Ethelwold

“ Eadsige of Winchcomb, one of the clerks that Ethelwold had turned out of Winchester, pointed out the bishop's grave to Ethelwold. Meanwhile a ceorl declared that Swithun had removed a hump from his back. Other miracles followed, and at last King Edgar or Eadgar (944–975) [q. v.] ordered Ethelwold to translate the body. This was done on 15 July 971, the bishop, with the assistance of many abbots, carrying it into ‘St. Peter's house,’ as the minster was then called, and depositing it in a shrine at the east end. Miracles followed in great number ”

“ About them crowded a throng of short-coated cheorls, bare of head and leg, and on the verge the women clung together and whispered. The leaders of that mounted company turned aside from the street to listen. Rolf was on the verge of the throng, looking easily over all to the midst.
Morwenna stood there in the grip of Ethelwold, and calmly met the glare of eyes that knew no mercy. The good Ethelwold made a venomous tale. She was of no honest Saxon blood, a witch herself and the daughter of witches. She had unholy converse with the beasts. She was a werewolf or a troll ”

“ Elfric, the Archbishop of York; Elfric, who was Abbot of Malmesbury; and Elfric Bata (or The Bat) , a monk of Winchester and disciple of Elfric the Grammarian.
Elfric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had been a monk of Abingdon, where the celebrated Ethelwold was his teacher. Ethelwold's chief delight was to teach young men and boys, and give them rules for grammar: by his pleasant and delightful conversation he drew them to better and higher things, for he was a popular master, and is reported to have invented "cribs" for his pupils by turning Latin books into English. ”

“ Edward, having ravaged the neighbourhood around the isle of Axeholme, ordered his forces to retreat slowly, but on no account to separate. This order the Kentish troops neglected to obey, and either took a different route from the rest of the army, or remained behind to plunder, when Ethelwold, at the head of a superior force, rushed upon them, and they were defeated. Although it appears to have been more of a skirmish than a pitched battle, victory was purchased, on the part of the Danes, by the death of Ethelwold, and England then enjoyed a two years' peace. ”

“ The married life of the beautiful Ethelfled, however terminated, whether by her death or divorce, must have been a short one, for in 964 Edgar married another woman celebrated for her beauty, Elfthryth or Elfrida, daughter of the Earl Ordgar, who became ealdorman of Devon and possibly of the two adjoining counties of Somerset and Dorset.184 Elfrida, however, had been previously married, her first husband being Ethelwold, ealdorman of East Anglia and son of “the half-king” Athelstan. ”

“ Edgar was king, and Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury—Ethelwold, after strong measures at Winchester, (where “he drove the clerks out of the bishopric because they would not observe any rule, and he set the monks there,”) “went to the king and begged of him that he would give him all the minsters which heathen men had of old time broken down, because he would restore them; and the king joyfully granted it.” Then he restored Ely, and “after that came Bishop Ethelwold to the minster which was called Medeshamstede, which of old time had been destroyed by heathen men. ”

“ In a manuscript in the Bodleian library which seems to have been written early in the twelfth century [2815] is an astronomical treatise in four books which Macray suggested might be the Liber de planetis et mundi climatibus which Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, is said to have composed. [2816] The present treatise indeed embodies [Pg 706] a Letter of Ethelwold to Pope Gerbert on squaring the circle. [2817] It seems, however, that this letter on squaring the circle was really written by Adelbold, bishop of Utrecht from 1010 to 1027. ”

“ How powerful indeed the sanctity and virtue of Dunstan's disciples were, is sufficiently evidenced by Ethelwold, made abbat of Abingdon from a monk of Glastonbury, and afterwards bishop of Winchester, who built so many and such great monasteries, as to make it appear hardly credible how the bishop of one see should be able to effect what the king of England himself could scarcely undertake. ”

