Edgar the Peaceful
EDGAR THE PEACEFUL
King of the English; b. 943; d. July 8, 975. The son of King Edmund and St. Alfgifu, he succeded his brother Eadwig in 959. During Edgar's reign England enjoyed internal stability and was spared foreign invasion. He supported Archbishop dunstan of canterbury and his associates, oswald of york and ethelwold of winchester, in the reform of the English Church and the revival of monasticism. He improved the parish organization and enforced the payment of tithes. His coronation in 973 followed, for the first time in England, a definite liturgical order and emphasized the spiritual side of the ceremony. Edgar was buried at glastonbury, where he was treated almost as a saint.
Bibliography: c. plummer, Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford 1892–99) 1:113–121; 2:152–163. a. j. robertson, The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I (Cambridge, Eng. 1925) 16–39. w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography From the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 6:365–370. r. stanton, A Menology of England and Wales (New York 1887) 326–328. f. m. stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (2d ed. Oxford 1947) 359–367. j. godfrey, The Church in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge, Eng. 1962). e. john, "The Beginning of the Benedictine Reform in England," Revue Bénédictine 73 (1963) 73–87.
[b. w. scholz]