Edgar

Who was King Edgar and where does he fit into history?

Edgar’s Field Park with the Shrine of Minerva on the left

If you’re anything like me, that time before 1066 is a bit, well…hazy. I remember a few names from school: Alfred the Great, Æthelred the Unready, and Cnut. Æthelstan I don’t remember and certainly not Edgar.

If you live in Chester, you will know Edgar’s Field Park. Great playground, used to be a Roman quarry, holds a shrine to Minerva – the only one in Europe to be in its original location. Edgar's Field was turned into a public park by the first Duke of Westminster, who gifted it to the City of Chester in 1892. King Edgar was supposed to have been rowed up the River Dee from this spot by eight kings in 973.

So, who was this King Edgar and what connects him to Chester? As it turns out, quite a bit. We’re going to zoom in on Edgar ‘the Peaceable’ who was King of the English from 959 to 975. We will put him in context of the 80 years from Æthelstan to Æthelred the Unready, a time when the very idea of England was forged against a backdrop of prowling Vikings.

Unusually the seven kings of England from 927 to 1013 are three sets of brothers. On the diagram you will see two stars which connect Edgar to Chester – his early gift to St Werburgh’s and his jaunt on the Dee.

A timeline of English Monarchs of the period showing the family tree.

Æthelstan is considered the first King of England. In 927 he conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom of York and then invaded Scotland. The Scots and Vikings hit back, invading England. In 937 Æthelstan defeated them at the great and terrible Battle of Brunanburgh (which may or may not be Bromborough on the Wirral). Æthelstan never married and had no children. He was succeeded by Edmund I who was killed in a brawl when his two sons Edwy (or Eadwig) and Edgar were young.

England was united under Æthelstan, Edmund and Eadred. No one really knows why in 957 the country was split between Edwy (who kept the land south of the Thames) and Edgar (who reigned north of the Thames). Edwy died in 959 and Edgar took over as King of the English.

No essay on the 10th century could ignore Dunstan who rose to become Archbishop of Canterbury, was effectively the prime minister under Edgar, and played an important role under seven English kings. Dunstan was the most popular English saint until the death of Thomas Becket nearly 200 years later.

A gossipy story: at one point in Edwy’s coronation day the king was nowhere to be seen and Dunstan was sent to find him. Dunstan found Edwy getting it on with a young lady (who later became queen) and her mother and he dragged Edwy red-faced back to the event. Dunstan was then banished to Ghent, to be later recalled by Edgar who valued his counsel.

In the time of the Anglo-Saxons, Chester was part of Mercia. In 958 when Edgar ruled Mercia, he gifted the minster church of St Werburgh’s (this was centuries before the cathedral) six estates: Upton, Huntington, Cheavely, Barrow, Aston, and Hoseley. Edgar’s gift reaffirmed royal patronage for the minster and for Chester. It was conspicuously more generous than similar charters for other shire towns in Mercia such as Shrewsbury, Stafford, and Oxford.

In 973 after 14 years on the throne, Edgar had his coronation at Bath Abbey. The new coronation ceremony was devised by Dunstan and forms the core of the coronation ceremony up to the present day. Immediately after the coronation Edgar went to some kind of imperial assembly at Chester.

According to twelfth century historians, Edgar was rowed up the Dee by eight subservient kings. The reality might have been more like a peace conference. Chester’s location has been called ‘the crossroads of the British Isles’ and Chester was an ideal place to gather the kings of the north and west by sea.

The pairing of Bath and Chester for royal celebrations in 973 was no coincidence. Both have rich and visible Roman remains, and both had been fortified during the early years of the English kingdom (Bath probably by Alfred the Great and Chester by his daughter Æthelflaed of the Mercians). Bath was in Wessex and Chester in Mercia so the great events of 973 made a strong statement binding the two parts of England.

Edgar had three wives. The first-born son was Edward from his first marriage and the second son was Æthelred from his third wife Ælfthryth. Edward’s short reign was cut short by his murder in 978 at Queen Ælfthryth’s estate at Corfe in Dorset. Although he was apparently an obnoxious teenager with a taste for violence, his murder shocked England and he was made a saint. Was Queen Ælfthryth behind the murder so she could see her son Æthelred on the throne? Quite possibly, and that rumour grew in the 11th century.

Æthelred is infamous for his unfortunate missteps which led to the eventual defeat of the English by the Danes. But given the circumstances could any monarch have triumphed?  Æthelred’s nickname “The Unready” is based on the word unraed which means poorly advised. His first name means “good counsel”. So here we have an early Old English joke which goes a bit like: King Good Counsel – Bad Counsel.

King Edgar was known to later generations as Edgar the Peaceable. According to the great historian Frank Stenton, Edgar’s reign was “singularly devoid of recorded incident” as he brought firm rulership and peace to his people.

Edgar’s reign is most notable for monastic reform – giving more power and wealth to the monasteries and supporting stricter and more uniform practices across the country. Later in his reign he created England’s first national coinage. Rather than silver pennies that looked different depending on where they were minted, there was a strict uniformity of design, and with firm fiscal control from the centre.

We don’t know a great deal about King Edgar and his character is somewhat elusive. But it is clear that he viewed Chester as a critically important town.

Ye Olde Edgar on the corner of Shipgate Street. The building is considered to be from the 16th century and commemorates King Edgar and his links to Chester.