Editing Edgar, King of England (section)

=== The events of 973 ===
{{see also|King Edgar's council at Chester}}

Naismith describes the year 973 as an {{lang|la|[[annus mirabilis]]}} for the English kingdom.{{sfn|Naismith|2014b|p=39}} Edgar and Ælfryth were consecrated king and queen at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] on [[Whit Sunday]], 11 May 973. Kings were normally formally elected by their leading men and then crowned soon after their accession, but there is no record of Edgar being crowned early in his reign.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2014|2a1=Yorke|2y=2008|2p=147|3a1=Nelson|3y=1977|3p=66}} The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' implies that it was a first coronation. ''ASC A'', ''ASC B'' and ''ASC C'' say "Edmund's son, bold in battle, had spent 29 years in the world when this came about, and then in the thirtieth was consecrated king."; ''ASC D'' and ''ASC E'' describe him as "the {{lang|ang|ætheling}} Edgar".{{sfnm|1a1=John|1y=1966|1pp=278–279|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2pp=227–228}} Historians debate whether it was a second coronation, and if not, the reason for the delay. One theory is that he waited until he was in his thirtieth year because thirty was the minimum age for consecration as a priest,{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=368}} but this has been questioned because at twenty-nine he was still too young.{{sfn|Keynes|2008a|p=48}} According to Nicholas, a twelfth-century prior of [[Worcester Cathedral|Worcester]], Edgar postponed his consecration until he had outgrown the passions of his youth,{{sfn|Thomson|Winterbottom|1999|p=141}} and Stenton thinks that he may have waited "until he felt that he had come to full maturity of mind and conduct".{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=368}} Other historians, such as [[Janet Nelson]], think that he was almost certainly crowned at the start of his reign. She argues that Edgar must have been crowned early in his reign because his legitimacy as king would otherwise have been impaired, and that the 973 consecration was intended to celebrate and display his claim to imperial status as overlord of Britain."{{sfn|Nelson|1977|pp=66–70}} The fact that it was recorded in verse in early versions of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (''ASC A'' and ''B''), whereas it was rare for the ''Chronicle'' to mention coronations at all, suggests that there was something special about this one.{{sfn|Williams|2014}} The German court was the leader in elaborate ritual and display, and the information learned by Edgar's embassy to Otto I may have played a major role in planning the coronation in Bath.{{sfn|Roach|2013|p=204}}

A northern version of the ''Chronicle'' dating to the second half of the eleventh or early twelfth centuries, ''ASC D'', says that Edgar then sailed with his navy to [[Chester]], where six kings promised to be his allies on land and sea.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2014|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2p=228|3a1=Cubbin|3y=1996|3p=xi}} Ælfric of Eynsham, writing no more than twenty-five years later, apparently about the same event, says that "all the kings who were in this island, Cumbrians and Scots, came to Edgar, once eight kings on one day, and they all submitted to Edgar's direction".{{sfnm|1a1=Whitelock|1y=1979|1p=927|2a1=Williams|2y=2014|3a1=Molyneaux|3y=2011|3p=67}} In the twelfth century, John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury gave accounts of the Chester meeting. They stated that the kings rowed Edgar on the [[River Dee, Wales|River Dee]] as a symbol of their submission. Unlike earlier sources, they name the kings, and the historian of Wales [[Thomas Charles-Edwards]] gives their probable identities: Kenneth of Scotland, [[Dyfnwal ab Owain|Dufnal]] and his son [[Máel Coluim, King of Strathclyde|Malcolm]] of Strathclyde, [[Maccus mac Arailt|Maccus]], [[King of the Isles]], [[Iago ab Idwal|Iacob]] and his nephew [[Hywel ap Ieuaf|Hywel]] of Gwynedd, and two who are otherwise unknown, Siferth, who may have been a Viking, and Iuchil, perhaps a version of the [[Old Welsh]] name {{lang|owl|Iudhail}}.{{sfnm|1a1=Charles-Edwards|1y=2013|1pp=543–544|2a1=Darlington|2a2=McGurk|2y=1995|2pp=423–425|3a1=Mynors|3a2=Thomson|3a3=Winterbottom|3y=1998|3pp=239–241}} John of Worcester gives the fullest account, stating that the kings, who he calls underkings:
:went to meet him, as he had commanded, and swore that they would be loyal to, and cooperate with, him by land and sea. With them, on a certain day, he boarded a skiff; having set them to the oars, and having taken the helm himself, he skilfully steered it through the course of the [[River Dee, Wales|River Dee]], and with a crowd of ealdormen and nobles following in a similar boat, sailed from the palace to the monastery of St John the Baptist, where, when he had prayed, he returned with the same pomp to the palace. As he was entering it he is reported to have declared to his nobles at length that each of his successors would be able to boast that he was king of the English, and would enjoy the pomp of such honour with so many kings at his command.{{sfn|Darlington|McGurk|1995|pp=423–425}}

Some historians see the meeting as a parley between equals.{{sfnm|1a1=Smyth|1y=1984|1p=228|2a1=Barrow|2y=2001|2pp=81–93|3a1=Williams|3y=2014}} The Chester meeting may have been a conference of kings following the English attacks on [[Wales in the Early Middle Ages|Wales]] and [[Scotland in the Early Middle Ages|Scottish]] on England. [[Lothian]] had probably been under Scottish control since the 950s, and around this time Edgar formally ceded it to them.{{sfn|Williams|2014}} Kenneth may have attended the meeting to secure this concession and in Williams's view it is unlikely that he saw himself as Edgar's subordinate.{{sfn|Williams|1999|p=88}} The historian Christopher Lewis comments: "Precisely what happened at Chester has been irretrievably obscured by the embellishments of twelfth-century historians".{{sfn|Lewis|2008|p=121}}

Other historians are more ready to accept claims of English superiority. Levi Roach and Richard Huscroft think that it makes better sense to see the events at Chester as a display of Edgar's overlordship.{{sfnm|1a1=Roach|1y=2013|1pp=52–53|2a1=Huscroft|2y=2019|2p=134}} Molyneaux agrees, arguing that the English king was able to intimidate other rulers because he possessed far greater military strength: "If Edgar's neighbours wished to avoid their lands being ravaged, the invitation to Chester was probably not one that they could decline."{{sfn|Molyneaux|2011|pp=70–71}} Edgar claimed dominion over Britain by describing himself as ruler of "[[Britannia]]" and "[[Albion]]" in charters. Such claims, which are also found in the writings of the monastic reformers, are displayed in the titles of other tenth-century kings.{{sfn|Crick|2008|pp=161–165}} They reached a peak during Edgar's reign, but in reality English power over the other nations of Britain was lower than at times earlier in the century. Scottish and Welsh kings sometimes attested Æthelstan's charters, but never those of Edgar. His coronation at Bath was only attended by English magnates, whereas at least two Welsh kings were present at that of Eadred in 946. After his reign, southern kings' hegemony over other parts of Britain weakened further, and there is no evidence of Scottish, Welsh or Cumbrian kings acknowledging English overlordship until 1031.{{sfn|Molyneaux|2015|pp=200, 212–213}}