Eadred died on 23rd November 955. He had, apparently, suffered a long illness. William of Malmesbury writes that Eadred:
"... prostate at the feet of the saints, devoted his life to God and to Dunstan, by whose admonition he endured with patience his frequent bodily pains ..."
Dunstan (St.Dunstan) had been made Abbot of Glastonbury by Eadred's brother (and predecessor), Edmund. As a result of Viking predations, it seems that organised monastic life had died out in England. With royal support, and particularly the friendship of Eadred, Dunstan spearheaded a monastic revival. In 'Anglo-Saxon England', Sir Frank Stenton asserts that Dunstan:
"... brought into being the first organized community of monks which had existed in England for at least two generations."
Dunstan conducted the funerals of both Edmund and Eadred. Eadred was succeeded by his nephew, Eadwig - eldest son (around fifteen) of Edmund. In the late-10th century, Æthelweard noted that Eadwig:
"... for his great beauty got the nick-name 'All-fair' from the common people. He held the kingdom continuously for four years, and deserved to be loved."
Henry of Huntingdon says that Eadwig:
"... wore the diadem not unworthily ..."
However, these sympathetic reviews of Eadwig's reign are not typical. Unfortunately, Eadwig made Dunstan his enemy, and, since much of the slender record of Eadwig's reign is ultimately derived from a 'Life' of St.Dunstan, written c.1000 (by an author who is identified only by his initial, B), Eadwig has generally received, what today would be called, a bad press. A yarn, which makes its earliest appearance in B's 'Life', is worthy of any modern tabloid. Roger of Wendover retells the lurid tale:
"A certain light woman, who was nevertheless of lofty birth, inveigled him by her infamous familiarity into marrying either herself or her grown up daughter, both of whom it is reported, though horrible to repeat, that he in turn shamelessly made the subjects of his base passions. For on the day of his regal consecration, immediately after the anointing, he hurried from the table and left the mirthful company, that he might sottishly indulge his lascivious pleasures. The nobles displeased thereat, sent the blessed abbat Dunstan to bring back the king to take his part in the mirth of the royal banquet. In fulfilment of their orders he took with him bishop Cynesius [Cynesige, Bishop of Lichfield], his kinsman, and entering the chamber they found the splendid royal diadem negligently cast on the floor, and the king wallowing in filthiness between the two women. Moved at the enormity of his conduct, Dunstan thus addressed the king, "Your nobles have sent us to request that you will return to your seat, as becomes you, and enjoy the mirth of the banquet," and straightway rebuking the lewdness of the women, and seizing the hand of the reluctant king, he brought him back, though in hot displeasure, to the royal banquet."
How much truth the story contains is open to speculation, but, for whatever reason, Dunstan certainly fell foul of Eadwig - his property was seized, and he was exiled (he found refuge in Flanders). In fact, the "grown up daughter" from the story, whose name was Ælfgifu, married Eadwig. Ælfgifu and her mother (whose name was Æthelgifu) seem to have been perfectly respectable ladies. Ælfgifu features in a list of "illustrious women" in the 'Liber Vitae' of New Minster, Winchester. Further, both "Ælfgifu the king's wife" and "Æthelgifu the king's wife's mother" appear on the witness list of a charter (Sawyer 1292) in the company of three bishops. A text attributed to Æthelwold, a protégé of Dunstan, and, at this time, Abbot of Abingdon, says of Eadwig that, because of:
"... the ignorance of childhood he distributed the lands of holy church to rapacious strangers."
Although, in a charter of 993 (Sawyer 876), Eadwig is a named benefactor of Abingdon, and several of his charters grant land to Abingdon.
William of Malmesbury writes that Eadwig:
"... afflicted with undeserved calamities all the members of the monastic order throughout England, who were first despoiled of their property, and then driven into exile. He drove Dunstan himself, the chief of monks, into Flanders. At that time the appearance of the monasteries was sad and pitiable. Even the monastery of Malmesbury, which had been inhabited by monks for more than two hundred and seventy years, he made a stye for secular canons... But my recollection shudders even at this time to think how cruel he was to other monasteries ..."
