Customer Reviews

Edgar, King of the English: King of the English 959-75

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Peter Rex's Edgar is more like an anthology than an historical narrative. The sources are so scattered, slim and often unreliable that this arrangement makes sense. There simply is not enough to go on to make a fleshed out narrative of Edgar's life. So the book begins with historical chapters dealing with an overview of Edgar's predecessors from Alfred through Eadred and Eadwig. It then mixes what is known of Edgar's reign with large amounts of what we know about the times in general. Among other chapters are ones on Tenth Century Military Institutions; Men, Monks and Monasteries; The Witan and the Household; and The Cult and Location of Relics. Rex is effective in weaving the information we have about Edgar into the larger discussion of 10th century institutions. Edgar is known as the "Peaceable" and we get a nice sense in the book of why that is the case. It was a period in England of relative peace and stability after both the Viking terror and the wars of unifying the nation. However, Edgar also got a very good press in his day because of his support for monastic reform, his apparently good relationship with Archbishop Dunstan, and his generous contributions to the Church. Thus it is somewhat difficult to pick out just how peaceable Edgar really was since his commentators were so fond of him. The book ends with one of the better documented events in Edgar's life, the coronation of 973, the event where Edgar supposedly had himself rowed on the River Dee by six or eight "under-kings." Why he was crowned twice, this one being roughly 14 years after the beginning of his reign (and two years before his death), is explored by Rex in some detail. It is an interesting historical puzzle with which to end the book.

This is a fine piece of historical work. It is as close to a recent "biography" of Edgar that we have at the time of this review. After Athelstan's death in 939, all the following three kings - Edmund, Eadred, and Eadwig - reigned less than a decade each. Personally I wish we had more to go on for these three. The scattered information we have on Edmund makes him appear as a critical figure in maintaining the integrity of a unified England. Eadwig appears to have been what we might call today a "spoiled brat" who was undisciplined and destructive to everyone, probably including himself. But then again the commentator monks REALLY did not like Eadwig. After Eadwig Edgar appears as a breath of fresh air and stability. We will probably never know more details about any of them but Rex's book does a nice job of putting Edgar's reign in its historical setting. A fine book.