11 MAY 973 AD
King Edgar is finally crowned
A new tradition is set at the Anglo-Saxon's coronation
On Whit Sunday, AD 973, the ancient spa city of Bath became the setting for one of the most important events of the late Anglo-Saxon period. Accompanied by his consort, Ælfthryth, Edgar (sometimes known as ‘Edgar the Peaceful’) was crowned king of all England in the city's abbey. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle would describe the occasion – the first English coronation to be recorded in detail – as being one of joy: “Much bliss was there by all enjoyed on that happy day, named Pentecost.”
Yet Edgar wasn't a new monarch. In fact, he had been the de facto ruler of England for more than a decade, having inherited the throne of Wessex upon the death of his brother, Eadwig, in 959, and the thrones of Mercia and Northumbria two years earlier when the kingdoms had