Another of Eadwig's land-grants was to Malmesbury Abbey - which seems to have been overlooked by William of Malmesbury.
Eadwig may have been indifferent to Dunstan's efforts to revive English monasticism, but there is no real evidence that he actually opposed it. Indeed, as Sir Frank Stenton ('Anglo-Saxon England') points out:
"In view of the shortness of his reign his gifts to monasteries, though few, are numerous enough to show that neither he nor the men who influenced him were hostile to monasticism as an institution."
On the other hand, there are a large number of charters recording Eadwig's land-grants to his supporters. In her article 'Æthelwold and the Politics of the Tenth Century', Barbara Yorke writes:
"A rift seems to have developed between Eadwig and some of the most important lay and ecclesiastical nobles of the reigns of his father and uncle. The idea that Eadwig was trying to assert his independence from them receives support from the large amount of land granted away by the king at the beginning of his reign."
Manuscripts B and C of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' carry, as their entry for 957, the announcement that:
"... the ætheling Edgar succeeded to the kingdom of the Mercians."
Edgar was Eadwig's fourteen year-old brother. It wasn't only the Mercians who appear to have abandoned Eadwig in favour of Edgar. B, St.Dunstan's earliest biographer, says that it was the "northern people" who rejected Eadwig, and that the "famous river Thames" formed the boundary between Edgar and Eadwig's territories (a border confirmed by the witnesses who feature in their charters). Eadwig's misgovernment - having replaced wise counsellors with the ignorant (those "like himself") - is, of course, blamed for the split, though other evidence isn't particularly consistent with this. There doesn't appear to have been any military contest, and magnates appointed by Eadwig retained their positions under Edgar. One of these was actually the ealdorman of Mercia, Ælfhere. In 959, Ælfhere's brother, Ælfheah, was appointed ealdorman of Hampshire (a position he held until his death in 971 or 2) by Eadwig. Their charters suggest that Eadwig remained the senior, being styled "Rex Anglorum", whilst Edgar is "Rex Merciorum".
It is possible that the intention had always been for Edgar to rule Mercia as a sub-king under Eadwig. Indeed, whilst the other manuscripts of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' announce that, following Eadred's death in 955, Eadwig "succeeded to the kingdom", Manuscript D says: "And Edwy [Eadwig] succeeded to the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and Edgar his brother succeeded to the kingdom of the Mercians: and they were the sons of King Edmund and of
St.Elfgiva [St. Ælfgifu]." And, in a charter of 956 (Sawyer 633 - a land-grant to Worcester minster), Edgar appears in the witness list as "regulus" (petty king).
At any rate, Edgar's first recorded act was to recall Dunstan, who was consecrated as a bishop. Manuscript D of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' has, as its entry for 958, the comment:
"This year Archbishop Oda separated King Edwy [Eadwig] and Elfgiva [Ælfgifu]; because they were too nearly related."
According to Sir Frank Stenton ('Anglo-Saxon England'), Manuscript D: "... is too late to have authority on a subject which invited legendary accretions." However, Barbara Yorke ('Æthelwold and the Politics of the Tenth Century') proposes that Ælfgifu may have been: " ... Eadwig's third cousin once removed. This degree of kinship would have justified Oda's separation of the couple under some systems of reckoning." The ealdormen Ælfhere and Ælfheah were kinsmen of Eadwig, as was Byrhthelm, who became Bishop of (
probably) Selsey, in 956 (and, late in 958 or in 959, probably Bishop of Winchester). Dr. Yorke suggests that they were also related to Ælfgifu: "No wonder that those already established in power feared the promotion of this kin-group and, in particular, the marriage of Eadwig to one of its members... It may be that Edgar and others at the royal court, such as Dunstan and Oda, believed that Edgar was Eadwig's heir presumptive and that any marriage - and particularly a marriage to a woman of royal birth - was a challenge to a tacit or explicit agreement along those lines." Incidentally, if Dr. Yorke's conjecture is correct, then Æthelweard, the chronicler, is Ælfgifu's brother. This raises the possibility that his sympathetic summary of Eadwig's reign may be as biased towards Eadwig as St.Dunstan's biographer is against.
Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in 958. His designated successor, Bishop Ælfsige of Winchester, undertook a winter journey to Rome (to collect his pallium), and froze to death in the Alps. Eadwig then appointed Bishop Byrhthelm of Wells to fill the vacancy. Meanwhile, Bishop Cenwald of Worcester had died. Edgar gave the see to Dunstan. Shortly after, Bishop Byrhthelm of London died. Edgar conferred that see on Dunstan also. On the 1st October 959 Eadwig died. Roger of Wendover reports that:
"King Eadwy [Eadwig], after oppressing the English during a lascivious and tyrannical reign of four years died by the just judgment of God, and was interred in the New Minster at Winchester."
Edgar was immediately accepted as sole ruler of England. Archbishop Byrhthelm was sent back to Wells (because, says B, he was too "gentle and modest and humble and kind" to maintain discipline), and Dunstan was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury. Just as Eadwig's reputation was coloured by his relationship with Dunstan, so was Edgar's - but in completely the opposite way:
"... Edgar, the honour and delight of the English ... a youth of sixteen years old, assuming the government, held it for a similar period. The transactions of his reign are celebrated with peculiar splendour even in our times. The divine love, which he sedulously procured by his devotion and energy of counsel, shone propitious on his years. It is commonly reported that at his birth Dunstan heard an angelic voice saying, "Peace to England so long as this child shall reign, and our Dunstan shall live." The succession of events was in unison with the heavenly oracle - so much, while he lived, did ecclesiastical glory flourish, and martial clamour decay: scarcely does a year elapse in the Chronicles, in which he did not perform something great and advantageous to his country, in which he did not build some new monastery. He experienced no internal treachery, no foreign attack."
William of Malmesbury
"... Eadgar [Edgar], king of the English, punished the wicked in every quarter, reduced the rebels to submission by his severity, showed favour to the just and humble, repaired and enriched God's ruined churches, removed all vanities from the monasteries of the clerks, collected great numbers of monks and nuns, to the glory of the Almighty Creator, and supplied more than forty monasteries."
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In the codex (Cotton Vespasian A. VIII) containing the New Minster Charter (dated 966, formalising the refounding of New Minster, Winchester, as a Benedictine monastery), the charter itself is preceded by a whole folio depiction of Edgar, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St Peter, offering the document to Christ. |
The year 963: "On the death of Brithelm [Byrhthelm] bishop of Winchester, St.Ethelwold [St.Æthelwold], abbat of the monastery of Abingdon, who had been brought up and taught by St.Dunstan, succeeded him in the bishopric."
Roger of Wendover
"... by King Edgar, St.Ethelwold was chosen to the bishopric at Winchester. And the Archbishop of Canterbury, St.Dunstan, consecrated him bishop on the first Sunday of Advent; that was on the third before the kalends of December [29th November]. In the next year after he was consecrated, he made many monasteries; and drove out the clerks from the bishopric, because they would hold no rule, and set monks therein."
'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', Manuscript E
964: "This year drove King Edgar the priests of Winchester out of the Old Minster, and also out of the New Minster; and from Chertsey; and from Milton [Milton Abbas]; and replaced them with monks."
'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', Manuscript A
"Then came he [Æthelwold] afterwards to King Edgar, and requested that he would give him all the monasteries that heathen men had before destroyed; for that he would renew them. This the king cheerfully granted ..."
