The laws of Edgar that have been preserved consist partly of some enactments touching the payment of the tithes and other church-dues, and partly of a few civil regulations chiefly relating to the improve ment of the police of the kingdom and the better administration of justice. One is directed against the crime of malicious defamation, and enacts that if the falsehood of the evil report can be proved, the defamer should either have his tongue cut out (that was no doubt thought a peculiarly appropriate punishment), or should redeem it with the value of his head, that is to say, should pay the sum at which his life was valued accordiog to the class of society in which he was ranked. Another directs that the Winchester measure should be the standard for the kingdom. These laws however were only enforced in the Saxon provinces of Edgar's dominions. To his Danish subjects, who occupied nearly or fully half the kingdom, he appears to have only recommended the adoption of some of the English laws. The majority of these Danes resident in England were still pagans, and were governed by earls of their own nation, though they acknowledged the supremacy of the Saxon king; and It was not till towards the close of the reign of the Confessor that the authority of the English law was fully extended over the part of the couutry which they occupied. Edgar however had spent his earliest years among the Danes, and it was by their aid ohiefiy that he had acquired his first throne ; he consequently was attached to them, and during his reign their preponderance was studionsly maintained—a circumstance which perhaps more than the king's 3600 ships ,trued to preserve the country from Danish invasion.
The monkish chroniclers give the loftiest descriptions of the power and extensive authority of Edgar, telling us that he was acknowledged as their supreme lord by all the other kings of Britain and the sur rounding islands. The story told io the Saxon chronicle and elsewhere of his having been rowed in his barge on the Dee by the eieht subject kings of Scotland, Cumberland, Anglesey with the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, Westmorland, Galloway, North, South, and Middle Wales, is well known. It is also affirmed that the greater part of Ireland had submitted to his authority. The dominion which ha arrogated to himself appears in fact not to have been inferior to what we find claimed for him by his panegyrists. Among the titles assumed by him on his seals and in charters are—' Edgaros Anglorum Batilena, omniumqne regum insularum oceans qua, 13ritanniaru circumjacent, eunctarumqne nationum gum infra eam includnntur, Imperstor et Dominus'—'Rex et Primicerins toeius Albionia'—'Basiloue dilectm insulin Alhionis, subditia noble sceptris Soottorum, Cumbrorumque, atque Brittonum, at omnium circumcirca regionum,' &c. These
"pompous and boastful titles," observes Mr. Turner, " eometimee ruu to the length of fifteen or eighteen hoes." Much difficulty in believing that this assumption of power had any real foundation is occasioned by the absence of any record or notice of the subjugation of the more important of these neighbouring kingdoms by any of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs. What event ever happened, for instaneerthat could possibly have induced the kiug of Scotland to acknowledge himself in this manner as the vassal of the king of England ? The pacific) character claimed for the reign of Edgar, who is said never to have had occasion to draw the sword against an enemy, makes it still more difficult to understand how he should thus have compelled all his neighbours to do him homage, and take him for their lord and master.
The monkish writers, with whom Edgar is such a favourite, have not altogether concealed the fact that he was no saint in his morals. The story appears to be sufficiently authenticated which attributes to him the violation of a lady of noble birth, and that too while she was resident in a convent. lie was twice married, first to Elfieda the Fair, by whom he had a son, Edward, who succeeded him ; sod, secondly, to Elfrida, tho daughter of Ordgnr, earl of Devonshire, who bore him Edmund, who died in his infancy, and Ethelred, for whom his infamous mother opened a way to the throne by the murder of Edward. The circumstances of the marriage of Edgar and Elfrida—tho commission given by tho Mug to Ethelwold to visit the lady and ascertain the truth of the reports of her beauty—the treachery of Ethelwold, who represented her to his royal master as unworthy of her fame, and then married her himself—the discovery by her and Edgar of.the deceit that bad been practised on both of them—and the subseqnent assassi nation by the king of his unfaithful emissary—are related by Malmsbury on the faith of an ancient ballad. There is nothing in the character either of Elfrida or Edgar that need occasion us any difficulty in believing the story.
Edgar was not solemnly crowned till the fourteenth year after he succeeded to the throne. This has been accounted for by stating that Dunstan Imposed on Edgar a severe penance of seven years duration for the abduction of the nun Wulfrida, with tho additional penalty that during that period Edgar should not wear the crown : but this would not eceount for the ceremony being deferred for fourteen years. The ceremony was at length performed at Akemaneeastre, that id, Bath, on the 11th of May 973. He lived only two years longer, dying in 975, when he was succeeded by his eldest eon Edward, afterwards designated the Martyr.