Back to the Mainly The Vikings calendar
It’s not going to be much of a surprise to learn that the younger brother was called Edgar and although he ruled for 16 years
he carelessly forgot to have himself crowned until 973AD and then, like good old Athelstan some 40 years before, died two years later.
One of his major decisions was to make a guy called Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop of Canterbury was head of the church in England;
the Pope still ruled the whole Christian world from Rome. Dunstan was an English monk who had already been Abbot of Glastonbury, and Bishop of Worcester and of
London. He made several reforms. Basically Dunstan and his followers, which included King Edgar, believed that the Benedictine monks‘ way of life was the best.
Until now many of the clergy, the religious leaders, had led fairly normal lives, getting married, having children and being a part of the community.
Dunstan began to insist on the strict Benedictine way of life and the important place of the monastery, and monks, in life. He insisted on poverty,
chastity and the obedience of monks and the celibacy of parish priests. Basically this meant that they could not have wives or children. However as monasteries had
enormous riches, even if the monks didn’t, and as King Edgar had two wives and a number of mistresses, one of whom was a nun called Wulfryth who gave birth to a
daughter, we may wonder at how many of these rules got broken. Dunstan’s aim was to produce a class of educated clerics and he did much to encourage the growth of
monastic settlements throughout Britain. Sometimes these monasteries, with the King’s permission, would take over land owned by nobles.
It probably made little difference to the ordinary person but Dunstan
and Edgar did have a significant effect on religion in 10th century England and they also brought together the Danish and Saxon races in England by introducing Danes
into the Witan and creating some Danish bishops and earls. Previously, only Saxon nobles and bishops had been summoned to a Witan.
The Witan was a council called by Kings and attended by aldermen, thanes and bishops. The meetings would discuss royal grants of land, church matters,
charters, taxation, customary law, defence and foreign policy. The succession of a new king had to be approved by the Witan. Peasants could also bring their
disputes, maybe about land ownership, to a Witan. Witan is an Anglo-Saxon word for a meeting. The number of people at each Witan was not set and would depend on
what was being discussed. If the meeting was held at the king’s palace or during a religious festival there were usually more people in attendance.
Dunstan also organised Edgar’s coronation when it eventually happened. After the crowning, Edgar took his fleet to Chester and was then, so the story
goes, rowed up and down in a ceremonial barge by the five kings of Wales and two of Scotland plus the King of the Isle of Man. He thereby showed his power to
those who might try and attack him. Possibly?
Forward to 975AD
