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Edmund I

Edmund I or Eadmund I (920/921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. After Edward died in 924, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Edmund's half-brother Æthelstan. Edmund was crowned after Æthelstan died childless in 939. He had two sons, Eadwig and Edgar, by his first wife Ælfgifu, and none by his second wife Æthelflæd. His sons were young children when he was killed in a brawl with an outlaw at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire, and he was succeeded by his younger brother Eadred, who died in 955 and was followed by Edmund's sons in succession.

Æthelstan had succeeded as the king of England south of the Humber and he became the first king of all England when he conquered Viking-ruled York in 927, but after his death Anlaf Guthfrithson was accepted as King of York and extended Viking rule to the Five Boroughs of north-east Mercia. Edmund was initially forced to accept the reverse, the first major setback for the West Saxon dynasty since Alfred's reign, but he was able to recover his position following Anlaf's death in 941. In 942, Edmund took back control of the Five Boroughs and in 944 he regained control over the whole of England when he expelled the Viking kings of York. Eadred had to deal with further revolts when he became king, and York was not finally conquered until 954. Æthelstan had achieved a dominant position over other British kings and Edmund maintained this, perhaps apart from Scotland. The north Welsh king Idwal Foel may have allied with the Vikings as he was killed by the English in 942. The British kingdom of Strathclyde may also have sided with the Vikings as Edmund ravaged it in 945 and then ceded it to Malcolm I of Scotland. Edmund also continued his brother's friendly relations with Continental rulers, several of whom were married to his half-sisters.

Edmund inherited his brother's interests and leading advisers, such as Oda, whom he appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 941, Æthelstan Half-King, ealdorman of East Anglia, and Ælfheah the Bald, Bishop of Winchester. Government at the local level was mainly carried on by ealdormen, and Edmund made substantial changes in personnel during his reign, with a move from Æthelstan's main reliance on West Saxons to a greater prominence of men with Mercian connections. Unlike the close relatives of previous kings, his mother and brother attested many of Edmund's charters, suggesting a high degree of family cooperation. Edmund was also an active legislator, and three of his codes survive. Provisions include ones which attempt to regulate feuds and emphasise the sanctity of the royal person.

The major religious movement of the tenth century, the English Benedictine Reform, reached its peak under Edgar, but Edmund's reign was important in its early stages. He appointed Dunstan abbot of Glastonbury, where he was joined by Æthelwold. They were to be two of the leaders of the reform and they made the abbey the first important centre for disseminating it. Unlike the circle of his son Edgar, Edmund did not take the view that Benedictine monasticism was the only worthwhile religious life, and he also patronised unreformed (non-Benedictine) establishments.

Background

In the ninth century the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia came under increasing attack from Vikings, culminating in invasion by the Great Heathen Army in 865. By 878, the Vikings had overrun East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, and nearly conquered Wessex, but in that year the West Saxons fought back under Alfred the Great and achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Edington. In the 880s and 890s, the Anglo-Saxons ruled Wessex and western Mercia, but the rest of England was under Viking kings. Alfred constructed a network of fortresses, and these helped him to frustrate renewed Viking attacks in the 890s with the assistance of his son-in-law, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, and his elder son Edward, who became king when Alfred died in 899. In 909, Edward sent a force of West Saxons and Mercians to attack the Northumbrian Danes, and the following year the Danes retaliated with a raid on Mercia. While they were marching back to Northumbria, they were caught by an Anglo-Saxon army and decisively defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall, ending the threat from the Northumbrian Vikings for a generation. In the 910s, Edward and [[Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
 * Æthelflæd]], his sister and Æthelred's widow, extended Alfred's network of fortresses and conquered Viking-ruled eastern Mercia and East Anglia. When Edward died in 924, he controlled all England south of the Humber.

