young, they were fet afide, and Edred being likewife a good benefactor to the monks, the crown was given to him without much oppofition, and he was crowned by Odo, archbishop of Canterbury. Edred is defcribed as a prince of great courage and enterprize: in the first year of his reign he reduced the Northumbrians, who had revolted; his next expedition was against the. Scots, whom he brought to terms merely by the terror of his arms.

With regard to religion, Edred's confcience was in a manner governed by Dunftan, infomuch that he fubmitted to great aufterities at his direction, and was fent for as his confeffor, in his laft illness, to give him abfolution. He died A. D. 955.

He is faid to be the first of all the Saxon monarchs who affumed the title of King of Great Britain, a circumstance that favours the opinion of those who affirm that the King of Scotland held his crown as a fief depending upon England. Though Edred had two fons, Edwy, fon of Edmund, fucceeded to the crown : the elective power was, in all probability, a privilege which they retained when they firft fubmitted to monarchical government, and a wife precaution to prevent the mifchiefs that attend the administration of an infant King *.

EDWY, A. D. 955.

Edwy was elected King by the fuffrages of the clergy and nobility. This young monarch was fo remarkably handfome, that he acquired the furname of Pancalus, or, the Fair, and at his acceffion was fo much in favour with Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, that he crowned him with his own hands at Kingston, The King had married a very beautiful lady, named Elgivia; but the match was fo contrary to the opinion of the bishops and nobles, as gave rife a feries of troubles, and his fondness for her Smollet, vol. I. p. 289. X 3

to

greatly

greatly weakened the authority of the bishops over him; for after dinner, on the day of his coronation, Edwy withdrew to an apartment where his wife was, which gave great offence to the bishops and the nobility, and the archbishop commanded him to be fetched back again, and, though every body elfe refused, Dunstan was ready enough to obey Odo's order, who, reproaching him for his fondnefs, dragged him to his company. Such an outrage could not fail to excite the refentment of the young monarch and the King's friends, who were offended at the overbearing pride of the abbot; and foon after Edwy demanded a reftitution of the fums which Edred had committed to his charge, and ftrongly infinuated that he had embezzled the public money. Dunstan haughtily anfwered, that the money had been applied to pious ufes by the late King's exprefs orders; which tho', by his artful anfwer, for the prefent ftopt any further proceedings, Dunftan was foon after banifhed the kingdom, and returned to Flanders.

Odo, the archbishop, thinking the dignity of the priesthood degraded by the exile of Dunftan, fomented a difaffection: the Mercians and Northumbrians entered into measures with the archbishop; they rebelled, fet up Edwy's younger brother Edgar, a boy of thirteen years of age, for their King, who recalled Dunstan, and immediately ordained him a bishop, to give him a feat in that affembly, who made it their bufinefs to glofs over this oppofition, or rebellion, with the name of religion, for which many pretended miracles were attefted to support their unwarrantable proceedings. I mention thefe inftances, though a digreffion, to fhew what exorbitant power and influence the bishops had acquired at that time; fo that fome hiftorians fpeak of him as having, by his imprudent measures, forfeited his crown and his happinefs; and that if he had been lefs refolute, he might have foothed his enemies. If he had been more refo

lute,

lute, he might have put it out of their power to hurt him. Edwy dying, though not without fufpicion of being murdered, Edgar fucceeded to the crown.

EDGAR, A. D. 959.

