EDMUND.

"Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.”

SHAKESPEARE.

EDMUND his eighteenth year had not yet known,
When he succeeded to Athelstan's throne,
And, ecce iterum! the Monarch found

The DANES encroaching still on English ground;
MALCOLM of Scotland having lent him aid,
With Westmoreland and Cumberland he paid;
And when kind peace was dawning o'er the land,
Or e'er six summers smiled upon his reign,

By LEOLF, leader of a lawless band,

The youthful Sov'reign was untimely slain.*

* The King espied this outlaw presumptuously seated at a royal banquet and, being inflamed with wine, seized him by the hair, when the felon, instigated by despair, plunged his dagger in the body of the King: the intoxication of the nobles and attendants permitted the assassin's escape.

SUMMARY

SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF

EDRED.

Crowned A. D. 946. Had issue, Elfrid and Berfrid, neither Died 955. Buried at Winchester.

of whom succeeded.

PRINCIPAL Events.

An Insurrection of the Danes quieted in Northumberland. The King submits to corporal discipline from the church, and founds several abbeys.

EMINENT PERSONS.

Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury; Otho, Archbishop of Canterbury.

COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

Pope.
Agapetus.

Emperors.

Of the East-Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 912.

Of the West-Otho I. 936.

Kings.

Of France-Lewis IV. 936.
Of Scotland-Malcolm I. 943.

Edred.

EDRED.

"Priest-ridden by a man

"Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking

"Himself with Princes."

SHAKESPEARE.

"They who possess the Prince, possess the laws. '

THE name of EDRED we record in vain,

DRYDEN.

For this was properly Saint DUNSTAN's reign.
Specious, yet haughty, full of smiling evil,
And more than match, he boasted, for the Devil.
"In friendship false, implacable in hate,
"Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state."†

The King, whose sword subdu'd a rebel crowd,
Before the supercilious Churchman bow'd!
The Monk, entrusted with supreme command,
Ruled England's Monarch with an iron hand,
Pow'rless the sceptre, yielding EDRED Sway'd.
Not his but DUNSTAN'S wishes were obeyed;
"Till Death, who spares nor prince nor peasant
swain,

Releas'd the master from his servant's chain.

* The Monks in England married and supported their families with decency until the reign of Edred, when Dunstan introduced celibacy, and tore their wives and children from the Priests, styling them harlots and bastards. SCRIPT. ANGL. PASSIM.

+ Dryden.

VOL. I.

F

SUMMARY

SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF

EDWY.

Crowned, A. D. 955. Married Elgiva, an English lady, who was persecuted and eventually murdered by Dunstan and his partisans. Died 959. Buried at Winchester.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS.

The King's brother, Edgar, revolts against his sovereign, and is supported by the Mercians. The Monks influence the people against the King.

4

EMINENT PERSONS.

Dunstan. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury.

COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

Pope.

John XII. A. D. 956.

Emperors.

Of the East-Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 912.
Of the West-Otho I. 936.

Kings.

Of France-Lothaire I. 951.

Of Scotland-Malcolm I. 949. Indulphus, 958.

EDWY.

EDWY.

"Yet all was colour'd with a smooth pretence
"Of specious love, and duty to their Prince,
"Religion, and redress of grievances,

"Two names that always cheat, and always please."

"The next successor whom I fear and hate,

66

My arts have made obnoxious to the state;
"Turn'd all his virtues to his overthrow,
"And gained our elders to pronounce a foe."

DRYDEN

So DUNSTAN thought, and so he wou'd have said,
But DRYDEN wrote not 'till the Monk was dead.
EDWY who knew his predecessor's mind,
(Warp'd by the Priest, infatuated! blind!)
To insignificance had sunk the Throne,
Boldly resolv'd at first to "hold his own,"
But EDwy was, alas! too young by far,
With such a wolf, and fox combined, to war,
Fell DUNSTAN's wiles revengeful, made him feel
Where vulnerable most: what breast of steel,
What fiend, embodied in a mortal mould,
Cou'd have perform'd what-scarce can it be

told

F 2

ELGIVA,