Edward was succeeded by his eldest son Æthelstan, who seized control of Northumbria in 927, thus becoming the first king of all England. He then styled himself in charters as king of the English, and soon afterwards Welsh kings and the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde acknowledged his overlordship. After this, he adopted more grandiose titles such as Rex Totius Britanniae (king of the whole of Britain). In 934 he invaded Scotland and in 937 an alliance of armies of Scotland, Strathclyde and the Vikings invaded England. Æthelstan secured a decisive victory at the Battle of Brunanburh, cementing his dominant position in Britain.

Benedictine monasticism had flourished in England in the seventh and eighth centuries, but it severely declined in the late eighth and ninth centuries. By the time Alfred came to the throne in 871, monasteries and knowledge of Latin were at a low ebb, but there was a gradual revival from Alfred's time onwards. This accelerated during Æthelstan's reign, and two leaders of the later tenth-century English Benedictine Reform, Dunstan and Æthelwold, reached maturity in Æthelstan's cosmopolitan, intellectual court of the 930s.

Family and early life
Edmund's father, Edward the Elder, had three wives, eight or nine daughters, several of whom married Continental royalty, and five sons. Æthelstan was the only known son of Edward's first wife, Ecgwynn. His second wife, Ælfflæd, had two sons: Ælfweard, who may have been acknowledged in Wessex as king when his father died in 924 but who died less than a month later, and Edwin, who drowned in 933. In about 919, Edward married Eadgifu, the daughter of Sigehelm, ealdorman of Kent. Edmund, who was born in 920 or 921, was Eadgifu's elder son. Her younger son Eadred succeeded him as king. Edmund had one or two full sisters. Eadburh was a nun at Winchester who was later venerated as a saint. The twelfth-century historian William of Malmesbury gives Edmund a second full sister who married Louis, prince of Aquitaine; she was called Eadgifu, the same name as her mother. William's account is accepted by the historians Ann Williams and Sean Miller, but Æthelstan's biographer Sarah Foot argues that she did not exist, and that William confused her with Ælfgifu, a daughter of Ælfflæd.

Edmund was a young child when his half-brother Æthelstan became king in 924. He grew up at Æthelstan's court, probably with two important Continental exiles, his nephew Louis, future King of the West Franks, and Alain, future Duke of Brittany. According to William of Malmesbury, Æthelstan showed great affection towards Edmund and Eadred: "mere infants at his father's death, he brought them up lovingly in childhood, and when they grew up gave them a share in his kingdom". Edmund may have been a member of the expedition to Scotland in 934 as, according to the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto (History of Saint Cuthbert), Æthelstan instructed that in the event of his death Edmund was to take his body to Cuthbert's shrine at Chester-le-Street. Edmund fought at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, and in a poem commemorating the victory in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC), Edmund ætheling (prince of the royal house) is given such a prominent role – and praised for his heroism alongside Æthelstan – that the historian Simon Walker has suggested that the poem was written during Edmund's reign. At a royal assembly shortly before Æthelstan's death in 939, Edmund and Eadred attested a grant to their full sister, Eadburh, both as regis frater (king's brother). Their attestations may have been because of the family connection, but they also may have been intended to display the throneworthiness of the king's half-brothers when it was known that he did not have long to live. This is the only charter of Æthelstan attested by Edmund, the authenticity of which has not been questioned. Æthelstan died childless on 27 October 939 and Edmund's succession to the throne was undisputed. He was the first king to succeed to the throne of all England, and was probably crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames, perhaps on Advent Sunday, 1 December 939.

