Edgar, King of England (959-75)

b. 943; d.975

Edgar was the son of King Edmund (939-946) and brother of Eadwig, who was king from 955 to 959. It was Eawig's unpopularity that led to a revolt against him by the Mercian and Northumbrian nobility, and which led those earldoms to recognise Edgar - then just fourteen years old - as their ruler. A likely civil war was only avoided by Eawig's death in 959.

Edgar's rule was remember by succeeding generations for its relative peacefulness and good governance, and in particular the laws which he introduced. These permitted his Danish subjects to retain a large degree of autonomy in legal and social matters. He was also noted for a reform of the coinage.

His coronation, at Bath in 973, was of great symbolic importance because it demonstrated the power of the English king within a unified nation. Following the event Edgar received pledges of loyalty from the rulers of the other kingdoms in Britain: the Scottish, Welsh, Cumbrian and Scandinavian.

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