Edgar, King of the English, 959-975

Edgar, King of the English, 959-975 PDF

Author: Donald Scragg

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1843839288

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Fresh 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 becausehis 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, SHASHI JAYAKUMAR, C.P. LEWIS, FREDERICK M. BIGGS, BARBARA YORKE, JULIA CRICK, LESLEY ABRAMS, HUGH PAGAN, JULIA BARROW, CATHERINE KARKOV, ALEXANDER R. RUMBLE, MERCEDES SALVADOR-BELLO

Edgar, King of the English, 959-75

Edgar, King of the English, 959-75 PDF

Author: Peter Rex

Publisher: Tempus Publishing, Limited

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13:

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Edgar is the youngest son of King Edmund of Wessex. Although he became known as Edgar 'the Peaceable' he ruled England with an iron rod. His strict government was backed up by a naval force which deterred invasion by the Vikings. This work tells the story of a Anglo-Saxon monarch who became the first King of a united England in 959.

Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar

Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar PDF

Author: D. N. Dumville

Publisher: Studies in Anglo-Saxon History

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13:

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An important study of the emergence of the kingdom of England in the first half of the 10th century. This book is concerned with aspects of the revival of English military, ecclesiastical, and intellectual strength in the period from King Alfred's defeat of the Great Danish Army at Edington in 878 to that of the triumph of Benedictinism in the of Edgar, king of England959-975. Studying intellectual developments of the first half of the10th century, Dr Dumville argues that those decades were a period of continuation of the Alfredian renascence and he looks back into that king's troubled but productive reign to discover new aspects of his thinking and to offer some new interpretations of his actions.These were also the years in which the kingdom of England was formed: attention is therefore given to King Æthelstan, its creator. This series of new studies draws on fresh manuscript-evidence as well as reinterpreting texts long known to historians. By bringing together the testimonies of a wide variety of sources, it seeks to provide the basis on which a new history of the period may be written. DAVID N. DUMVILLE is Reader in the Early Mediaeval History and Culture of the British Isles at the University of Cambridge.

The Royal Women Who Made England

The Royal Women Who Made England PDF

Author: M J Porter

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2024-03-30

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1399068458

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Throughout the tenth century, England, as it would be recognized today, formed. No longer many Saxon kingdoms, but rather, just England. Yet, this development masks much in the century in which the Viking raiders were seemingly driven from England’s shores by Alfred, his children and grandchildren, only to return during the reign of his great, great-grandson, the much-maligned Æthelred II. Not one but two kings would be murdered, others would die at a young age, and a child would be named king on four occasions. Two kings would never marry, and a third would be forcefully divorced from his wife. Yet, the development towards ‘England’ did not stop. At no point did it truly fracture back into its constituent parts. Who then ensured this stability? To whom did the witan turn when kings died, and children were raised to the kingship? The royal woman of the House of Wessex came into prominence during the century, perhaps the most well-known being Æthelflæd, daughter of King Alfred. Perhaps the most maligned being Ælfthryth (Elfrida), accused of murdering her stepson to clear the path to the kingdom for her son, Æthelred II, but there were many more women, rich and powerful in their own right, where their names and landholdings can be traced in the scant historical record. Using contemporary source material, The Royal Women Who Made England can be plucked from the obscurity that has seen their names and deeds lost, even within a generation of their own lives.

The Making of England

The Making of England PDF

Author: Mark Atherton

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-01-30

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1786721546

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During the tenth century England began to emerge as a distinct country with an identity that was both part of yet separate from 'Christendom'. The reigns of Athelstan, Edgar and Ethelred witnessed the emergence of many key institutions: the formation of towns on modern street plans; an efficient administration; and a serviceable system of tax. Mark Atherton here shows how the stories, legends, biographies and chronicles of Anglo-Saxon England reflected both this exciting time of innovation as well as the myriad lives, loves and hates of the people who wrote them. He demonstrates, too, that this was a nation coming of age, ahead of its time in its use not of the Book-Latin used elsewhere in Europe, but of a narrative Old English prose devised for law and practical governance of the nation-state, for prayer and preaching, and above all for exploring a rich and daring new literature. This prose was unique, but until now it has been neglected for the poetry. Bringing a volatile age to vivid and muscular life, Atherton argues that it was the vernacular of Alfred the Great, as much as Viking war, that truly forged the nation.

Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England

Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England PDF

Author: Gale R. Owen-Crocker

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 184383877X

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The relationship between Anglo-Saxon kingship, law, and the functioning of power is explored via a number of different angles. The essays collected here focus on how Anglo-Saxon royal authority was expressed and disseminated, through laws, delegation, relationships between monarch and Church, and between monarchs at times of multiple kingships and changing power ratios. Specific topics include the importance of kings in consolidating the English "nation"; the development of witnesses as agents of the king's authority; the posthumous power of monarchs; how ceremonial occasions wereused for propaganda reinforcing heirarchic, but mutually beneficial, kingships; the implications of Ine's lawcode; and the language of legislation when English kings were ruling previously independent territories, and the delegation of local rule. The volume also includes a groundbreaking article by Simon Keynes on Anglo-Saxon charters, looking at the origins of written records, the issuing of royal diplomas and the process, circumstances, performance and function of production of records. GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. Contributors: Ann Williams, Alexander R. Rumble, Carole Hough, Andrew Rabin, Barbara Yorke, Ryan Lavelle, Alaric Trousdale

Elfrida

Elfrida PDF

Author: Elizabeth Norton

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1445614928

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The first-ever biography of the most powerful woman of tenth-century England.

The Anglo-Saxons

The Anglo-Saxons PDF

Author: Marc Morris

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 164313535X

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A sweeping and original history of the Anglo-Saxons by national bestselling author Marc Morris. Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. It explains how their earliest rulers fought relentlessly against each other for glory and supremacy, and then were almost destroyed by the onslaught of the vikings. It explores how they abandoned their old gods for Christianity, established hundreds of churches and created dazzlingly intricate works of art. It charts the revival of towns and trade, and the origins of a familiar landscape of shires, boroughs and bishoprics. It is a tale of famous figures like King Offa, Alfred the Great and Edward the Confessor, but also features a host of lesser known characters - ambitious queens, revolutionary saints, intolerant monks and grasping nobles. Through their remarkable careers we see how a new society, a new culture and a single unified nation came into being. Drawing on a vast range of original evidence - chronicles, letters, archaeology and artefacts - renowned historian Marc Morris illuminates a period of history that is only dimly understood, separates the truth from the legend, and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid.

Mercia

Mercia PDF

Author: Annie Whitehead

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2018-09-15

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1445676532

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The extraordinary history of Mercia and its rulers from the seventh century to 1066. Once the supreme Anglo-Saxon kingdom, it was pivotal in the story of England.