york00orns

98 YORK.
victorious, leaving his dagger on the altar as a token
and pledge of his sincerity. The battle of Brunanburgh
followed, celebrated in Scandinavian song.
Athelstan gained the day, after a fierce and bloody
encounter. He fulfilled his vow by munificent gifts
to the Church of St. John of Beverley, and he gave
many great possessions and privileges to the minsters
of York and Ripon.
Athelstan was sincerely attached
to Christianity. In the gifts he bestowed upon the
Church of Northumbria he was probably guided by
Archbishop Wulstan, who is said to have owed to
Athelstan his elevation to that dignity. After Athelstan's
death the Archbishop took part with the Danes
and joined in the efforts that were made to throw off
the authority of his successor Edmund. Edred
succeeded, after the murder of Edmund, in 946, and
on his going into Northumbria in the following year,
all the chief men, with Wulstan at their head, took
solemn oaths of allegiance to him. But their oaths
were little worth. A rebellion took place in 948 in
which the Archbishop was deeply implicated, and
Eric, the son of Harold Blaatand King of Denmark,
was set up as their king. Edred brought his forces
into Northumbria. Much devastation took place,
the monastery of Ripon, amongst others, being
destroyed. When the rebellion was quelled, Wulstan
was deposed and thrown into prison, a thing " worth
noting, because it shows that, even with Abbot
Dunstan at the head of affairs, a churchman was as
much subject to the law as anybody else."i He
'
Freeman's "Old English History," p. 165.