stripped her quite naked and in this condition forced her to walk a couple of miles, from which exposure she contracted a chill which resulted in her death some seven months later. After his liberation Edmundson found himself reduced to comparative poverty, besides being the object of much persecution, but he nevertheless managed to travel to the various meeting-places and reconstruct the societies which had been dispersed by the rebellion. In 1691 he attended the yearly meeting of the quakers in London, and during his absence his wife died. In 1695 Edmundson spent a considerable time in Dublin opposing an act the Irish clergy were endeavouring to obtain to enable them to recover their tithes in the temporal courts. His agitation met with moderate success. After spending two years in visiting the various meetings in England and Ireland he married Mary Strangman, a quakeress of Mountmellis, and a few weeks later was the leader of a deputation to the lords justices to oppose several laws relating to the collection of tithes. From this time his health broke down, and his ministerial journeys were only performed at the cost of much pain, but he nevertheless continued actively engaged in the work of the society until 1711. In June of the following year he was present at the Dublin yearly meeting, and on his return home was taken ill and died, after extreme suffering, on 8 Nov. 1712. He was buried in the quaker burial-ground at Tineel, near his residence.
Edmundson was a man of earnest piety, sound common sense, and unusual self-denial, besides which he was charitable to a fault and possessed considerable, although rough, eloquence. His ‘Journal’ and other works are written in a simple, unaffected way which make them very pleasant reading, and they are still among the most popular works on quakerism.
His principal writings are:
- ‘A Letter of Examination to all you who have assumed the Place of Shepherds, Herdsmen, and Overseers of the Flocks of People,’ 1672.
- ‘An Answer to the Clergy's Petition to King James,’ 1688.
- ‘An Epistle containing wholesome Advice and Counsel to all Friends,’ 1701.
- ‘A Journal of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, and Labours of Love in the Work of the Ministry of that Worthy Elder, William Edmundson,’ 1715.
The last has been frequently reprinted in England and America.
[Besse's Sufferings, &c., of the Quakers; Bickley's George Fox and the Early Quakers; Swarthmore MS.; George Fox's Journal (ed. 1763); Rutty's History of the Quakers in Ireland; Sewel's History of the Rise, &c., of the Society of Friends; Smith's Catalogue of Friends' Books.]
EDNYVED, surnamed Vychan (Vaughan) i.e. the Little (fl. 1230–1240), statesman and warrior, seems to have been the most trusted counsellor of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth [q. v.] In 1231 he signed a truce between Henry III and Llewelyn (Fœdera, i. 201), and in 1232 signs, as Llewelyn's seneschal (ib. 208), a convention between the Welsh prince and his overlord. Again in 1238 his name is attached to similar documents (ib. 236). In 1240 and 1241 he appears acting as a negotiator for Davydd [q. v.], the successor of Llewelyn, though in 1241 another Welsh magnate, named Tewdwr, appears acting as seneschal to the new prince (ib. 241). His activity culminates in his taking part in the important treaty ‘apud Alnetum’ near St. Asaph in 1241 (Matt. Paris, ed. Luard, iv. 322).
In legendary history Ednyved is very famous, and stories are told how he slew three English chiefs in a hard fight, and was consequently allowed by Llewelyn to bear as his arms ‘three Englishmen's heads couped.’ He is still more famous with the genealogists. Himself of most noble descent, he became the ancestor of many leading Welsh families, and among them of the house of Tudor. He is said to have married, first, Gwenllian, daughter of the Lord Rhys of South Wales, and, secondly, the daughter of Llywerch ab Bran. By each of these ladies he had numerous offspring (Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations of Wales, i. 199, ii. 101, 144). One of his sons, Howel, was bishop of St. Asaph between 1240 and 1247. Another, Goronwy, is commemorated by elegies of Bleddyn Vardd and Prydydd Bychan. Ednyved himself is the subject of an elegy of Elidyr Sais (Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, i. 346, 369, 390).
[Authorities cited in text.]
EDRED or EADRED (d. 955), king of the English, youngest son of Eadward the elder and Eadgifu, was chosen in 946 to succeed his brother Eadmund, whose two sons were too young to reign, and was crowned by Archbishop Oda at Kingston on Sunday 16 Aug. He must have been young when he came to the throne, for Eadmund was only twenty-four at his death. At his coronation he received the submission of the Northumbrians, the Northmen, the Welsh, and the Scots (A.-S. Chron.; Flor. Wig.; Kemble, Codex Dipl. 411). During his whole reign he was afflicted with a grievous sickness (B., Memorials of St. Dunstan, 31), and the government appears to have been carried on for the most part by his mother
