Edmund the Elder (941-946), Edred (946-955) and Edwy (955-959), seem to have been capable monarchs, although the character of the last, owing to his attitude on matters of ecclesiastical policy, is bitterly attacked by contemporary monkish historians. They held their own against the Danes who were already established in the island; but there are no records of their having had to cope with serious Danish irruptions from over sea.
Edgar (959-975), like his immediate predecessors, was little troubled from abroad, and utilised the comparative peacefulness of his reign in organising his navy. It is related that he divided his fleet into three permanent squadrons of equal force, stationing one in the North Sea, a second in the Irish Channel, and the third on the north coasts of Scotland; and that every year, after Easter, he made a tour of inspection round his realms by sea, joining the North Sea Squadron first, cruising with it from the mouth of the Thames to the Land's End, and there dismissing it to its station, and joining the Irish Channel Squadron. With this he cruised as far as the Hebrides, where he met the Northern Squadron and, joining it, was conveyed by it round the north of Scotland and back to the mouth of the Thames.[1] In these annual evolutionary cruises he visited all the ports and estuaries, made provision for the security of the coasts, and occasionally attacked his enemies.
In the course of one expedition he is said to have reduced the Irish Danes, and to have taken Dublin. In the course of another, in 973, he is said to have been met at Chester by the kings, Kenneth of Scots, Malcolm of Cumbria, Maccus of Man, Dunwallon of Strathclyde, Inchill of Westmoreland, and Siferth, Iago, and Howell of Wales, who, in token of subjection to him, manned his barge and, Edgar steering, rowed him on the River Dee.[2]
But it must be remembered that Edger, unlike Edwy, was on excellent terms with Dunstan and the ecclesiastical party, and that the ecclesiastics were practically the sole historians of those times; and it my be regarded as certain that Edgar's naval glory, which was no doubt considerable, was, if anything, rather exaggerated than minimised by the chroniclers. Ethelward, one of the few contemporary writers who possibly was not an ecclesiastic, and who,
