When Edgar died, his eldest son, Edward, became king. Now the queen, who was Edward’s stepmother, hated him, because she wanted her own little son to be king. She therefore determined to have Edward killed; and I will tell you how the wicked woman did it. Edward was very fond of hunting; one day he was returning alone from the chase, and being very hot and thirsty, he rode up to the gate of his stepmother’s house at Corfe, and asked for some wine. The queen, whose name was Elfrida, brought him some herself; and while he was drinking it, she made a sign to one of her servants who stabbed Edward in the back, so that he died almost directly. This cruel murder of the young king, when he was off his guard, drinking his wine, is said to have given rise to the custom among noblemen and gentlemen of “pledging” each other, while drinking at feasts. One about to drink would call on the guest next him, or on some friend at the table, to pledge himself to protect him while in the act of drinking, and he in turn would pledge himself to protect his friend when the cup came to him. I need not tell you, I am sure, that after such a wicked action Elfrida was very unhappy all her life, and everybody hated her. The murdered young king was called Edward the Martyr. CHAPTER XII. Why King Ethelred was called the Unready; how the Danes drove away the English princes, and made Canute king; how Canute rebuked his courtiers and improved the people, and how the Danes and Saxons made slaves of their prisoners and of the poor. The son of the wicked Elfrida was king after his brother Edward. His name was Ethelred, and he was king a great many years, but never did anything wise or good. The Danes came again to England, when they found out how foolish King Ethelred was, and that he was never ready, either with his ships or his soldiers, or with good counsel; for which reason he was called ETHELRED THE UNREADY. I should be quite tired if I were to tell you all the foolish and wicked things that were done, either by this king, or by the great lords who were his friends. He allowed the Danes to get the better of the English everywhere, so they robbed them of their gold and silver, and sheep and cattle, and took their houses to live in, and turned them out. They burnt some of the English towns, and altered the names of others; they killed the people, even the little children; till at last you would have thought the whole country belonged to them, and that there was no king of England at all. You may think how unhappy the people were then, the cruel Danes robbing and murdering them when they pleased. The king was so idle, that he did nothing to save his people. There was no punishment for bad men, and nobody obeyed the laws.