The loss and recovery of the north

Brunanburh saved England from destruction as a united kingdom, and it helped to ensure that Edmund would succeed smoothly to the throne, but it did not preserve him from challenges to his rule once he became king. The chronology of the Viking challenge is disputed, but according to the most widely accepted version, Æthelstan's death encouraged the York Vikings to accept the kingship of Anlaf Guthfrithson, the King of Dublin who had led the Viking forces defeated at Brunanburh. According to ASC D: "Here the Northumbrians belied their pledges and chose Anlaf from Ireland as their king." Anlaf was in York by the end of 939 and the following year he invaded north-east Mercia, aiming to recover the southern territories of the York kingdom which had been conquered by Edward and Æthelflæd. He marched on Northampton, where he was repulsed, and then stormed the ancient Mercian royal centre of Tamworth, with considerable loss of life on both sides. On his way back north he was caught at Leicester by an army under Edmund, but battle was averted by the mediation of Archbishop Wulfstan of York, on behalf of the Vikings, and probably the Archbishop of Canterbury acting for the English. They arranged a treaty at Leicester which surrendered the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, to Guthfrithson. This was the first serious setback for the English since Edward the Elder began to roll back Viking conquests in the early tenth century, and it was described by the historian Frank Stenton as "an ignominious surrender". Guthfrithson had coins struck at York with the lower Viking weight than the English standard.

Guthfrithson died in 941, allowing Edmund to reverse his losses. In 942, he recovered the Five Boroughs, and his victory was considered so significant that it was commemorated by a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

Like other tenth century poems in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, this one shows a concern with English nationalism and the West Saxon royal dynasty, and in this case displays the Christian English and Danes as united under Edmund in their victorious opposition to Norse (Norwegian) pagans. Stenton commented that the poem brings out the highly significant fact that the Danes of eastern Mercia, after fifteen years of Æthelstan's government, had come to regard themselves as the rightful subjects of the English king. Above all, it emphasises the antagonism between Danes and Norsemen, which is often ignored by modern writers, but underlies the whole history of England in this period. It is the first political poem in the English language, and its author understood political realities.

However, Williams is sceptical, arguing that the poem is not contemporary, and that it is doubtful whether contemporaries saw their situation in those terms. In the same year, Edmund granted large estates in northern Mercia to a leading nobleman, Wulfsige the Black, continuing the policy of his father of granting land in the Danelaw to supporters in order to give them an interest in resisting the Vikings.

Guthfrithson was succeeded as king of York by his cousin, Anlaf Sihtricson, who was baptised in 943 with Edmund as his godfather, suggesting that he accepted West Saxon overlordship. Sihtricson issued his own coinage, but he clearly had rivals in York as coins were also issued there in two other names: Ragnall, a brother of Anlaf Guthfrithson who also accepted baptism under Edmund's sponsorship, and an otherwise unknown Sihtric. The coins of all three men were issued with the same design, which may suggest joint authority. In 944, Edmund expelled the Viking rulers of York and seized control of the city with the assistance of Archbishop Wulfstan, who had previously supported the Vikings, and an ealdorman in Mercia, probably Æthelmund, who had been appointed by Edmund in 940.

When Edmund died, his successor Eadred faced further revolts in Northumbria, which were not finally defeated until 954. In Miller's view, Edmund's reign "shows clearly that although Æthelstan had conquered Northumbria, it was still not really part of a united England, nor would it be until the end of Eadred's reign". The Northumbrians' repeated revolts show that they retained separatist ambitions, which they only abandoned under pressure from successive southern kings. Unlike Æthelstan, Edmund and Eadred rarely claimed jurisdiction over the whole of Britain, although each did sometimes describe himself as 'king of the English' even at times when he did not control Northumbria. In charters, Edmund sometimes even called himself by the lesser title of "king of the Anglo-Saxons" in 940 and 942, and only claimed to be king of all Britain once he had gained full control over Northumbria in 945. He never described himself as Rex Totius Britanniae on his coinage.

