[Footnote 75: See Hume's England, 8vo. vol. i. &c.] [Footnote 76: Turner's Anglo-Saxons, 4to. vol. i. p. 389.] [Footnote 77: "Princes beyond the baths of the sea-fowl, worshipped him far and wide," says a poem on his death: "they bowed to the king as one of their own kin. There was no fleet so proud, there was no host so strong, as to seek food in England, while this noble king ruled the kingdom. He reared up God's honour, he loved God's law, he preserved the people's peace; the best of all the kings that were before in the memory of man. And God was his helper: and kings and earls bowed to him: and they obeyed his will: and without battle he ended all as he willed."--_Chron. Sax._ p. 122.] [Footnote 78: Osbern, 113. Eadmer, 220.] [Footnote 79: Mr. Lingard has the following note on the accession of Edwy, confirming our previous observations on the meaning of the recognition. "It is observable, that the ancient writers almost always speak of our kings as _elected_. Edwy's grandmother in her charter, (Lye, App. iv.) says, "He was chosen, _gecoren_." The contemporary biographer of Dunstan, (apud Boll. tom. iv. Maii, 344.) says, "Ab universis Anglorum principibus communi electione.""] [Footnote 80: Hickes' Inst. Gram. Praef.] [Footnote 81: Lingard's Hist. p. 292.] [Footnote 82: Thus the Saxon Chronicler says of William I. "Thrice he bore his _king-helmet_ every year, when he was in England; at Easter he bore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and in Mid-winter at Gloucester." p. 450.] [Footnote 83: We have noticed the present existence of a contemporary account of the coronation of Ethelred II. It demonstrates, that some of the most eloquent passages of the prayers now used on the occasion, were the production of what we often denominate the darker ages of the world, and well accords with the preceding sketch of the character and duties of the Saxon kings. "Two bishops, with the witan[*]," it is said, "shall lead the king to church; and the clergy with the bishops shall sing the anthem, _Firmetur manus tua_, and the _Gloria Patri_. When the king arrives at the church, he shall prostrate himself before the altar, and the _Te Deum_ shall be chanted. When this is finished, the king shall be raised from the ground, and having been _chosen_ by the bishops and people, shall with a clear voice, before God and all the people, promise that he will observe these three rules." [Then follows the coronation oath, quoted above.] [Footnote *: MS. Claude, A. 3. Cotton Library.]