Edgar

Source Problems

• Associated with the monastic reform, so most sources are monastic ones - coloured by their support, often considered to exclude other aspects, such as his role as a military king
  • Stenton: "Singularly devoid of recorded incident" - few opportunities to see him in action as a ruler
  • After his death he was viewed as bringing peace, law and order, but this is not easy to judge from contemporary evidence
  • Molyneaux: Edgar's reign was a key turning point in unification
  • Keynes: did he have a programme of unity?

Main Reformers

• Dunstan
• Æthelwold
• Oswald

Ideals

• Radical isolation of monks from secular society (Benedictine rule)
• Communal life of prayer and contemplation
• Fairly radical - no longer a pastoral role of teaching and preaching
  • Very intolerant of other ideas
  • Inspired by previous reforms on the Continent - contact with Fleury in W. Frankia
    • Closer parallels wth the East Frankish reforms, however

• Unreformed monks expelled from Winchester
• Edgar made donations to various churches - personal piety
  • Enabled him to build up a network of loyal abbots and monasteries --> massive increase in abbots who attest to his charters
• Early 970s - Winchester council
  • Regulares Concordia
  • Aim to achieve standardisation among monasteries
  • Enforced the ties between the king and the reform

• 'Single programme of reform'
  • Linked to national unity
• *Resist the idea that the reform happened at the expense of the nobility
• Noble laymen and families also endowed and pursued connections with local monastic houses

Important Dynasty

• Brought up in Æthelstan's court
  • Very like Æthelstan in that he came from a base outside Wessex - possibly made it easier to plug unity
• Based in East Anglia when sharing the kingship, ruled Mercia and Northumbria

Important Dynastic Marriages (3 Marriages)

• Wulffrith - had important connections
  • No male children and repudiated as a nun
• Ælfthryth = daughter of Ordgar
  • Connections in Devon and Cornwall, became an ealdorman at around the same time

Policy to Control Northumbria More Directly

• Appointed West Saxon bishops to Northern bishoprics and Southern ones - trying to prevent separation
• Divided Northumbria - seperate ealdorman of Bamburgh and York
• Scandinavian names appear in witness lists of charters - trying to draw Northern nobles into regular contact

• Restricted number of ealdorman - about 7
• Only 4 listed in charters: Ælfhere of Mercia, Æthelwine of East Anglia, Oslac of somewhere north, Byrhtnoth of Essex
• Creating an elite group, drawing them tighter around him
  • Military duties of ealdormen reduced?

• Most kings hadd law codes highlighting particular areas of law that were important to them
• EHD 40 and 41 = his law codes
• Added to court system, but shire court system was probably the main innovation
• Credited with very severe punishments?
  • Not surviving in laws, but charters do suggest that peace was based on rigorous enforcement and punishment
• Encouraged national unity
• Wihtbordesstan Law
  • Insists that decrees should be for everyone, but accepts that this can't always be enforced
  • --> Danelaw should keep peace for themselves
  • But is legislating for everyone - theft laws common to English and Danes

• Interested in admin, not great changes
• Interest in law enforcing laws, not coming up with new ones - proper observance of established practice
• Trying to boost local-level government - became important later on

• 973: reformed coinage - standard weight and type throughout the kingdom, as supposed to considerable variation before
  • REX ANGLOR - compared to Æthelstan's title: REX TOT BRIT
  • National unity, but no longer aspirations to ruler Britain, just England

• 973: second coronation - consecrated in Bath
  • Went straight to Chester, where apparently 6 Welsh and Scottish kings gave submissio and pledges of support

• Unification
• Relationship with the Britons
• Monastic reform
• Bueaucracy
• The justice/legal system