Relations with other British kingdoms
Edmund inherited overlordship over the kings of Wales from Æthelstan, but Idwal Foel, king of Gwynedd in north Wales, apparently took advantage of Edmund's early weakness to withhold fealty and may have supported Anlaf Guthfrithson, as according to the Annales Cambriæ, he was killed by the English in 942. Between 942 and 950 his kingdom was conquered by Hywel Dda, the king of Deheubarth in south Wales, who is described by the historian of Wales Thomas Charles-Edwards as "the firmest ally of the English "emperors of Britain" among all the kings of his day". Attestations of Welsh kings to English charters appear to have been rare compared with those in Æthelstan's reign, but in the historian David Dumville's view there is no reason to doubt that Edmund retained his overlordship over the Welsh kings. In a charter of 944 disposing of land in Devon, Edmund is styled "King of the English and ruler of this British province", suggesting that the former British kingdom of Dumnonia was still not regarded as fully integrated into England, although the historian Simon Keynes "suspects some 'local' interference" in the wording of Edmund's title.

By 945, both Scotland and Strathclyde had kings who had assumed the throne since Brunanburh, and it is likely that whereas Scotland allied with England, Strathclyde held to its alliance with the Vikings. In that year Edmund ravaged Strathclyde. According to the thirteenth century chronicler Roger of Wendover, the invasion was supported by Hywel Dda, and Edmund had two sons of the king of Strathclyde blinded, perhaps to deprive their father of throneworthy heirs. Edmund then gave the kingdom to Malcolm I of Scotland in return for a pledge to defend it on land and on sea, a decision variously interpreted by historians. Dumville and Charles-Edwards regard it as granting Strathclyde to the Scottish king in return for an acknowledgement of Edmund's overlordship, whereas Williams thinks it probably means that he agreed to Malcolm's overlordship of the area in return for an alliance against the Dublin Vikings, and Stenton and Miller see it as recognition by Edmund that Northumbria was the northern limit of Anglo-Saxon England.

According to the hagiography of a Gaelic monk called Cathróe, he travelled through England on his journey from Scotland to the Continent; Edmund summoned him to court and Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, then ceremonially conducted him to his ship at Lympne. Travelling clerics played an important part in the circulation of manuscripts and ideas in this period, and Cathróe is unlikely to have been the only Celtic cleric at Edmund's court.

Relations with Continental Europe
Edmund inherited strong Continental contacts from Æthelstan's cosmopolitan court, and these were enhanced by their sisters' marriages to foreign kings and princes. Edmund carried on his brother's Continental policies and maintained his alliances, especially with his nephew King Louis IV of West Francia and Otto I, King of East Francia and future Holy Roman Emperor. Louis was both nephew and brother-in-law of Otto, while Otto and Edmund were brothers-in-law. There were almost certainly extensive diplomatic contacts between Edmund and Continental rulers which have not been recorded, but it is known that Otto sent delegations to Edmund's court. In the early 940s, some Norman lords sought the help of the Danish prince Harald against Louis, and in 945 Harald captured Louis and handed him to Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, who kept him prisoner. Edmund and Otto both protested and demanded his immediate release, but this only took place in exchange for the surrender of the town of Laon to Hugh.

Edmund's name is in the confraternity book of Pfäfers Abbey in Switzerland, perhaps at the request of Archbishop Oda when staying there on his way to or from Rome to collect his pallium. As with the diplomatic delegations, this probably represents rare surviving evidence of extensive contacts between English and Continental churchmen which continued from Æthelstan's reign.

Administration
Edmund inherited his brother's interests and leading advisers, such as Æthelstan Half-King, ealdorman of East Anglia, Ælfheah the Bald, bishop of Winchester, and Oda, bishop of Ramsbury, who was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury by Edmund in 941. Æthelstan Half-King first witnessed a charter as an ealdorman in 932, and within three years of Edmund's accession he had been joined by two of his brothers as ealdormen; their territories covered more than half of England and his wife fostered the future King Edgar. The historian Cyril Hart compares the brothers' power during Edmund's reign to that of the Godwins a century later. Edmund's mother, Eadgifu, who had been in eclipse during her step-son's reign, was also very influential.

