EDWY, or EADWIO, called the Fair, King of the Anglo-Saxous, was the eldest of the two sons of Edmund I., but, being only in his seventh or eighth year at his father's death In 046, he and his brother Edgar were set aside for the present in favour of their uncle Edred. On Mira's death in 955, Edwy became king, and his brother appears to have been at the same time appointed subregulus of Mereia. About two years after, the Mercian. and Northumbrians rose In revolt, with Edgar as their leader, and a war ensued, which terminated in an agreement between the two brothers that Edwy should retain the country to the south of the Thames, aud that Edgar should be acknowledged king of all England to the north of that river. lu this revolt Edgar, a mere boy, seems to have been nu instrument in the hands of the clerical party, whom Edwy had made his enemies almost from the moment of his accession. In whatever It was that the quarrel began, it loon led to the dismissal of Dunstan and his friends, who had acquired so great an ascendancy in the government in the reign of the procediug king. The writers upon whom we are dependent for the history of this period were all monks, and, as he was the only obstacle to the triumph of their order, their testimony is to be cautiously received. They concur in representing Edwy as a prince of the most dissolute manners, and the kingdom an given up to oppression and anarchy under his rule. Henry of Huntingdon however says, "This king wore the diadem not unworthily ; but after a prosperous and becoming commencement of his reign, its happy promise was cut short by a premature death." Tho tragical story of Elgiva (or Atigyfu), as commonly told, is familiar to moat. readers. Edwy is said to have married this lady, though they were related within the prohibited degrees, and to have incurred the enmity of the ecclesiastic., by that violation of canonical law more than by any other part of his conduct. Ou the day of his coronation Dunstan tore him rudely from the arms of Elgiva, to whose apartment he had retired from the drunken revelry of the feast. Dunstan's friend, Archbishop Odo, eubsequently broke into one of the royal houses with a party of soldiers, and, carrying off the lady, had her conveyed to Ireland, after having disfigured her by searing her face with a red hot iron; and when some time after she ventured' to return to England, some of the archbishop's retainers seised her again, and put her to death by the barbarous process of cutting tho sinews of her legs with their swords. This story has been the subject of some
controversy, and the defence of Dunstan and Odo has been under taken by Dr. Lingard, who does not however deny the main facts of the conduct imputed to them. "Ham-stringing," he says, "was a cruel but not unusual mode of punishment in that age." He attempted to show that the lady was not the wife but the mistress of Edwy ; and, that being the case, he contends that Odo was justified, first, in sending her to Ireland, by a law of King Edward the Elder, which declared that "if a known whore-quean be found in any place, men shall drive her out of the realm ;" and then in having her put to death on her return, inasmuch as "he believes that, according to the stern maxims of Saxon jurisprudence, a person returning without permission from banishment might be executed without the formality of a trial." But Mr. Kemble has found a document in which "..lilfgyfu, the king's wife," was an attesting witness, along with her mother, and several bishops, to an exchange of lands, "by leave of King Eadwig, between Bishop Byrhthelm and Abbot Ethelwold;" and, as he justly observes, "This was not a thing done in a corner, and the testimony is conclusive that AtIgyfu was Eadwig's queen." For the full discussion the reader is referred to Lingard, 'Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," History of England,' and Vindication of his History,' 8vo; Letter to Francis Jeffrey, Esq.,' by John Allen, Esq., 8vo, 1827; and the articles on Dr. Lingard's two works in the ' Edinburgh Review,' voL xxv. pp. 346-354, and voL xlii. pp. 1.31, both in that letter acknowledged to be by Mr. Allen: see also Kemble, 'Saxons in England,' voL iL ; and Knight, 'Pop. Hist. of Eng., L 134, &c.
Edwy died in 958, within a year after the pacification with his brother. It is difficult to say whether the expressions of the chroniclers imply that he was murdered, or only that he died of a broken heart. Edgar now became sole king.