Description
Book SynopsisFresh assessments of Edgar's reign, reappraising key elements using documentary, coin, and pictorial evidence. King Edgar ruled England for a short but significant period in the middle of the tenth century. Two of his four children succeeded him as king and two were to become canonized. He was known to later generations as "the Pacific" or"the Peaceable" because his reign was free from external attack and without internal dissention, and he presided over a period of major social and economic change: early in his rule the growth of monastic power and wealth involved redistribution of much of the country's assets, while the end of his reign saw the creation of England's first national coinage, with firm fiscal control from the centre. He fulfilled King Alfred's dream of the West Saxon royalhouse ruling the whole of England, and, like his uncle King Æthelstan, he maintained overlordship of the whole of Britain. Despite his considerable achievements, however, Edgar has been neglected by scholars, partly because his reign has been thought to have passed with little incident. A time for a full reassessment of his achievement is therefore long overdue, which the essays in this volume provide. CONTRIBUTORS: SIMON KEYNES, SHASHIJAYAKUMAR, C.P, LEWIS, FREDERICK M. BIGGS, BARBARA YORKE, JULIA CRICK, LESLEY ABRAMS, HUGH PAGAN, JULIA BARROW, CATHERINE KARKOV, ALEXANDER R. RUMBLE, MERCEDES SALVADOR-BELLO.
Trade ReviewA timely reassessment of this monarch and reign. * YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES *
Illuminates aspects of Edgar's reign that have not been well covered in most general works, and its consistently high standard will ensure that it becomes essential reading for those who wish to understand the life and times of Edgar the Peaceable. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
Table of ContentsEdgar: Rex admirabilis - Simon D Keynes A Conspectus of the Characters of King Edgar, 957-975 - Simon D Keynes Eadwig and Edgar: Politics, Propaganda, Faction - Shashi Jayakumar Edgar, Chester, and the Kingdom of the Mercians, 957-9 - C P Lewis Edgar's Path to the Throne - The Women in Edgar's Life - Barbara Yorke Edgar, Albion and Insular Dominion - Julia C Crick King Edgar and the Men of the Danelaw - Lesley Abrams The Pre-Reform Coinage of Edgar - Hugh Pagan The Chronology of the Benedictine `Reform' - Julia Barrow The Frontispiece to the New Minster Charter and the King's Two Bodies - Catherine E. Karkov The Laity and the Monastic Reform in the Reign of Edgar - Alexander R. Rumble The Edgar Panegyrics in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Mercedes Salvador-Bello
