The British nation a history / by George MWrong . nforced upon monks the sternest discipline ofthe Benedictine rule, and brought about in the southwesta revival of spiritual life and of learning that recalled tl^edays of Bede in the north. Dunstan ventured to rebukeand was sent into exile by Edwy, one of the few incapablesovereigns of the line of Alfred; but this weak king Avassoon himself deposed, and his early death was followedby the vigorous reign of Edgar, aided by Dunstan. Thegreat earls retained sway in their provinces; Edgar him-self ruled directly over Wessex only, but every summerhe
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . nforced upon monks the sternest discipline ofthe Benedictine rule, and brought about in the southwesta revival of spiritual life and of learning that recalled tl^edays of Bede in the north. Dunstan ventured to rebukeand was sent into exile by Edwy, one of the few incapablesovereigns of the line of Alfred; but this weak king Avassoon himself deposed, and his early death was followedby the vigorous reign of Edgar, aided by Dunstan. Thegreat earls retained sway in their provinces; Edgar him-self ruled directly over Wessex only, but every summerhe sailed or was rowed round Britain, and in his trainwere subject princes, upon whose exercise of authority a close watch. His system shows that England hadalready become a feudal kingdom, strong when governedby a strong man, but lacking organic unity. The greatearls had every selfish motive to assert their own author-ity at the expense of the kings, and it was only the ham-mer of foreign conquest that in the end welded the nationinto 44 THE BRITISH NATION Edgar was the last able English king of Alfreds line,and his son Edward, dying young, was succeeded in™ ^ . 979 by another son, Ethelred, known in Eng- Tne weak reign , / of Ethelred and lish history as Ethelred the Unready, or Rede- the revival of less, the king without wisdom. In the northDanish attack. „ xu i-w • i j! ot Europe the Danish power was more for-midable than ever, and the weak and vicious rule of Ethel-red invited renewed attack. Even a strong man couldscarcely have triumphed over the evils that threatenedEngland, for Norway and Denmarkboth sent out hosts of assailants, stillpagan and savage. It is a gloomy tale,first of fierce attacks, then of weak com-promise by Ethelred in buying off theinvader with the jirocecds of a specialtax called the Danegeld, and in the endCoin of Edgar. of treaclicrous massacrc : on St. Bridesday, November 13, 1002, by Ethelredsorder, all the Danes in England whom h
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