For the first half of 940, there were no changes in the attestations of ealdormen compared with the end of Æthelstan's reign, but later in the year the number of ealdormen was doubled from four to eight, with three of the new ealdormen covering Mercian districts. There was an increased reliance on the family of Æthelstan Half-King, which was enriched by grants in 942. The appointments may have been part of Edmund's measures to deal with Anlaf's incursion.

Eadgifu and Eadred attested many of Edmund's charters, showing a high degree of family cooperation; initially Eadgifu attested first, but from sometime in late 943 or early 944 Eadred took precedence, perhaps reflecting his growing authority. Eadgifu attested around one third, always as regis mater (king's mother), including all grants to religious institutions and individuals. Eadred attested over half of his brother's charters. Eadgifu's and Eadred's prominence in charter attestations is unparalleled by any other West Saxon king's mother and male relative.

Charters
The period from around 925 to 975 was the golden age of Anglo-Saxon royal charters, when they were at their peak as instruments of royal government, and the scribes who drew up most of Edmund's charters constituted a royal secretariat which he inherited from his brother. From 928 until 935, charters were produced by the very learned scribe designated by scholars as Æthelstan A in a highly elaborate style. Keynes comments: "It is only by dwelling on the glories and complexities of the diplomas drafted and written by Æthelstan A that one can appreciate the elegant simplicity of the diplomas that followed." A scribe known as Edmund C wrote an inscription in a gospel book (BL Cotton Tiberius A. ii folio 15v) during Æthelstan's reign and wrote charters for Edmund and Eadred between 944 and 949.

Most of Edmund's charters belong to the diplomatic "mainstream", including those of Edmund C, but four are part of a group, dating mainly to Eadred's reign, called the 'alliterative charters'. They were drafted by a very learned scholar, almost certainly someone in the circle of Cenwald, Bishop of Worcester, or perhaps the bishop himself. These charters are characterised both by a high proportion of words starting with the same letter and by the use of unusual words. Ben Snook describes the charters as "impressive literary works", and like much of the writing of the period their style displays the influence of Aldhelm, a leading scholar and early eighth century bishop of Sherborne.

Coinage
The only coin in common use in the tenth century was the penny. The main coin designs in Edmund's reign were H (Horizontal) types, with a cross or other decoration on the obverse surrounded by a circular inscription including the king's name, and the moneyer's name horizontally on the reverse. There were also substantial numbers of BC (Bust Crowned) types in East Anglia and the Danish shires; these had a portrait of the king, often crudely drawn, on the obverse. For a period in Æthelstan's reign many coins showed the mint town, but this had become rare by the time of Edmund's accession, except in Norwich, where it continued during the 940s for BC types.

After the reign of Edward the Elder there was a slight decline in the weight of coins under Æthelstan, and the deterioration increased after around 940, continuing until Edgar's reform of the coinage in around 973. However, based on a very small sample, there is no evidence of a decline in the silver content under Edmund. His reign saw an increase in regional diversity of the coinage which lasted for twenty years until a return to relative unity of design early in Edgar's reign.

Legislation
Three law codes of Edmund survive, carrying on Æthelstan's tradition of legal reform. They are called I Edmund, II Edmund and III Edmund. The order in which they were issued is clear, but not the dates of issue. I Edmund is concerned with ecclesiastical matters, while the other codes deal with public order.

I Edmund was promulgated at a council in London convened by Edmund and attended by archbishops Oda and Wulfstan. The code is very similar to "Constitutions" previously promulgated by Oda. Uncelibate clerics were threatened with the loss of property and forbidden burial in consecrated ground, and there were also provisions regarding church dues and the restoration of church property. A clause forbidding a murderer from coming into the neighbourhood of the king, unless he had done penance for his crime, reflected an increasing emphasis on the sanctity of kingship. Edmund was one of the few Anglo-Saxon kings to promulgate laws concerned with sorcery and idolatry, and the code condemns false witness and the use of magical drugs. The association between perjury and the use of drugs in magic was traditional, probably because they both involved the breaking of a religious oath.

