Orphaned at the age of two, Edgar was taken in and fostered by regional strongman Athelstan Half-King, the ealdorman of East Anglia. Son of Edmund and great-grandson of Alfred the Great, Edgar was promoted by rebellious nobles in Northumbria and Mercia, who, on his behalf, wrenched those two kingdoms from the control of Edgar's brother King Eadwig in 957. He himself became king of the English two years later, following Eadwig's death.
Edgar is famous for having had two coronations some years later, in 973. These took place, first, in Chester and then at a great ceremony at Bath, where, among the ruins of the imperial Romans, he was proclaimed 'emperor', invested with a crown and compared to Christ. Then he demonstrated his power, by marching his army back north in a great show of strength. His navy joined him at Chester, where the kings of Scotland and Wales had assembled. According to Ranulph, a monk at Chester, Edgar was rowed by six of these kings up the River Dee, from his palace to St John's Church. There, they pledged an oath of loyalty to Edgar, promising to serve him by sea and land.
Edgar issued a raft of law codes and instituted a common currency across England. Popular with the Church for restoring the monasteries, he believed that, as king, he was directly answerable to God for the performance of his duties.
However, despite his religious fervour, he had a keen sexual appetite outside of his three marriages. Indeed, one of his many conquests was the nun Wulfthrith of Wilton Abbey, who bore him a daughter but refused to marry him.
Contemporary chroniclers praised Edgar highly but for one failing: his fondness for 'evil and foreign customs'. Following his death on 8 July 975, he was buried at the abbey at Glastonbury in Somerset, and was soon revered as 'St Edgar the Peacemaker'.
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 King Edgar 'the peacemaker', palm frond in hand, with the saints Dunstan and Aethelwold . From the Anglo-Saxon manuscript, Regularis Concordia, c. 1050.
British Library/akg images
Show larger image (opens in a new window).
 St Edgar the Peacemaker, King of the English
www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries
/bios/edgar.html
Detailed biography on David Nash Ford's excellent Early British Kingdoms website.
 Edgar's Field, Chester
At the Handbridge end of the Old Dee Bridge.
Here the Romans had a sandstone quarry, but it owes its name to being the location of the Anglo-Saxon king's 'palace', which was probably no more than a large tent.
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