riors exclaim at these things, and the people murmur, but the profligate rejoice; and you-you neglect-you spare them—you dissenible! It is time to act against those who have counteracted the divine law. I have the sword of Constantine, you of Peter. Let us join sword to sword, that these lepers may be cast out, that the sanctuary may be purged, and that men may minister in the temple who can say to their parents, 'I know you not to their brethren, Ye are strangers to me.' Act, I pray you, earnestly, that we may not repent of doing what we have done, nor of giving what we have bestowed! Let the relics of the saints which they insult, the altars before which they riot, move you. Let the wonderful devotion of our ancestors, whose alms these madmen abuse, affect you. Ethelwolf decimated his land for the church and monasteries. Alfred and Edward were liberal; so were my father and his brothers. O Dunstan! father of fathers! behold, I pray you, the eyes of my father looking down on you from yonder lucid sky; hear his lamenting voice sounding in your ears, grieved at such enormities. Thou, father Dunstan, hast given me wholesome counsel in raising monasteries and building churches; thou hast assisted, hast co-operated with me in all. I have chosen thee the bishop and shepherd of my soul, and the keeper of my morals. When have I not obeyed you? What treasures, what possessions have I withheld, when you requested? If you thought the poor should be assisted, I gave. If you complained that monks and churches were in need, I never denied. You told me that alms were an everlasting treasure; that nothing would be more profitable to me than my gifts to monasteries and churches. O illustrious charity! O worthy reward of the soul! O wholesome remedy for omissions! But is this the fruit of my benevolence? Are these the consequences of my desire, and your promises? How will you answer these complaints? I know-I know! When you saw a thief, you went not with him; nor did you place your portion among adulterers. You have argued, entreated, and reproached. Words have been despised; let us now come to blows. To you, then, I commit this business, that by the episcopal censures and the royal authority united, they who lead dissolute lives may be thrown out of the churches, and the regulars be introduced."

It is easy to imagine that this harangue had the desired effect; and that when the king and his prelates thus concurred with the popular prejudices, the monks soon prevailed and established their new discipline in the convents. A general persecution was commenced against the seculars; and such pride did Edgar take in promoting this Benedictine revolution, that, in 964, he boasted of having erected forty-seven monasteries, and declared his intention of increasing them to fifty.* That the lives of the clergy were unsuitable to their profession may be believed; but the declamations of the monks are a suspicious evidence. It was their business and their interest to misrepresent to court popularity, by contrasting their own austerities with the indulgences of others, and stigmatise even their innocent enjoyments as great and unpardonable enormities, in order to prepare the way for the increase of their own power and influence. Like a true politician, Edgar sided with the prevailing party; and he even humoured them in pretensions which Ethelred, 360, 361.-Collier, iii. 190.-Spelm. Concil. 479.

8

Dugd. Mon. vol. i. p. 140.

though they might engage the monks to support the royal authority during his own reign, proved afterwards dangerous to his successors, and gave disturbance to the whole civil power. He seconded the policy of the court of Rome, in granting to some monasteries an exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. He allowed the convents, even those

of royal foundation, to usurp the election of their own abbot; and he admitted the forgeries of ancient charters, by which, from the pretended grants of former kings, they assumed many privileges and immunities. These favours and indulgences procured him the highest panegyrics from the monks; yet nothing could more betray both his hypocrisy in inveighing against the licentiousness of the proscribed ecclesiastics, and the interested spirit of his partisans in bestowing such eulogies on his piety and virtues, than the usual tenor of his conduct, which was criminal to the last degree, and violated every law, human and divine. Though the eyes of the Benedictines were shut to his vices, and their tongues eloquent in his praise, this did not diminish their enormity. History, however, more faithful than the monastic annalists, has preserved some examples of his amours, from which a conjecture may be formed as to the rest.

The sanctity of the vail, even in the most barbarous times, was generally held to be an inviolable protection to the fair wearer; but in the indulgence of his passions, Edgar disregarded the restraints both of civil and religious institutions. He broke into a convent and carried off Wulfrith, a nun, and a lady of noble birth, and committed violence on her person.5 For this act of sacrilege he was reprimanded by Dunstan. The indulgent father, however, did not compel him to separate from his mistress, but he required him to do penance to the church, by abstaining from wearing his crown during seven years, and thus depriving himself so long of that vain ornament, a punishment very unequal to that which had been inflicted on the unfortunate Edwy, who, for a marriage which, in the strictest sense, could only deserve the name of irregular, was expelled his kingdom, saw his queen barbarously mangled, loaded with calumnies, and represented to the world under the most odious suspicions. cause of another illicit connexion.