Edwy dying without iffue, the whole kingdom was reunited under Edgar, who, though in the prime of his youth, had already given undeniable proofs of a fhining genius, and the moft folid underflanding. He had manifefted his ability in making himfelf mafter of a part of his brother's dominions; and he afterwards demonftrated the extenfivenefs of his capacity, by keeping his fubjects in fubmiffion, and his enemies in fear, without ftraining the regal authority, or engaging in any martial enterprize: but he awed his neighbours by taking fuch measures, for the defence of his kingdom, as difabled them from invading it with any profpect of fuccefs. He divided Northumberland into two governments, and conftantly maintained a ftrong body of forces in the northern provinces, that they might be at hand to quell any infurrection that should happen among the turbulent people; and in order to fecure his dominions from the difcontents of foreign Danes, he equipped a very strong fleet, amounting to two thousand five hundred veffels, divided into different fquadrons, and stationed in fuch a manner that they were continually cruifing round the ifland, which was thus effectually covered from infult. Such wife precautions could not fail to establish peace and tranquillity among his people, which, in order to fix beyond any probability of interruption, he engaged Kennett, King of Scotland, in his intereft, by ceding to him the whole county of Lothian, extending from the Tweed to the Forth, for which, and the northern counties already bestowed upon Malcolm, that prince certainly did homage. It was, in all probability, owing to this ceffion and treaty, which fecured the Scottish King as an ally, that Maccufe, King of Man and

X 4

the

the ifles, fume monarchs of Galloway, and the Prince of Wales, fubmitted fo peaceably to the government of Edgar.

The next year Edgar, being at Chefter, fummoned all the tributary knights to attend him at that place, who rowed his barge down the river Dee, in his way to the monastery of St. John the Baptift, while he himfelf fat at the helm. Smollet confiders this circumftance as no more than a compliment, or frolic, acted in an excurfion of pleasure; when it is evident, from the King's behaviour, that it was a real act of homage: nor can his remark, that his fucceffors might justly boaft of themselves to be Kings of England, when attended in that manner, be underflood in any other light.

Edgar did not think it fufficient to protect England from the infults of foreigners, but he turned his thoughts to fome regulations that were neceffary in the ftate, and then in the church. The first was in refpect to the magiftrates, of whom there was a general complaint; and that he might the better effect his purpofe, he every year made a vifit to fome part of his kingdom, to have the best accounts he could obtain of the conduct of his judges, &c.; and to remove the abufes complained of, he enacted, that every magiftrate, convicted of giving a fentence contrary to law, if through ignorance, fhould be fined one hundred and twenty fhillings; but if knowingly, fhould be turned out, and rendered incapable of acting for the future. We must acknowledge this care worthy of a prince, as it was a proper expedient for reftoring fuch a regard to juftice as is the fecurity of the rights of fubjects, and the authority of government *.

Another wife regulation was, the reducing all weights and measures to one standard: this he found neceffary to fupport the credit of the kingdom in foreign markets, in which refpect he acquired the praifes

# Rapin, vol. I. p. 127.

bestowed

bestowed on him by ancient hiftorians: nay, we may go further; we may boldly fay, that he furpaffed them, ihafmuch as they obtained their fame by acts of rapine, and the deftruction of their fpecies; whereas Edgar's fame was built upon a noble foundation, that of justice and benevolence +.

But, befides every inftance of his great wifdom in regard to civil affairs, he appears to be piously dif pofed it is faid he founded forty monafteries; that he repaired and embellished a great number, among others that of Glafton, founded by Edred his uncle. Ingulphus, in his hiftory of Croyland, fays the treasure of that monaftery, in the reign of Edgar, amounted to no less than ten thousand pounds, befides the vesfels, fhrines, and other things. Edgar not only enriched the monafteries, but underrook to establish the monks a fecond time in the poffeffion of ecclefiaftical benefices, which he performed with a high hand. This was faid to be effected principally at the perfuafion of Dunftan, whom Edgar had made archbishop of Canterbury; and it is highly probable that Edgar himfelf thought he did a fignal fervice to the church by putting it under the direction of monks. Dunftan, in conjunction with him, profeffed to bring about a reformation in the inferior clergy; for this purpofe a council. was convened, and Edgar himfelf was prefent. At this council, the fpeech he made plainly fhews how much he was biaffed in favour of the monks, and difcovered his great diflike of the fecular clergy, on account of their immoralities. However, as it appears to flow from fentiments of piety, and is one of the most remarkable tranfactions of his reign, though it cannot find place in this hiftory, we refer the reader to Rapin's history

We cannot wholly omit fome of the principal canons of that convention. They confirm the civil privileges and immunities of the church; prefcribe the religious † Rider, vol. I. p. 22. * Vol. I. b. iv. p. 129,

obfervation