places with monks, throughout the kingdom.  Although the partisans of the secular priests were not a few, nor of the lowest class, yet they were unable to withstand the current of the popular desire, strengthened by the authority of a potent and respected monarch.  However, there was a seed of discontent sown on this occasion, which grew up afterwards to the mutual destruction of all the parties.  During the whole reign of Edgar, as he had secured the most popular part of the clergy, and with them the people, in his interests, there was no internal disturbance; there was no foreign war, because this prince was always ready for war.  But he principally owed his security to the care he took of his naval power, which was much greater and better regulated than that of any English monarch before him.  He had three fleets always equipped, one of which annually sailed round the island.  Thus the Danes, the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh were kept in awe.  He assumed the title of King of all Albion.  His court was magnificent, and much frequented by strangers.  His revenues were in excellent order, and no prince of his time supported the royal character with more dignity.

[Sidenote:  Edward, A.D. 975.]

[Sidenote:  Ethelred, A.D. 979.]

Edgar had two wives, Elfleda and Elfrida.  By the first he had a son called Edward; the second bore him one called Ethelred.  On Edgar’s death, Edward, in the usual order of succession, was called to the throne; but Elfrida caballed in favor of her son, and finding it impossible to set him up in the life of his brother, she murdered him with her own hands in her castle of Corfe, whither he had retired to refresh himself, wearied with hunting.  Ethelred, who by the crimes of his mother ascended a throne sprinkled with his brother’s blood, had a part to act which exceeded the capacity that could be expected in one of his youth and inexperience.  The partisans of the secular clergy, who were kept down by the vigor of Edgar’s government, thought this a fit time to renew their pretensions.  The monks defended themselves in their possession; there was no moderation on either side, and the whole nation joined in these parties.  The murder of Edward threw an odious stain on the king, though he was wholly innocent of that crime.  There was a general discontent, and every corner was full of murmurs and cabals.  In this state of the kingdom, it was equally dangerous to exert the fulness of the sovereign authority or to suffer it to relax.  The temper of the king was most inclined to the latter method, which is of all things the worst.  A weak government, too easy, suffers evils to grow which often make the most rigorous and illegal proceedings necessary.  Through an extreme lenity it is on some occasions tyrannical.  This was the condition of Ethelred’s nobility, who, by being permitted everything, were never contented.