Accident or rumour proved the Happening to pass through Andover, he lodged in the house of a nobleman, whose daughter, being endowed with all the graces of person and behaviour, made so deep an impression on his heart, that he resolved, by any expedient, to gratify his lawless desires. Courtship, or even marriage, formed no part o. his intentions, provided he could otherwise accomplish his purpose. He went immediately to the mother, declared the violence of his passion, and requested that the young lady might be allowed to pass that very night with him. The matron was a woman of strict virtue, and resolved not to ruin every hope in life, or dishonour her daughter and her family, by compliance with the transient humour of a libertine ; but being well-aware of the impetuosity of the king's temper, and dreading the consequence of thwarting a tyrant's will, she thought it would be easier, as well as safer, to deceive than refuse him. She feigned, therefore, a submission to his wishes, but secretly ordered her attendant, a handsome waiting-maid, to personate her daughter, and

• Malni. 69.

steal into the king's bed-chamber when all the company had retired to rest. Darkness favoured the deception; but in the morning when the damsel, agreeably to the injunctions of her mistress, offered to retire, the king refused to permit her departure, and employed force and entreaties to detain her. The discovery of the fraud practised upon him, gave a new direction to his desires. From the daughter. his love was transferred to Elfleda-that was the name of the maid-whose charms had made a sudden and unexpected conquest of Edgar. She became his favourite mistress, and maintained her ascendancy over him till his marriage with Elfrida, the circumstances of which were more remarkable and more criminal than the preceding. This lady was daughter and heir of Olgar, or Ordgar, earl of Devonshire. Having been educated in the country, she had never made her appearance at court, but the fame of her beauty had filled all England. Edgar was far from being indifferent to rumours of this nature. His curiosity was inflamed by the frequent reports he heard in her praise; and reflecting on her noble birth, he determined, if he found her charms equal to their reputation, to obtain possession of her on honourable terms. This intention he imparted to his favourite, earl Athelwold, and sent him privately on a visit to Devonshire, on some pretext or other, to examine if the beauty of the lady was at all such as had been represented. Athelwold saw her, and found that the general report had fallen short of the truth. But the interview was fatal: it had inflamed him with the most vehement love, and he resolved to sacrifice to this new passion his fidelity to his master, and the trust committed to him. Το Edgar he gave a very unfavourable account; that it was the riches and high birth of the lady that must have been the reason of the admiration paid her; and that her charms, far from being in any way extraordinary, would have been overlooked in any woman of inferior station. Edgar was satisfied; and finding his thoughts diverted from this match, he took an opportunity of bespeaking the royal permission on his own behalf. He observed, that though the parentage and fortune of Elfrida had not produced on him, as on others, any illusion with regard to her beauty, he could not forbear reflecting that she would, on the whole, be an advantageous match for him, and might by her wealth and good qualities make him sufficient compensation for the homeliness of her person. Edgar, pleased with an expedient for advancing the worldly interests of his favourite, not only gave his approbation and exhorted him to execute his purpose, but forwarded his success by recommending him to the parents of the lady. The treacherous Athelwold was soon made happy in the possession of his mistress; and to avoid detection, he employed every artifice to detain her in the country, and especially to keep her from appearing at court. But favourites have many enemies. Athelwold was supplanted, and Edgar soon heard the truth. Before listening to the dictates of revenge, the king determined to satisfy himself with his own eyes, of the certainty and full extent of the earl's guilt. He informed him that he intended to pay him a visit in his castle, and be introduced to the acquaintance of his young wife. This honour it was impossible to decline, and Athelwold only craved leave to go before him a few hours, that his distinguished guest might have a more suitable reception. The whole matter was then revealed to Elfrida, and the trembling husband begged her, if she had any re

gard either to her own honour or his life, to conceal from Edgar, by every circumstance of dress and behaviour, that fatal beauty which had seduced him from fidelity to his king, and had betrayed into so many falsehoods. Elfrida promised compliance, though nothing was farther from her intention. She saw herself, then, for the first time, deprived of a crown and a royal consort by the passion of a faithless messenger, and knowing the force of her own charms, she did not yet despair of reaching that dignity. Instead of slovenliness or disguise, she appeared before the king with all the advantages which the richest attire and the most engaging airs could bestow. At once she excited in the royal heart the strongest attachment towards herself, and the most furious desire of revenge against the perfidious husband. He knew, however, how to dissemble these passions, and seducing Athelwold into a wood on pretence of hunting, he stabbed him with his own hand, and soon after-in 965-publicly married Elfrida.

