EDWARD (THE ELDER)

EDWARD I., surnamed the Elder, son and successor of Alfred, king of the West Saxons, ascended the throne in 901, died in 925. His claim to the throne, though recognized by the witenagemote, was disputed by his cousin Ethelwald, who gained the support of the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes. The rebels marched through the counties of Gloucester, Oxford, and Wilts, and Edward, unable directly to oppose them, retaliated their ravages in the country of the East Angles. He thought proper to withdraw his army, loaded with booty, before the approach of the rebels, but the venturous Kentish men, greedy of more spoil, stayed behind in defiance of orders. They were assaulted by the East Angles, and resisted so valiantly that though obliged at last to retreat, it was not till after they had slain a great number of the bravest of the enemy, and had terminated the rebellion by causing the death of Ethelwald himself. The reign of Edward, as of many of his predecessors and successors, was occupied with subduing the turbulent Danes, who abounded and were constantly reenforced in the provinces of East Anglia and Northumbria. In this task he was assisted by his sister Ethelfleda, who governed Mercia. He protected his territories by fortresses which gradually became centres of trade and population. He gained two signal victories at Temsford and Maldon, and subjected all the tribes from Northumbria to the channel to his immediate control. He was twice married, and left a numerous family, and 3 of his sons, Athelstan, Edmund, and Edred, successively occupied the throne.

EDWARD II., surnamed the Martyr, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son and successor of Edgar, born in 962, ascended the throne in 975, and was murdered in 978. The intrigues of his step mother Elfrida raised a faction in favor of her own son Ethelred, who was but 7 years of age. Ecclesiastical parties took opposite sides, the married clergy who had been ejected in the preceding reign regarding Elfrida as their patroness and supporting the pretensions of Ethelred, and the monastic followers of St. Dunstan maintaining the superior claim of Edward. A civil war had already begun, when at a general meeting of the witenagemote Edward was after much

VOL. VII.-1

EDWARD (THE CONTESSOR)

opposition formally accepted as king. The strife among the clergy, however, still divided the kingdom, and the party opposed to St. Dunstan plotted the murder of the young monarch. He was stabbed in the back at Corfe castle, the residence of his stepmother, as he was drinking a cup of mead on horseback, and sinking from his seat he was dragged away by the stirrup by his frightened horse.

EDWARD III., surnamed the Confessor, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of King Ethelred II., successor to Hardicanute, born in Islip, Oxfordshire, in 1004, ascended the throne in 1042, died Jan. 5, 1066. His mother was a Norman princess, Emma, and during the Danish domination which had succeeded the death of Edmund Ironside, he dwelt in exile in Normandy. When the news of the death of Canute in 1035 reached him, he determined to assert his pretensions to the crown, crossed the channel with a fleet of 40 ships, and landed at Southampton. He found himself opposed by his mother, who had become a second time queen of England by marriage with the Danish monarch, and was now regent of the kingdom. Menaced with destruction by a constantly increasing force, he hastily effected his retreat. With his brother Alfred he received a perfidious invitation from King Harold to cross the sea in 1037. Alfred was murdered at Guildford, and Edward, apprised of the fate which was await. ing him, escaped into Flanders. After the accession of his half brother Hardicanute, Edward was received with honor into England, presented with a princely establishment, and was at court when the king suddenly died in 1042. The Danish heir Sweyn was then absent from the kingdom; the rightful heirs of the Saxon line, the sons of Edmund Ironside, were in exile in Hungary; the Anglo-Saxons were determined to throw off the Danish yoke; the Danes were divided and dispirited; Edward was the nearest to the throno of any one present, and after a short period of hesitation and commotion he was recognized as king in a general council at Gillingham. His reign was the period when the mutual aversion of the two fierce Teutonic peoples, whose struggles for dominion had vexed the country during 6 generations, began to subside, when intermarriages