Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/231

 meant that he should hereafter be archbishop of Canterbury (B.; ; ); he filled the see in accordance with Dunstan's wishes. Indeed, the ecclesiastical appointments of the reign were probably decided by the wishes of the queen-mother and the minister. Both were earnest in the work of church reform, which was at that time to be effected chiefly by introducing a higher standard of monastic life. Their wishes in this matter are illustrated by the appointment of Æthelwold to the abbacy of Abingdon. During a large part of Eadred's reign the Danes of Northumbria were in revolt, and headed by Wulfstan, archbishop of York, chose kings for themselves. The vigorous policy adopted by the English king must, to some extent at least, be set down to the credit of his chief minister. In 952 Wulfstan was taken prisoner and shut up at Jedburgh, and though he was released about two years later, and received the see of Dorchester, he was not allowed to return to his own province, and this mode of dealing with an archbishop shows how little truth there is in the idea that Dunstan sought to exalt the power of the priesthood at the expense of the crown. While much at court he did not neglect his duties at Glastonbury, where he continued his buildings and his work of reformation. As he had now become the heir of the widow Æthelflæd, as well probably as of his father, he had great wealth. He made his brother Wulfric his steward, and put all his possessions under his management. When Wulfric died he was brought to Glastonbury for burial, and on this occasion a heavy stone was thrown at the abbot, which knocked his hat from off his head, though it did him no harm. This assault, which was put down to supernatural agency, shows that he had some bitter enemies. In 955, Eadred, who was then at Frome, felt that his end was near and ordered that Dunstan and the other keepers of his treasures should bring him what they had in charge. When Dunstan reached Frome he found the king already dead, and his body lying neglected. He and his monks carried him to Winchester and buried him in the Old Minster with great honour (A.-S. Chron.)

The death of Eadred rendered Dunstan's position insecure; the nobles generally turned against the queen-mother's administration, the West-Saxon party came into power. Eadwig or Edwy [q. v.], the elder son of Eadmund, was chosen king and Eadgifu was despoiled of all her property. Before long, Dunstan incurred the ill-will of a powerful enemy. When Eadwig left his coronation feast for the company of Æthelgifu, a lady of the highest rank, and of her daughter Ælfgifu [q. v.], whom she planned to marry to the young king, Archbishop Oda took notice of his absence, and as none of the bishops or ealdormen cared to take upon themselves the risk of fetching him back, the assembled nobles chose Dunstan and his kinsman Cynesige, bishop of Lichfield, as men of dauntless spirit, to perform the ungrateful task. The two churchmen delivered their message, and Dunstan added some words of bitter reproach, for the marriage between Eadwig and Ælfgifu would have been uncanonical, and his eagerness for moral purity caused him to wax very wroth when he saw them together. He pulled the young king from the arms of the ladies, and led him forcibly back to the banqueting hall. Æthelgifu determined to be revenged on the abbot, and declared that he had shown an overhaughty spirit in thus intruding on the king's privacy. As Dunstan attests charters in 956 (Codex Dipl., cccli, ccccxli) he must have been able for a while to withstand her machinations, and his party must probably have still had some weight at the court, where Eadgar, the king's younger brother, remained until the following year (ib. cccclxv). Æthelgifu seems to have been supported by the heads of the West-Saxon party, which had been in power in the time of Eadmund, and had now regained its old position. And she also found willing instruments even among the abbot's own scholars, some of whom probably were connected with that party by ties of family, while others may have disliked the greater strictness and higher tone their master had introduced at Glastonbury. Thus supported she obtained the king's consent to her designs, and all Dunstan's property was placed at her disposal. On his downfall, probably early in 956, he sought shelter with some of his friends, but they fell into disgrace with the king for receiving him; he was outlawed and forced to leave the kingdom. He landed in Flanders, where the language and ritual were alike almost wholly strange to him (Vita B. 34). There, however, he found a powerful protector. Ælfthryth [q. v.] or Eltrudis, the second daughter of King Alfred, had married Count Baldwin II, the Bald, and had taken a prominent part in the revival of monasticism in Flanders. This revival was carried out by her son Arnulf I (918–965), who rebuilt the monasteries of St. Bertin, St. Vedast, and St. Peter at Blandinium or Ghent, and founded others. In these houses the Benedictine rule, which was imperfectly known in England, was strictly observed. Considerable intercourse was maintained between Flanders and this country, and the