'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', Manuscript E
Florence of Worcester for 969: "Edgar, the pacific king of the English, commanded St.Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, the blessed St.Oswald, bishop of Worcester, and St.Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester, to expel the clerks and place monks in the larger monasteries of Mercia. Thereupon St.Oswald accomplished what he desired and expelled such of the clerks of the church of Worcester as refused to become monks: but on their compliance this year, as he relates, he made monks of them ..."
Oswald became Archbishop of York in 972 (he retained the see of Worcester as well).
There is remarkably little incident recorded in Edgar's reign. Manuscript A of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' notes that, in 962, there was a "great pestilence", and that a great fire burned down St.Paul's minster in London (it was refounded the same year). Manuscripts D and E report, in their entry for 966, that:
"This year Thored, the son of Gunnar, plundered Westmorland; and the same year Oslac took to the ealdormanry."
The ealdormanry in question is that of southern Northumbria. Thored's raid would probably have been against Norse settlers. Actually, this annal may well be misplaced, since charter evidence suggests that Oslac became ealdorman in 963.
A medieval Icelandic saga, 'Kormak's Saga', implies that it was about 966 when two Vikings, the brothers Kormak and Thorgils (sons of Ogmund), "went warfaring round about Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland, and they were reckoned to be the most famous of men." Thorgils was known as 'Skarthi' ('the Hare-lipped'), and they founded a fortress called 'Skarthaborg' ('Skarthi's fortress'), now Scarborough, Yorkshire. There is a possibility that Kormak had the nickname 'Fleinn' ('Arrow'), and that Flamborough is named from him.
The entry, in Manuscripts D and E, for 969 states:
"This year King Edgar ordered all Thanet-land to be plundered."
Roger of Wendover (in his annal for 974) explains that:
"... there landed in the isle of Thanet some merchants from York, who were immediately taken prisoners by the islanders, and spoiled of all their property; on which king Eadgar, moved with exceeding rage against the spoilers, deprived them of all their goods, and put some of them to death."
The merchants from York would, most likely, be of Danish extraction - as, indeed, was much of the population of eastern England (north of the Thames). Edgar realised that their loyalty was crucial to the stability of the country, and, in his legislation, he gave them permission to follow their own legal traditions:
"It is my will that secular rights be in force among the Danes according to as good laws as they can best decide on... Among the English, however, whatever I and my advisors have added to the customs of my ancestors for the benefit of all the nation."
Manuscripts D and E of the 'ASC' contain (in the annal 959) a poetic summary of Edgar's reign, believed to have been composed by Archbishop Wulfstan of York (1002-1023). Following a recital of Edgar's worthiness, is a passage of criticism: "One misdeed he did, too much however, that foreign tastes he loved too much; and heathen mode into this land he brought too fast; outlandish men hither enticed; and to this earth attracted crowds of vicious men. But God him grant, that his good deeds be weightier far than his misdeeds, to his soul's redemption on the judgment-day." Possibly, Edgar's tolerance of Danish customs - perhaps regarded as favouritism - provided the inspiration for this criticism. However, William of Malmesbury provides a far more prosaic reason: "... his fame being noised abroad, foreigners, Saxons, Flemings, and even Danes themselves, frequently sailed hither, and were on terms of intimacy with Edgar, though their arrival was highly prejudicial to the natives; for from the Saxons they learnt an untameable ferocity of mind, from the Flemings an unmanly delicacy of body, and from the Danes drunkenness, though they were before free from such propensities, and disposed to observe their own customs with native simplicity rather than admire those of others."
"The rigour of Edgar's justice was equal to the sanctity of his manners, so that he permitted no person, be his dignity what it might, to elude the laws with impunity. In his time there was no private thief, no public freebooter, unless such as chose to venture the loss of life for their attacks upon the property of others."
William of Malmesbury
"In the winter and the spring he [Edgar] used to make a progress through every province in England, and diligently inquire into the mode of the administration of justice, and the observance of the laws by the nobles, so that the poor might not suffer oppression at the hands of the powerful."
