Medieval Life Writing and the Legacy of King Edgar: A Friend to be Feared

Description

There are few early medieval English kings who enjoy as positive a legacy as Edgar (r.939–975). An advocate of church reform, an adept lawmaker, and an effective administrator and strategist, Edgar oversaw a period of unusual stability in the Kingdom of England. It was this that earned him his sobriquet, pacificus rex Eadgarus: King Edgar the Peacemaker. There is, though, a duality to this reputation: effective kingship does not equate to kindness. While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may name him Westseaxena wine (friend of the West Saxons), the implication of wine is of an uneven or imposed friendship. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that, for later chroniclers, effective kingship does not even equate to personal morality. By the twelfth century, tales abound of Edgar’s lechery, of his abducting nuns, and even in one case of his threatening to murder the King of Scots.

In this talk, based on a chapter from his current book project, Matthew will explore Edgar’s legacy, its transmission over time, and the political circumstances that informed the stories that grew around him. In so doing, we will draw out some preliminary conclusions around the processes and trends of life writing in medieval England.

Period	2 May 2025
Held at	University of Newcastle, Australia
Degree of Recognition	National