Note 817 — Chapter V · THE DANISH CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.[464] 975–1016. (continued 3)
Reading edition
“De bellis vero regis Edmundi, et de fortitudine ejus, nonne hæc scripta sunt in historiis veterum cum laude summa?” H. Hunt. M. H. B. 755 D.
In a Melrose manuscript, lately printed at Göttingen (for which I have to thank Dr. Pauli), there are verses in honour of Eadmund’s later Scottish descendant William the Lion and of Eadmund himself. His panegyric runs;
“Firma basis fidei, plebis protectio, regni
Tutor solque suo tempore solus erat.
In cives clemens, in principe civis, in hostes
Atrox, multiplici dote beatus homo.”
His battles and victories are reckoned at twelve;
“Mirum! bis seno conflixit Marte, thriumfus,
Tot totiens victis intitulavit eum.”
A West-Saxon poet might perhaps not have added;
“A! nullum ejus post ortum breviter fero talem,
Anglia se doleat non genuisse virum.”
Such a reign as Eadmund’s was not likely to be rich in documents. There is one charter (Cod. Dipl. iii. 369) of “Eadmundus æðeling rex,” granting lands “æt Pegecyrcan” (Peakirk in Northamptonshire) to the New Minster at Winchester. Its style, less turgid than that of most Latin documents of the kind, may be characteristic either of the man or of the circumstances of the time. The time when Eadmund was most likely to exercise acts of sovereignty in Northamptonshire would be in the autumn of 1016, between the battles of Otford and Assandun, when he was drawing troops from Lindesey and other distant parts of the kingdom.