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That same year saw the mysterious death of Edmund Ironside, the last man of Cerdic's race worthy of the name. For the next twenty-five years, Danish kings ruled from the Forth to the Land's End.
They all paused at the foot of the narrow dais on which Harold stood, and Alred repelled by a gesture his invitation to the foremost to mount the platform. Then Alred began an harangue, simple and earnest. He described briefly the condition of the country; touched with grief and with feeling on the health of the King, and the failure of Cerdic's line.
"He must put him on the throne first. And how will he do that? Will the men of the Danelagh, much less the Northumbrians, ever rally round an Atheling of Cerdic's house? They are raising a Wessex army in Northumbria; a southern army in the north. There is no real loyalty there toward the Atheling, not even the tie of kin, as there would be to Swend.
And outside, the future king was welcomed with loud cries of "God save King Edwy, and make him just as Alfred, pious as Edred, and warlike as Athelstane!" "Long live the heir of Cerdic's ancient line!"
They all paused at the foot of the narrow dais on which Harold stood, and Alred repelled by a gesture his invitation to the foremost to mount the platform. Then Alred began an harangue, simple and earnest. He described briefly the condition of the country; touched with grief and with feeling on the health of the King, and the failure of Cerdic's line.
William interpreted this reference of the election to Edgar for confirmation as an act of hostility to himself, and fined the new abbot heavily, but to us the incident is of value as evidence of the character of the movement, which tried to find a national king in this last male of Cerdic's line.
Cerdic's race, the Thor-descended, In the Monk-king's tomb be ended; And no Saxon brow but thine Wear the crown of Woden's line. Where thou wendest, wend unfearing, Every step thy throne is nearing. Fraud may plot, and force assail thee, Shall the soul thou trusteth fail thee? If it fail thee, scornful hearer, Still the throne shines near and nearer.
Cerdic's race, the Thor-descended, In the Monk-king's tomb be ended; And no Saxon brow but thine Wear the crown of Woden's line. Where thou wendest, wend unfearing, Every step thy throne is nearing. Fraud may plot, and force assail thee, Shall the soul thou trusteth fail thee? If it fail thee, scornful hearer, Still the throne shines near and nearer.
This lesson too had to be impressed on the public mind; and at once, in obedience to this command, every preaching monk in every chapel in the land raged against the queen, the enemy of the archbishop and of religion, the tigress in human shape, and author of the greatest crime known in the land since Cerdic's landing. No fortitude could stand against such a storm of execration.
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