Detail of an engraving of Edgar (artist unknown).
The Royal Collection © 2003, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Edgar the Peaceful being rowed down the Dee.
Following his coronation, Edgar was rowed from Chester to the Minster of St. John by eight tributary princes; Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Cumberland, Maccus of the Isles, and five Welsh princes. Detail of an engraving of Edgar (artist unknown).

Edgar, the Peaceful, the fourth Boy King, was born in 943 and died July 8, 975. He reigned from 959 to 975. He was a youth [age 15] on his succession and was dominated entirely by his grandmother, Queen Edgive, who served as regent during his minority. She restored Dunstan as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to heal the rift with the Church made by her late grandson (and Edgar's brother), Edwig. Dunstan, the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, gained the king's confidence and came to guide him in all things; and was later appointed by Edgar to the office of chancellor. The office of chancellor was then equivalent to the modern office of prime-minister. The death of the king's grandmother, Queen Edgive, in 968, left Dunstan alone as Edgar's chief advisor. Edgar was crowned "King of England" at Kingston by Dunstan, the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, in 962, in a ceremony attended by all the English earls; but, in 973, Edgar was crowned "King of Britain" or "Albionis Imperator Augustus" ["emperor"] at Bath in another ceremony patterned after that of the Holy Roman Emperors which was attended by all of the island-rulers, including five Welsh kings and the kings of Scotland, Strathclyde, and the Isle of Man.

It is recorded that Edgar, while keeping his court at Chester, was rowed down the River Dee, the oars manned by eight kings of neighboring tributary states. The story, though probably untrue, sets forth his power not only over his own immediate subjects, but over the whole island. He had a well-trained army and a strong navy and his title shows that at least he lived on good terms with his neighbors. He married (1) Aethelflaed, and (2) Elfrida (Aelfthryth) of Devon, daughter of Ordgar, Earl of Devonshire, and widow of Ethelwold.

Edgar, king in Mercia and the Danelaw from 957, succeeded his brother as king of the English on Edwig's death in 959 - a death which probably prevented civil war breaking out between the two brothers. Edgar was a firm and capable ruler whose power was acknowledged by other rulers in Britain, as well as by Welsh and Scottish kings. Edgar's late coronation in 973 at Bath was the first to be recorded in some detail; his queen Aelfthryth was the first consort to be crowned queen of England.

The reign of Edgar was a period of peace in English History, though Edgar made an expedition against the Vikings in Ireland and occupied Dublin for a while. Too, he made an incursion into Wales, and an expedition to Cumberland is mentioned in the annals also. However, most accounts praise Edgar for the peace he maintained in England during his reign. Edgar was an enlightened king and undertook many reforms that strengthened the legal code that his ancestor Alfred "The Great" had formulated about a century earlier, and thus proved to be a capable ruler. He was firm in rooting-out abuses wherever they were found and in eliminating corruption among local government officials. He appointed sheriffs as royal agents over the shires to control the earls. And, with the aid of the country's bishops Edgar reformed the English Church to bring it in line with ecclesiastical developments on the European continent. Dunstan was more or less responsible with the success of the monastic reform movement, of which Edgar was an enthusiastic patron.

Edgar was the patron of a great monastic revival which owed much to his association with Archbishop Dunstan. New bishoprics were created, Benedictine monasteries were reformed and old monastic sites were re-endowed with royal grants, some of which were of land recovered from the Vikings.

In the 970s and in the absence of Viking attacks, Edgar - a stern judge - issued laws which for the first time dealt with Northumbria (parts of which were in the Danelaw) as well as Wessex and Mercia. Edgar's coinage was uniform throughout the kingdom. A more united kingdom based on royal justice and order was emerging; the Monastic Agreement (c.970) praised Edgar as 'the glorious, by the grace of Christ illustrious king of the English and of the other peoples dwelling within the bounds of the island of Britain'. After his death on 8 July 975, Edgar was buried at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset.

He was succeeded by his son from his first marriage, Edward, who was murdered by Edgar's second wife, Elfrida. Her son, Ethelred, assumed the throne in 968 at the age of 10, the last of the six Boy Kings.