A.D. 946.] CORONATION OF EDRIl). 253 whole of Cumberland, and put out the eyes of the two sons of DummaiL king of that province. He then granted that kingdom to Malcolm, king of the Scots, to hold of himself, with a view to defend the northern parts of England from hostile incursions by sea and land. Death of king Eadmund. In the same year Eadmund, the most pious king of the English, on the feast of St. Augustine, invited all the nobles of his kingdom to a great banquet in the royal town of Michelebury, as was the custom with the English every year, in veneration of the blessed Augustine, through whom the English had received the light of faith. When all were assembled and seated at the king's table, they began to feast and make merry, the king himself setting them the example. At length the king stood up to see his guests, and beholding a certain robber named Leof, whom he had some years before banished for his crimes, standing among the rest in the hall, greatly indignant thereat the king ordered his butler to put out that robber straightway from the palace ; but the wicked wretch refusing to go out for the butler, the king, enraged beyond measure, leaped suddenly from the table, and seizing him by the hair, threw him on the ground. Hurt by the fall and feeling the king lying on him, the traitor quickly drew a knife which he wore concealed about liim, and, lamentable to relate! cut the king's throat. Seeing their lord dead and weltering in blood, all the king's officers and servants rushed on the robber and cut him into a thousand pieces. And thus the royal banquet, which had so bright a commencement, was by this crime brought to a gloomy issue. Coronation of the most pious king Eadred. King Eadmund then being dead and buried at Glastonbury, his brother Eadred received the diadem of the kingdom in the royal town of Kingston from the archbishop of Canterbury on the 16th day of August. He left also two sons, Eadwin and Eadgar, his lawful heirs, but they could not succeed their father by reason of their tender age. Eadred reduced the whole of Northumberland under his dominion, as Ms brother king Eadmund had done before he received the fealty of the king of Scots, and devoutly gave two images to the metro