“ Ludweall king of Wales to present him thrée hundred woolues yéerelie in name of a tribute, but after thrée yéeres space, there was not a woolfe to be found, and so that tribute ceased in the fourth yéere after it began to be paid.
The death of Alfred king Edgars wife (or concubine) causeth him to fall into a fowle offense, an example teaching men to take heed how they put others in trust to woo for them; earle Ethelwold cooseneth the king of his wife, the danger of beholding a womans beautie with lustfull eies; king Edgar killeth earle Ethelwold to marrie faire Alfred his wife ”

“ Ethelwold afterward bishop of Winchester builded the first monasterie of Elie vpon the ruines of a nunrie then in the kings hands, howbeit the same house, whereof he himselfe was abbat, was yer long destroied by enimies, and he in lieu of his old preferment rewarded by king Edgar, with the aforesaid bishoprike, from whence with more than lionlike boldnesse he expelled the secular préests, and stored with moonkes prouided from Abandune néere Oxford, by the helpe of Edgar and Dunstane then metropolitane of England. ”

“ Etheldreda; St. Etheldreda as queen; Tonbert, her first, and Egfrid, her second husband. In the lower tier, St. Etheldreda as abbess; Wilfred Bishop of York; St. Erminilda, the third abbess; and St. Sexburga, the second abbess. The tracery contains other figures and emblems, with the arms of the donor, the late Canon E.B. Sparke.
The window in the north-east angle, in continuation of the same design, contains in the upper tier figures representing St. Withburga, St. Edmond, St. Werberga, fourth abbess of Ely, and Archbishop Dunstan. In the lower tier, Bishop Ethelwold ”

“ As the curtain rises, a forest in Devon is discovered, on the Eve of All Hallow Mass. A thick fog causes Aethelwold and Maccus, who accompanies him, to lose their way and become separated. The orchestra, with muted strings, weaves a background of forest murmurings as Aethelwold stretches himself beneath an oak. As he falls [Pg 36] asleep a light appears, and we hear a theme which is later associated with the love scene:
[Listen to MP3] [Download MXL]
As Aelfrida enters with a lantern we again hear her motive. ”

“ Ethelwolf was a younger son, and, consequently, did not expect to reign. He went to the monastery at Winchester, and took the vows. His father had no objection to this plan, satisfied with having his oldest son expect and prepare for the throne. As, however, he advanced toward manhood, the thought of the probability that he might be called to the throne in the event of his brother's death led all parties to desire that he might be released from his monastic vows. They applied, accordingly, to the pope for a dispensation. The dispensation was granted, and Ethelwolf became a general in the army. ”

“ Ethelwolf defeated the enemy in one great battle, but too late to prevent a hold-up upon the island of Thanet, and afterwards at Shippey, near London, where the enemy settled himself.
Yet Ethelwolf made a pilgrimage to Rome with Alfred, then six years old (A.D. 855) . He was gone a year, during which time very little reigning was done at home, and the Northmen kept making treaties and coming over in larger droves.
Ethelwolf visited Charles the Bald of France at this time, and married his daughter Judith incidentally. ”

“ He told Athelwold that he had discovered the one woman in England fit to be Ethelfled's successor, and that he had resolved to make her his queen although he had never seen her, since she and her father had never been to court. That, however, would not deter him; there was no other woman in the land whose claims were equal to hers, seeing that she was the only daughter and part heiress of one of the greatest men in the kingdom, Ongar, Earldoman of Devon and Somerset, a man of vast possessions and great power. ”

“ From every point of view it was a suitable union, seeing that Athelwold would inherit power and great possessions from his father, Earldoman of East Anglia, and before long the marriage took place, and by and by Athelwold took his wife to Wessex, to the castle he had built for himself on his estate of Wherwell, on the Test. There they lived together, and as they had married for love they were happy. ”