Florence of Worcester
In 970 or 71, Edgar's son, Edmund, died. Edmund's mother, Ælfthryth, was Edgar's second wife - they had married in 964 or 65. They also had another son, Æthelred. Edgar's eldest son, Edward, was by his first wife, Æthelflæd Eneda ('the Swan').
Eadmer, in his 'Life' of St.Dunstan (c.1100), is clear that Edward was the legitimate offspring of Edgar and Æthelflæd. Eadmer's opinion deserves to be taken seriously, since he had commissioned Prior Nicholas of Worcester to undertake a special investigation into the matter of Edward's legitimacy. However, in his, earlier, 'Life' of St.Dunstan (c.1090), Osbern says that Edward was the illegitimate son of Edgar and a nun - presumably Wulfthryth, who was mother of Edgar's daughter, Eadgyth (St.Edith). William of Malmesbury ('Deeds of the English Kings') writes that Edgar "... begat ... St.Edgitha [Eadgyth], of Wulfrida [Wulfthryth], who it is certain was not a nun at that time, but being a lay virgin, had assumed the veil through fear of the king, though she was immediately afterwards forced to the royal bed; on which St.Dunstan, offended that he should desire lustfully a person who had been even the semblance of a nun, exerted the pontifical power against him." Edgar purportedly "... underwent seven years' penance; though a king, submitting to fast and to forgo the wearing of his crown for that period." William uses the story of Wulfthryth in a section of his history of Edgar, which begins: "There are some persons, indeed, who endeavour to dim his [Edgar's] exceeding glory by saying, that in his earlier years he was cruel to his subjects, and libidinous in respect of virgins." As an example of his alleged cruelty, William tells a tale which culminates in Edgar murdering Æthelwold, "a nobleman of celebrity" (actually ealdorman of East Anglia) - Ælfthryth's first husband! Then follows the story of Wulfthryth, as an example of Edgar's alleged lust: "Hearing of the beauty of a certain virgin who was dedicated to God, he carried her off from a monastery by force, ravished her, and repeatedly made her partner of his bed." Finally an example in which "they" allege "both vices may be discovered". Edgar purportedly ordered that the beautiful daughter of a nobleman (in Andover) "be brought to him". The young lady's horrified mother, instead, sent a servant to spend the night with the king. The next morning, Edgar found out the truth. He was, however, attracted by the servant girl, and he promoted her over her former employers, "whether they liked it or not". William says she remained his concubine until he married Ælfthryth.
Florence of Worcester reports that, on the 11th May (Whit Sunday) 973:
"... Eadgar, the pacific king of the English, being then in the thirtieth year of his age, received the benediction of the holy bishops Dunstan and Oswald, and all the other English bishops, in the city of Acamann [Bath], and was crowned and anointed king with
great honour and glory."
In manuscripts A, B and C of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', the event is recorded in verse:
Here was Edgar, of Angles lord,
with courtly pomp hallow'd to king
at Acemannesceastre, the ancient city;
whose modern sons, dwelling therein,
have named her Bath. Much bliss was there
by all enjoyed on that happy day,
named Pentecost by men below.
A crowd of priests, a throng of monks,
I understand, in counsel sage,
were gather'd there. Then were agone
ten hundred winters of number'd years
from the birth of Christ, the lofty king,
guardian of light, save that thereto
there yet was left of winter-tale,
as writings say, seven and twenty.
So near had run of the lord of triumphs
a thousand years, when this was done.
Nine and twenty hard winters there
of irksome deeds had Edmund's son
seen in the world, when this took place,
and on the thirtieth was hallow'd king.
It is difficult to believe that Edgar could have reigned since 959 without having had a coronation. William of Malmesbury insists:
"... this is certain, that from the sixteenth year of his age, when he was appointed king, till the thirtieth, he reigned without the insignia of royalty."
In 'Anglo-Saxon England', Sir Frank Stenton argues that Edgar deliberately postponed his coronation: "... until he felt that he had come to full maturity of mind and conduct. It is probably something more than mere coincidence that the year of his coronation was the year in which he reached the age of thirty, below which no one could canonically be ordained to the priesthood."
