Anglo-Saxons -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 -- Sources
A.D. 1067. This year came the king back again to England on St.
Nicholas's day; and the same day was burned the church of Christ
at Canterbury. Bishop Wulfwy also died, and is buried at his see
in Dorchester. The child Edric and the Britons were unsettled
this year, and fought with the castlemen at Hereford, and did
them much harm. The king this year imposed a heavy guild on the
wretched people; but, notwithstanding, let his men always plunder
all the country that they went over; and then he marched to
Devonshire, and beset the city of Exeter eighteen days. There
were many of his army slain; out he had promised them well, and
performed ill; and the citizens surrendered the city because the
thanes had betrayed them. This summer the child Edgar departed,
with his mother Agatha, and his two sisters, Margaret and
Christina, and Merle-Sweyne, and many good men with them; and
came to Scotland under the protection of King Malcolm, who
entertained them all. Then began King Malcolm to yearn after the
child's sister, Margaret, to wife; but he and all his men long
refused; and she also herself was averse, and said that she would
neither have him nor any one else, if the Supreme Power would
grant, that she in her maidenhood might please the mighty Lord
with a carnal heart, in this short life, in pure continence. The
king, however, earnestly urged her brother, until he answered
Yea. And indeed he durst not otherwise; for they were come into
his kingdom. So that then it was fulfilled, as God had long ere
foreshowed; and else it could not be; as he himself saith in his
gospel: that "not even a sparrow on the ground may fall, without
his foreshowing." The prescient Creator wist long before what he
of her would have done; for that she should increase the glory of
God in this land, lead the king aright from the path of error,
bend him and his people together to a better way, and suppress
the bad customs which the nation formerly followed: all which she
afterwards did. The king therefore received her, though it was
against her will, and was pleased with her manners, and thanked
God, who in his might had given him such a match. He wisely
bethought himself, as he was a prudent man, and turned himself to
God, and renounced all impurity; accordingly, as the apostle
Paul, the teacher of all the gentries, saith: "Salvabitur vir
infidelis per mulierem fidelem; sic et mulier infidelis per virum
fidelem," etc.: that is in our language, "Full oft the
unbelieving husband is sanctified and healed through the
believing wife, and so belike the wife through the believing
husband." This queen aforesaid performed afterwards many useful
deeds in this land to the glory of God, and also in her royal
estate she well conducted herself, as her nature was. Of a
faithful and noble kin was she sprung. Her father was Edward
Etheling, son of King Edmund. Edmund was the son of Ethelred;
Ethelred the son of Edgar; Edgar the son of Edred; and so forth
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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