Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

110 EDWARD THE MARTYR.
less ruler at home. Ethelred the Unread deserved
his nickname. The shadow of the cruel murder by
which he came to the throne hung -^ over his reign, « ^-' **-%
as
Dunstan had prophesied that it would. On the day
of his coronation the Archbishop is said to have
predicted the disasters which subsequently came to
pass: " Because you aspired to the throne through
your brother's death, whom your ignominious mother
stabbed, the sword eager for your blood shall not be
taken away from your house all the days of your
life. It shall slay some of your kindred until the
kingdom shall be transferred to a strange nation
whose language and customs are foreign to the
people you govern." l The peace and glory of Dnn-1
Stan's legislation were soon forgotten in the weariness
of present strife, but his holy life remained as a
shining light after the fame of lower things had!
passed away (988).
The history of England at this ignoble period
receives a happy illustration from Archbishops of
Canterbury. The Danes, who had been more or
less kept at bay under the successors of Alfred, were
the constant scourge of Ethelred the Unready's reign.
His mother, Elfrida, had committed a dastardly crime
in having his half-brother, afterwards called Edward
the Martyr, cruelly assassinated in order that her
own son might become king. Ethelred was incapable
or afraid of opposing the Danes with the sword, so he
1 Osbern, p. 115.