Scragg Donald (Ed.). Edgar, King of the English 959-975: New Interpretations

Boydell Press, 2008. — 296 p. — (Pubns Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies 8). — ISBN10 1843833999, ISBN13 9781843833994.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 royal house 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.Edgar: Rex admirabilis - Simon D Keynes.
A Conspectus of the Characters of King Edward, 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 - Frederick M. Biggs.
The Women in Edgar's Life - Barbara Yorke.
Edgar, Albion and Insular Domination - 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 Monastic Reform in the Reign of Edgar - Alexander R. Rumble.
The Edgar Panegyrics in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Mercedes Salvador-Bello.