Yet, amidst these defects, some traits of enlightened policy appear, which reflect credit on Edgar. The most important of these was his patronage of foreigners, who resorted to his court or his kingdom for the purposes of commerce. People from Saxony, Flanders, and Denmark, were attracted by his reputation or his encouragement; for he received them so well as to excite a censure from the monkish chroniclers, that he loved them too much. The same authorities tell us, that they imported all the vices of their respective countries, and contributed to corrupt the simple manners of the natives; but as this simplicity of manners, so highly and often so injudiciously extolled, did not preserve them from cruelty and treachery-the most pernicious of all vices, and the most incident to a rude uncultivated people-we ought perhaps to deem their acquaintance with strangers rather an advantage, as it tended to enlarge their views, to extend their knowledge, and to cure them of those illiberal prejudices and rustic habits to which islanders are often subject. Edgar showed his care of trade by punishing, in a summary manner, the inhabitants of Thanet, who had seized and plundered some merchantmen coming from York. Another instance of his sound policy was the extirpation of wolves from England. He had taken great pains in hunting and pursuing these ravenous animals; and when he found that such as had escaped him had taken shelter in the mountains and forests of Wales, he exchanged the tribute of money, imposed on the Welsh princes by Athelstan, into three hundred wolves' heads annually. Such was their diligence in destroying them, that in four vears the tribute ceased for want of supply, and these ferocious animals have never since then been seen in this island. His reformation of the coinage was also a prudent measure. It had become so diminished in weight by the fraud of clipping, that the actual value was very inferior to the nominal. He therefore ordered new coins to be struck all over England. He was most attentive to the wants of the poor-the dictate of superstition, perhaps, rather than of charity; and his vigilant police freed the kingdom from robbers. Edgar, though tyrannical, was generous to his friends. To Kenneth, king of Scotland, who visited him,

Lingard affects to doubt this story, and the preceding, both of which are given on the authority of Malmsbury.

7 Hunt. 356.

Malin. 32.-Carad. 56.

he not only ceded the district of Lothian, extending from the Tweed to the Forth, but gave one hundred ounces of pure gold, and many silken ornaments, with rings and precious stones. An anecdote of these princes is recorded descriptive of the energetic character of Edgar. His person was small and thin, and by no means indicative of his mental powers. Kenneth happened one day carelessly to remark, that it was wonderful so many provinces should obey a man so insignificant. These words were carried to the king; he immediately conducted the offender apart into a wood, and producing two weapons, bade him take his choice. “Our arms shall decide," said he, “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." It was one of the conditions on which Kenneth received the county of Louth, that he should come every year to Edgar's principal feast; and for his accommodation several houses were provided for his entertainment during his journey. The hasty remark that had incurred the royal displeasure was brought to his recollection by this appeal to the laws of honour; he apologised for it as a joke, and the matter ended amicably.

Edgar expired in the thirty-third year of his age. He was twice married. By Elfleda, his first wife, he had Edward his successor, and a daughter, who became a nun. Elfrida bore him two sons, Edmund, who died before him, and Ethelred. This monarch, as an acute historian has remarked, was rather the king of a great nation in a fortunate era, than a great prince himself. His actions display a character ambiguous and mixed. In some things he was liberal to profusion, in others mean, arrogant and vicious. His reign has been celebrated as the most glorious of all the Anglo-Saxon kings; but some allowance must be made for the hyperbolic praises of monastic gratitude by which it has been emblazoned. No other sovereign, indeed, converted his greatness into such personal pomp; and no other, we may add, was more unfortunate in his posterity With his short life the gaudy pageant ceased; and all the vast dominions in which he had so ostentatiously exulted, vanished from his children's grasp. His eldest son perished by the intrigue of his beloved Elfrida, another fell by the hand of an assassin,-and his youngest reigned only to show his own imbecility, and ruin the nation he had attempted to govern. On the whole, recollecting the advantages and facilities which Edgar inherited, we must say that it was the fortuitous chrono logy of his existence, rather than his own talents or wisdom, that has adorned his name with a celebrity, which less favourable circumstances denied to his predecessors.

• The Northumbrian kings had extended their conquest to the Forth (Bede iv. 26), but there is little reason to believe that the possession of Lothian was easily retained at this time. Perhaps Kenneth demanded the cession of this district as a right rather than solicited it as a favour. Certain it is that it was finally ceded to him on the single condition that its inhabitants should be permitted to retain their language, laws, and customs. Does not this sufficiently account," inquires Lingard, "for the prevalence of the English language in the Lowlands of Scotland?"

10 Malm. 59.