CONTENTS

List of plates, maps and figures

A note on name forms and references

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations and short titles

Introduction: An unready and ill-counselled king?

1Birth and childhood: the court of King Edgar, c. 966×9–75

2‘Woe to thee, oh land, when thy king is a child’: succession and dispute, 975–84

3The prodigal son, 984–93

4Repentance and reform, 993–1002

5Apocalypse and invasion, 1002–9

6A kingdom lost and won, 1009–16

Conclusion: An age of ill counsel?

Bibliography

Index

Index of charters