Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/691

Rh his way into the royal favour. In November he held a council at StPaul's, but failed to carry his main points against the opposition of the clergy. He stood high, however, with the king, and used or abused his prerogatives for effecting his own purposes. Archbishop Edmund now found himself in opposition to both the king and the Pope; and his position was rendered still more difficult by his excommunication of Simon de Montfort and his bride Eleanor, sister of the king, whose marriage after having taken a vow of perpetual widowhood he felt bound to condemn. In, with a view to obtaining the support of the Pope for his project of monastic reform, Edmund went to Rome. But in this mission he failed. Not only was his purpose frustrated, but he was treated with marked insult by the Pope; and he returned to England sad at heart and burdened with pecuniary difficulties. He soon found that he was reduced to a cipher; he saw the Papal exactions continually growing &quot;vexed,&quot; says Fuller, &quot;at the polling and peeling of the English people&quot; and saw that the legate's great object was to crush him. In, therefore, he left England, and took up his abode at the abbey of Pontigny, in France, where Thomas Becket and Stephen Langton had previously found an asylum. At his landing he was met by the queen of France, who brought her sons, among them (St) Louis, to receive his blessing. His health was now broken down, and he &quot;sighed out the remainder of his life&quot; in quiet retirement, broken only by occasional preaching. Becoming weaker and weaker, he removed, for the sake of a better climate, to the priory of Soissy, and there he died, November 16,. His tomb, within a, began to be famous for miracles; and in , after much resistance on the part of the Pope, the archbishop, the staunch foe of Papal extortions, was canonized: He left a work entitled Speculum Ecdesice^ which he appears to have completed at Pontigny.

1em  EDMUND, or (–), the last of the kings of East Anglia, was born in. He was chosen by Offa as his successor when that king resigned and retired as a penitent to Rome. &quot;The just and holy man&quot; so Simon Durham describes Edmund began his reign over the East Angles in, and ruled peacefully and uneventfully till his kingdom was invaded by the Danes in , when in a battle with Ingvar lie was defeated and taken prisoner. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: &quot;The same winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danes got the victory and slew the king, and subdued all the land, and destroyed all the minsters which they came to.&quot; Abbo of Fleury, who writes a life of Edmund, relates the story of his death on the authority of Dunstan, who heard it from the lips of Edmund s sword-bearer. The Danes sent messengers to Edmund, who was dwelling at Hagilsdun (near the present Hoxne), upon the river Waveney, offering to allow him to reign under them on condition that he abjured his religion and divided with them his treasures. Edmund refused these conditions, and being taken prisoner, was bound to a tree, and, after being scourged with whips and pierced with arrows, was finally beheaded. The manner of his death raised him to a place in the roll of martyrs and saints ; and on the spot where his head is said to have been miraculously discovered a church was erected, which was succeeded by one of the richest monasteries of England, that of Bury StEdmunds. Here the remains of Edmund are said to have been interred.  EDMUND, or I., (–), king of the Mercians and West Saxons, was the son of Edward the Elder, and succeeded his brother Athelstan in , being then, it is said, only eighteen of age, but having already gained the esteem of the people by his courage shown at the battle of Brunanburh. When he succeeded his famous brother, the Northumbrians, judging the opportunity favourable, brought over Anlaf from Ireland, and set him up as their king. The Danes of the kingdom joined them, and the result of the campaign was that Edmund was compelled to make a treaty, by which he ceded a large portion of his territory to his enemy. , however, on the death of Anlaf, he not only freed his kingdom, but also subdued the Britons of Cumbria or Cumberland, and bestowed their lands on Malcolm I. of Scotland, on condition of his co-operating with him in military service. On the 26th May an outlaw named Leof had slipped into the banqueting-hall of Edmund, who was celebrating the festival of StAugustine at Pucklechurch in Gloucester, and the king in sudden anger, or because he suspected his designs, endeavoured to remove him, whereupon the outlaw plunged a dagger into his bosom and killed him.  EDMUND, or II., (–), son of Ethelred; and the last of the line of West Saxon kings, called on account of his boldness and great strength Ironside, was, on the death of Ethelred the Unready, in, proclaimed king by the citizens of London and such of the Witan as were in the city. At that very time Canute the Dane was preparing an expedition against London, and he was proclaimed king by the Witan of England, which met at Southampton. In command of a magnificent fleet he anchored before London, and by cutting a ditch round that part of the city not washed by the Thames, completely surrounded it; but the citizens, fighting with great valour, repulsed all his attacks. Meanwhile Edmund was acknowledged by the West Saxons, who flocked from every quarter to his standard ; and determining to make a diversion in favour of London, he met and defeated the enemy at Pen, near Gillingham, in Dorsetshire. Canute was forced to raise the siege of London, and encountering Edmund at Sceorstan, in Wilts, would have been signally defeated, had not the traitor ealderman Edric raised the head of a fallen thane which resembled that of the king, and called to the Saxons to flee, for their king was dead. Edmund, who was on the top of a hill, saved his subjects from flight by taking off his visor and showing his countenance ; but from the disorder into which they had been thrown by the untoward incident they were unable to follow up their victory. Canute retained possession of the field of battle, but stole away during the night and resumed the siege of London. Afterwards the Danes were defeated at Brentford on the Thames, and at Otford in Kent, and fled to the Isle of Sheppey; but being recruited, they met Edmund at Assandun (Ashdown, in Essex), where a battle was fought which virtually decided the fate of the West Saxon kings. Through a second act of treachery on the part of Edric, who fled at the decisive moment of the battle, with the portion of the army that he commanded, the Saxons were signally defeated, and their chief nobles left dead on the field. Edmund, undaunted by his great losses, wished still to continue the struggle, but Edric and the Witan persuaded him to be reconciled to Canute, and to consent to a division of the kingdom. Edmund retained London and all England south of the Thames, together with East Anglia and Essex, Canute taking possession of the other and larger portion. Edmund died on the 30th November of, some affirm by the hand of Edric. He was buried in the great minster of Glastonbury, and on his death Canute became sole king of England.  EDOM. See.  EDRISI,, or , the most eminent of the Arabian geographers, flourished in the. The 