The Welsh annals continue, largely, to ignore the south-eastern corner of Wales (Morgannwg and Gwent). Owain ap Hywel Dda, ruler of the rest of south Wales (Deheubarth), however, did not. In 960 he raided Morgannwg. In 970, and again in 977, Owain's son, Einion, devastated Gower. At some stage, it appears that Gower was wrested from Morgannwg. Morgannwg's eponymous king, Morgan, died in 974.
North Wales (Gwynedd) was ruled by brothers - the sons of Idwal Foel, of whom there appear to have been four: Iago, Idwal (also known as Ieuaf), Rhodri and Meurig.
According to William of Malmesbury, Edgar wanted to "... exterminate every beast of pray from his kingdom; and commanded Judval, king of the Welsh, to pay him yearly a tribute of three hundred wolves. This he performed for three years, but omitted in the fourth, declaring that he could find no more." Presumably, Judval is Idwal (Ieuaf).
In 967, Ælfhere, ealdorman of Mercia, had cause to lead an English force into Gwynedd (called in the Welsh annals: "the kingdom of the sons of Idwal"), and lay it waste. About the same time, a power struggle appears to have developed between the brothers. In 968 Rhodri was killed, and then, the following year, Iago imprisoned Idwal (Ieuaf). Iago would seem to have assumed sole control of Gwynedd. However, by the time of Edgar's conference at Chester (973), it appears that Iago was having to share power with his nephew, Hywel ab Idwal (Ieuaf), since it seems likely that both were among the "petty kings" whose attendance is noted by Florence of Worcester.
Another of the attendees at Chester ("Maccus, king of several isles") is, apparently, the "son of Harald" who is reported, by the Welsh annals, to have raided Anglesey in 971. The following year, another "son of Harald", this time Godfrey, is said, by the 'Brut y Tywysogion', to have "devastated Mona [Anglesey] and by great craft subjugated the whole island".
In 974, Hywel succeeded in, temporarily, driving Iago from Gwynedd. In the same year, Iago's brother, Meurig, was blinded.
It is possible that this was a second coronation - a conspicuous display of power, designed to demonstrate his superiority. At any rate, Manuscripts D and E of the 'ASC' note:
"And soon after that [i.e. his coronation], the king led all his ship-forces to Chester; and there came to meet him six kings, and they all plighted their troth to him, that they would be his fellow-workers by sea and by land."
Florence of Worcester disagrees with that arithmetic:
"Eight petty kings, namely, Kynath [Kenneth], king of the Scots, Malcolm, king of the Cumbrians [i.e. Strathclyde], Maccus, king of several isles, and five others named Dufnall, Siferth, Huwall, Jacob, and Juchill, met him there as he had appointed, and swore that they would be faithful to him, and assist him by land and by sea."
Florence's assertion that there were eight kings is substantiated by Ælfric who, in his 'Life' of St.Swithun (written in the 990s) states: "... and all the kings who were in this island, of the Cymry and Scots, came to Edgar, eight kings once upon a day, and they all submitted to Edgar's rule." Kenneth is
Kenneth II of Alba. Dufnall is identified with Dunmail (also known as Donald), king of Strathclyde, while Malcolm is Donald's son. Presumably, by this time, Donald had abdicated his kingdom - he died on pilgrimage to Rome in 975. Jacob is almost certainly Iago, king of Gwynedd, and Huwall is probably his nephew, and rival, Hywel. The "several isles" Maccus was king of would be the Isle of Man and the Sudreys (Norse: sudr-eyjar or Southern Isles i.e. the Hebrides and other islands west of Scotland). He appears to have been responsible for a raid on Anglesey a couple of years before the Chester meeting. (It has been suggested that Maccus was not actually his given name, but might be misconstrued from the Gaelic 'mac Arailt' i.e. 'son of Harald' - in the B-text of the '
Annales Cambriae' the raider of Anglesey is referred to simply as "filio Haraldi").
