Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/407

 tary, as in former days to Lord Wellesley, and soon obtained much the same influence over him. On 30 Oct. 1809 he became chief secretary to government, and on 30 Oct. 1812 he succeeded his old friend and colleague James Lumsden as member of the supreme council at Calcutta. Having completed his five years in this appointment, he left India after thirty-four years' service there, and returned to England. He was soon after, in 1820, elected a director of the East India Company, and continued to act in this capacity until his death at his residence, 49 Portland Place, on 4 May 1841. He married the daughter of Peter Friell, by whom he had a family of five sons and six daughters, of whom the most distinguished was the fourth son, Sir [q. v.], who was Lord Canning's foreign secretary, and governor of the north-western provinces after the mutiny. The eldest son, Neil Benjamin (b. 13 June 1809), was in the East India Company's service.



EDMONSTONE, ROBERT (1794–1834), artist, born at Kelso in 1794, was bound apprentice to a watchmaker. He showed a taste for painting at an early age, came to Edinburgh, where his drawings attracted much attention, was patronised by Baron Hume, and settled in London about 1819. He first exhibited some portraits at the Royal Academy in 1818. After attending Harlow's studio he was admitted to the Royal Academy school, and subsequently travelled in Italy. Between 1824 and 1829 he was painting chiefly portraits in London. In 1830 he exhibited ‘Italian Boys playing at Cards.’ He paid a second visit to Italy in 1831–2, and painted ‘Venetian Carriers’ and the ‘Ceremony of Kissing the Chains of St. Peter,’ which was exhibited at the British Institution in 1833. Fifty-eight pictures by Edmonstone were in all exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution, and Suffolk Street exhibitions before 1834. A severe attack of fever at Rome in 1832, combined with overwork, permanently injured his health. He returned to London, but found himself so enfeebled that he went to Kelso, where he died 21 Sept. 1834. His last pictures were ‘The White Mouse,’ exhibited in 1834 at Suffolk Street, and the ‘Children of Sir E. Cust,’ exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was a very successful painter of children, and his portraits were popular; but he was ambitious for fame as a painter of imaginative subjects and as a student of Correggio. He showed great promise.



EDMUND or EADMUND (841–870), king of the East Angles, martyr, and saint, was born in Saxony in the city of Nüremberg in 841, being the son of King Alkmund and Queen Scivare. About 854 Offa, king of the East Angles, on his way to the Holy Land sojourned a while with Alkmund, and on that occasion adopted Eadmund as his heir. On the journey back from the holy sepulchre next year Offa died at Port St. George, having previously sent his ring to Eadmund. Alkmund fitted out a suitable expedition for his son. Eadmund then ‘sailed and landed in East England, at a place called Maydenboure, where … he made devout prayer to God … and not far from thence built a royal tower called Hunstantone. There he held his household one year, and then removed to Athelbrough, where he remained one whole year, and learned his Psalter in the Saxon tongue, which book was preserved in the revestrie of the monastery of St. Edmundsbury till the church was suppressed in the reign of King Henry VIII, as I have been credibly informed’.

Eadmund began his reign on 25 Dec. 855, and was crowned and anointed king of East Anglia (at Burva? ) by Humbert, bishop of Hulme, the following Christmas day, being then fifteen years old ( … De pueritia Sancti Edmondi).

About this time the incursions of the Danes became more formidable and persistent. In 854 they wintered in the island of Sheppey (, Norman Conquest). Eadmund and [q. v.] thereupon agreed to the famous grant made by their overlord [q. v.] of the tithe of the profits of all lands to the church. There is a tradition that the famous Danish pirate, Ragnar Lodbrog, was driven by a storm upon the Norfolk coast, and, landing at Reedham, was conducted to the court of King Eadmund, and that there while out hunting he was, in the absence of the king, murdered by Eadmund's huntsman, Berne. It is more probable that he was slain by, king of Northumbria [q. v.], and that it was to avenge his death that the great invasion of the Danes occurred in 866 (, East Coast of England). This invasion was headed by eight kings and twenty earls. The northmen first attacked Northumbria and then sailed to East Anglia. As to what followed there are great discrepancies in the accounts of the older annalists. According to some, at the time of the invasion Eadmund was quietly residing at a village near Heglisdune (i.e. the hill of eagles, after-