King Eadwig’s Coronation Threesome: The Early Modern Reception of a Medieval Scandal

Description

The scandal that purportedly occurred at the coronation of King Eadwig (r. 955-959) is one of the more famous and salacious stories from England’s early medieval history. The young king, the story goes, then only around fifteen, absconded from his coronation feast for sexual liaison with a young girl and her mother. Eadwig was soon found by Bishop Cynesige of Lichfield (d. c.964) and future St Dunstan (d. 988), ‘disporting himself disgracefully in between the two women as though they were wallowing in some revolting pigsty’. Dunstan forcibly separates the lovers and marches the king back to the feast. This tale is reported in six primary texts, four of them hagiographies of St Dunstan, and the story is transmitted relatively faithfully through the length of the Middle Ages: Eadwig and his consorts are the antagonists to Dunstan’s protagonist. This dynamic, however, shifts in the aftermath of England’s break from Rome. In the early modern period, in both literature and art, an alternative interpretation of events emerges, one in which a pair of young and innocent lovers are separated by a pernicious cleric. This seminar will explore the reception of Eadwig’s coronation scandal in the modern era.

Period	12 May 2025
Held at	University of Adelaide, Australia, South Australia
Degree of Recognition	National