Florence continues:
"On a certain day they [the "eight petty kings"] attended him [Edgar] in a boat, and when he had placed them at the oars, he himself took the helm and skilfully steered it down the river Dee, and thus, followed by the whole company of earls and nobles, in this order went from the palace to the monastery of St.John the Baptist. After having prayed there, he returned with the same pomp to the palace."
Whether this story has any basis in fact, or is simply a legendary accretion, is a subject for debate, as, indeed, is the whole nature of the meeting at Chester. It's not unreasonable to suppose that Chester was actually a 'summit conference' - a meeting between leaders where treaties were negotiated - rather than a group of minor rulers gathering to submit to Edgar's overlordship.
Florence says that Edgar had: "... a fleet of
3,600 stout ships; after Easter, in every year, he used to make 1,200 of them assemble on the east, 1,200 on the west, and 1,200 on the north shore of the island; he would then sail to the western with the eastern fleet, and sending that back would sail to the northern with the western fleet, and dismissing it in turn, would sail with the northern fleet back to the western: thus every summer he used to sail round the whole island; performing this brave feat by way of defence against foreigners, and for the purpose of inuring himself and his subjects to war." Ælfric ('Life' of St.Swithun) comments: "... his kingdom continued in peace so that no fleet was heard of save that of the people who held this land ..."
Roger of Wendover reports that:
"... bishop Alfsey [Bishop Ælfsige of Chester-le-Street] and earl Eadulf [Ealdorman Eadwulf of Bernicia] conducted Kinred [Kenneth] king of scots to king Eadgar, who made him many presents of his royal bounty; among the rest a hundred ounces of the purest gold, many ornaments of silk, rings, and precious stones. He gave him, moreover, the whole district called
Laudian [Lothian] in the native tongue, on this condition, that every year, on particular festivals, when the king and his successors wore the crown, he should come to court and celebrate the festival with the other princes of the realm. The king gave him besides many mansions on the road, that he and his successors might find entertainment in going to the feast, and returning; and these houses continued to belong to the kings of Scotland until the times of king Henry the second [reigned 1154-89]."
The gift of Lothian appears to be an extremely generous gesture on the part of Edgar. However, the 'Scottish Chronicle', in the 'Poppleton Manuscript', had noted, during the reign of Indulf (954-962), that:
"... the fortress of Edinburgh was evacuated, and abandoned to the Scots ..."
The 'Scottish Chronicle' also mentions Kenneth (who came to power in 971) plundering northern England. It seems a reasonable supposition, therefore, that Edgar agreed to recognise a fait accompli - that Lothian was already under Scots' control - in exchange for an end to raids further into English territory.
William of Malmesbury says that Edgar was, reportedly, very small in height and build, and that, at a banquet, "Kinnad [Kenneth], king of Scots, said in a sportive manner, that it seemed extraordinary to him how so many provinces should be subject to such a sorry little fellow". Of course, Edgar became aware of this, and, under the pretext of discussing "some secret matter of importance", led Kenneth into a wood. Edgar had two swords with him, one of which he gave to Kenneth. Edgar challenged Kenneth: "as we are alone, you shall have an opportunity of proving your strength. I will now make it appear which of us two ought deservedly to command the other; nor shall you stir a foot till you try the matter with me, for it is disgraceful for a king to prate at a banquet, and not to be prompt in action." The abashed Kenneth "fell at the feet of his sovereign lord, and asked pardon for what was merely a joke, which he immediately obtained."
On 8th July 975 Edgar died. William of Malmesbury:
"Nothing could be more holy than his life, nothing more praiseworthy than his justice, those vices excepted which he afterwards obliterated by abundant virtues: a man who rendered his country illustrious through his distinguished courage, and the brilliancy of his actions, as well as by the increase of the servants of God. After his death, the state and the hopes of the English met with a reverse."