History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest: Second Edition — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest: Second Edition
John Stuart Mill · en
Edwin's marriage with Elgiva--Odo, the Danish archbishop--
St. Dunstan--His early life--He becomes delirious--His
intellectual attainments--His persecution--He falls in love
--Is dissuaded from marriage by the bishop, Ælfheag--He is
again attacked with sickness--Recovers, and becomes a monk--
Lives in a narrow cell--Absurdity of his rumoured interviews
with the Evil One--His high connexions--Analysis of his
character--Dunstan's rude attack upon King Edwin, after the
banquet--Dunstan again driven from court--Remarks on his
conduct--Elgiva is cruelly tortured, and savagely murdered
by the command of Odo, the archbishop of Canterbury--Dunstan
recalled from his banishment--Supposed murder of Edwin p. 227
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE REIGN OF EDGAR.
Power of Dunstan--He is made Archbishop of Canterbury--He
appoints his own friends counsellors to the young king--His
encouragement of the fine arts--Enforces the Benedictine
rules upon the monks--Speech of Edgar in favour of Dunstan's
reformation in the monasteries--Romantic adventure of Elfrida,
daughter of the Earl of Devonshire--Death of Athelwold--
Personal courage of Edgar--His love of pomp, and generosity--
His encouragement of foreign artificers--His tribute of wolves'
heads--England infested with wolves long after the commencement
of the Saxon period--Many of the Saxon names derived from the
wolf--Death of Edgar--Elfric's sketch of his character--
Changes wrought by Edgar p. 233
CHAPTER XXIX.
EDWARD THE MARTYR.
Dunstan still triumphant--Is opposed by the dowager-queen Elfrida
--Her attempts to place her son, Ethelred, upon the throne,
frustrated by Dunstan--Contest between the monks and the
secular clergy--The Benedictine monks driven out of Mercia--
The Synod of Winchester--Dunstan's pretended miracle doubted--
The council of Calne--William of Malmesbury's description of
the assembly--Dunstan's threat--Falling in of that portion
of the floor on which Dunstan's opponents stood--Reasons
for supposing that the floor was undermined by the command of
Dunstan--Death of his enemies, and triumph of the archbishop
--Edward's visit to Corfe Castle--He is stabbed in the back
while pledging his stepmother, Elfrida, at the gate--His
dreadful death--Character of Elfrida p. 238
CHAPTER XXX.
ETHELRED THE UNREADY.