstan, Dr. Lingard wishes to believe a mere popular tale. If Dunstan's enemies had written his life, Dr. Lingard's incredulity would be a fair exertion of cautious though arbitrary pyrrhonism. But all that we know of Dunstan comes from his friends and panegyrists. It is our moral sympathies that have improved, not our historical evidence which has diminished. Yet it is remarkable that the Papal church, in this enlightened day, should cling so tenaciously to such mixed characters as Dunstan and Becket, in opposition both to reason and impartial history. It would act more wisely if it discerned and abandoned the untenable and revolting, and suffered its legends to sink quietly into oblivion. They are unnecessary to it as a religion, and are not likely to assist its political power in an age when the current of the human mind runs so strongly against all palpable credulity. . candid historian will always regret when the nature of the incidents compels him to infer bad motives. But some facts justify the imputation; and the following events, unless extreme charity can believe them to have been accidental, or credulity can suppose them to have been miraculous, announce premeditated plans which deserve the harshest epithets. A council of the nobles was summoned at Calne. The king was absent, on account of his age. While the senators of England were conversing violently on the question then agitated, and were reproaching Dunstan, he gave a short reply, which ended with these remarkable words: "I confess that I am unwilling that you should conquer. I commit the cause of the church to the decision of Christ." As these words, which lead the mind to the most unfavourable inferences, were uttered, the floor and its beams and rafters gave way, and precipitated the company with the ruins to the earth below. The seat of Dunstan only was unmoved. Many of the nobles were killed upon the spot; the others were grievously hurt by wounds which kept them long confined (1). If no other achievement had revealed Dunstan's character, would not this be sufficient to startle the unprejudiced rcader into a doubt of its sanctity? It was followed by another circumstance, which leaves us no alternative between the supposition of a purposed falsehood or an unworthy miracle. On the death of his friend and pupil Athelwold, the see of Winchester became vacant. As from the avowed dissatisfaction of the nobles, Dunstan's power was insecure, it became expedient that he should guard it by filling every high office with his friends. He fixed upon Elphegus as the successor, and, to abolish all opposition, he boldly declared, that Saint Andrew had appeared to him, and commanded him to consecrate Elphegus to the vacant sce (2). Such proceedings at last taught others to fight him with the weapons of crime. The subjection of Edward to his will gave a perpetuity to his power; but there was a person existing as ambitious as himself, and indifferent to the means of gratifying that ambition. This was Elfrida. I know not whether we can credit all the wickedness attributed to her. It is stated in the records of the abbey of Ely, that its first abbot, Brithonod, was seen by Elfrida in the New Forest. He went to the royal court on the business of his church, and at his departure took leave also of her. She desired a private conversation with him on affairs of conscience, and in the interview she acted the wife of Potiphar. The abbot emulated the virtue of Joseph; and the disappointed Elfrida procured his assassination. The power of the queen-dowager compelled his monas (1) See note at the end of the chapter. (2) Osberne, 114. The history of Dunstan is remarkably certain; from the facts against him being stated and proved by his friends and encomiasts. tery to indulge their suspicions in silence; but in her days of penitence she acknowledged the crime (1). It is also declared of Elfrida, that Edward gave her all Dorsetshire as a dower, with a royal dignity annexed to it (2). 978. It The state of the kingdom gave power to her malice. However the proceedings at Calne may have affected the credulous people, the surviving sufferers and their friends could hardly have been deceived; and if they believed the catastrophe to have been the effect of design, we may assume that they meditated to avenge it on Dunstan. But he was protected by the favour of his sovereign; Edward therefore became the first object of attack. A combination against him was formed; and with no scruples as to the means. is stated, that Elfrida and some princes conspi: ed together to dethrone Edward in favour of Ethelred, and that the death of the king was the crime devised for the accomplishment of their purpose. The unsuspecting king facilitated the execution of the guilty plot. He was hunting in Dorsetshire, near Wareham, a few miles from which stood Corfe Castle, the residence of Elfrida and her son. His companions were dispersed in pursuit of the game, and, in the course of the sport, Edward beheld the conspicuous walls of the castle (3). He rode thither to visit Ethelred and his mother. On the tidings of his arrival, she hastily settled her plan. She went out and received him with hypocritical kindness, and invited him in. The king declined to alight; but desired some refreshment, and requested to see his brother. A cup of drink was brought to him; but while he was raising it to his lips, a wretch, stealing behind, stabbed him in the back. Feeling the wound, he spurred his horse to escape the assassin, but the blow had been too successful he fell from his seat; his feet hung in the stirrups, and the frighted steed dragged his expiring lord over the rugged way. His friends traced him by his blood, and found at last his disfigured corpse. It was burnt, and its ashes buried at Wareham (4). : (1) This incident has escaped the notice of our historians. It is in the Historia Eliensis. 3 Gale, 491, 492. (2) Wallingford, 545. (3) The interesting ruins of Corfe Castle still remain. (4) Malmsb. 61. Ingulf, 54. Mailros, 151. The Chroniclers say he was buried; but Lupus, in his sermon, says, Occisus est et postea combustus. Hickes's Thes. ADDITIONAL NOTE ON DUNSTAN. As the conduct of Dunstan in the incident at Calne has become lately a subject of public discussion, and it has been suggested, that as a more atrocious crime than the charge against him cannot be imagined, "such a suggestion should not be brought without a strong evidence;" and, "that the slightest evidence neither has been nor can be produced for its support. Butler's Cath. Church, p. 67. The impartial reader may desire to know what the authentic evidence really amounts to. There are no contemporary histories now existing of the reigns of Edgar and |