“ Athelwold, who thought highly of himself, had undertaken his mission with a light heart, but now when his progress in the West had brought him to the great earldoman's castle it was borne in on him that he had put himself in a very responsible position. He was here to look at this woman with cold, critical eyes, which was easy enough; and having looked at and measured and weighed her, he would make a true report to Edgar; that too would be easy for him, since all his power and happiness in life depended on the king's continual favour. ”

“ Egbert formed an alliance with his old enemies, the Welsh, and gained a great victory over the Northmen; but when he died and left Ethelwolf, his son, in charge of the throne, he made a great mistake. Ethelwolf was a poor king, "being given more to religious exercises than reigning," says the historian. He would often exhibit his piety in order to draw attention away from His Royal Incompetency. ”

“ Edgar, hearing that Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar, was the loveliest woman in England, with a true Devonshire complexion of cream and heather-bloom, sent Ethelwald, Earl of the East Angles, to interview her before he committed himself. Ethelwald no sooner saw her than he was a "gone coon," and he asked the hand of Elfrida from her brother. Having received his consent, he hurried back to the king and told him that the lady was much over-rated, that her chief beauty lay in her wealth ”

“ The passion of love in Athelwold's heart had driven out all considerations of honor and duty, of the good faith he owed the king, and of the danger of his false and treacherous course. Warm with hope, he returned with a lover's haste to Devonshire, where he gained the approval of the earl and countess, won the hand and seemingly the heart of their beautiful daughter, and was speedily united to the lady of his love, and became for the time being the happiest man in England. ”

“ So, as though looking only to her expectations, Ethelwald asked the king to give him the lady. Edgar yielded his consent, and Ethelwald married Elfrida, and became by her the father of a boy whom he persuaded the king to take as his god-child, and to whom he gave the name of Edgar. Then Ethelwald was glad, for he knew that according to the laws of the Church, they had contracted a spiritual relationship which would prevent the king from ever marrying Elfrida and removing himself, the obstacle which stood in the way should he contemplate an union. ”

“ Athelwold went to Devonshire, saw the lady, and proved faithless to his trust. Love made him a traitor, as it has made many before and since his day. So marvellously beautiful he found Elfrida that his heart fell prisoner to the most vehement love, a passion so ardent that it drove all thoughts of honor and fidelity from his soul, and he determined to have this charming lass of Devonshire for his own, despite king or commons. ”

“ He said that he would never draw sword against his own flesh and blood no matter what wrong had been done to him—moreover that it behooved the English to draw their swords against their common enemy, the Northmen, rather than to wrangle among themselves when the invader might appear upon their shores at any moment. And Ethelwulf agreed to divide his kingdom with his son, to whom he gave the more important and valuable part, and spent the rest of his life in following the church and its doings—still a king in name to be sure, but with little of the kingly power remaining in his hands. ”

“ The undutiful son got for himself the richest portion of the kingdom of Wessex, leaving his unfortunate sire to sigh over the eastern part, which was the poorest moiety of the royal property. The ousted Ethelwolf did not survive more than two years the change which had made him little better than half-a-sove-reign, for he died in 867, and was succeeded by his son Ethelbald. This person was, to use an old simile, as full of mischief "as an egg is full of meat," and indeed somewhat fuller, for we never yet found a piece of beef, mutton, or veal, in the whole course of our oval experience. ”

“ He held the government one year and a half less than thirty winters; and then Edward his son took to the government. Then Prince Ethelwald, the son of his paternal uncle, rode against the towns of Winburn and of Twineham, without leave of the king and his council. Then rode the king with his army; so that he encamped the same night at Badbury near Winburn; and Ethelwald remained within the town with the men that were under him, and had all the gates shut upon him, saying, that he would either there live or there die. ”

“ So also had Ethelwulf himself, who seemed less stately than yesterday when he sat in his royal attire in full court.
Richly dressed he was now, with a gold circlet on his head and great gold bracelets on his arms; but he was in no high place, only sitting easily in a carved and cushioned chair, while the atheling sat on a settle by the window. ”