In II Edmund, the king and his counsellors are stated to be "greatly distressed by the manifold illegal deeds of violence which are in our midst", and aimed to promote "peace and concord". The main focus is on regulating and controlling blood feuds. The authorities (witan) are required to put a stop to vendettas following murders: the killer should instead pay wergeld (compensation) to the relatives of the victim. If no wergeld is paid, the killer has to bear the feud, but attacks on him are forbidden in churches and royal manor houses. If the killer's kin abandon him and refuse to contribute to a wergeld and to protect him, then it is the king's will that they are to be exempt from the feud: any of the victim's kin taking vengeance on them shall incur the hostility of the king and his friends and shall lose all their possessions. In the view of the historian Dorothy Whitelock the need for legislation to control the feud was partly due to the influx of Danish settlers who believed that it was more manly to pursue a vendetta than to settle a dispute by accepting compensation. Several Scandinavian loan words are first recorded in this code, such as hamsocn, the crime of attacking a homestead; the penalty is loss of all the offender's property, while the king decides whether he also loses his life. Scandinavian loan words are not found in Edmund's other codes, and this one may have been particularly aimed at his Danish subjects. In contrast to Edmund's concern about the level of violence, he congratulated his people on their success in suppressing thefts. The code encourages greater local initiative in upholding the law, while emphasising Edmund's royal dignity and authority.

The relationship between Anglo-Saxon kings and their leading men was personal; kings were lords and protectors in return for pledges of loyalty and obedience, and this is spelled out in terms based on Carolingian legislation for the first time in III Edmund, issued at Colyton in Devon. This requires that "all shall swear in the name of the Lord, before whom that holy thing is holy, that they will be faithful to King Edmund, even as it behooves a man to be faithful to his lord, without any dispute or dissension, openly or in secret, favouring what he favours and discountenancing what he discountenances." The threat of divine retribution was important in a society which had limited coercive power to punish law breaking and disloyalty. The military historian Richard Abels argues that "all" (omnes) shall swear does not mean literally all, but should be understood to mean those men qualified to take oaths administered by royal reeves at shire courts, that is the middling and great landholders, and that Edmund's oath united his diverse peoples by binding them all to him personally. The emphasis on lordship is further seen in provisions setting out the duties of lords to take responsibility for their followers and stand surety for them.

III Edmund was also concerned to prevent theft, especially cattle rustling. The local community is required to cooperate in catching thieves, dead or alive, and to assist in tracking down stolen cattle, while trading had to be witnessed by a high reeve, priest, treasurer or port reeve. According to a provision described by the legal historian Patrick Wormald as gruesome: "we have declared with regard to slaves that, if a number of them commit theft, their leader shall be captured and slain, or hanged, and each of the others shall be scourged three times and have his scalp removed and his little finger mutilated as a token of his guilt". The code has the first reference to the hundred as an administrative unit of local government in a provision requiring anyone who refuses to assist in the apprehension of a thief to pay 120 shillings to the king and 30 shillings to the hundred.

Williams comments "In both the second code and the Colyton legislation, the functions of the four pillars of medieval society, kingship, lordship, family and neighbourhood, are clearly evident." Wormald describes the codes as "an object-lesson in the variety of Anglo-Saxon legal texts", but he sees what they have in common as more important, especially a heightened rhetorical tone which extends to treating murder as an affront to the royal person. The historian Alaric Trousdale sees "explicit funding of local administrative institutions and the greater empowerment of local officials in the application of the law" as original contributions of Edmund's legislation. Edmund is listed in laws of his grandson Æthelred the Unready as one of the wise law-givers of the past.

Religion

The major religious movement of the tenth century, the English Benedictine Reform, reached its peak under Edgar, but Edmund's reign was important in the early stages, which were led by Oda and Ælfheah, both of whom were monks. Oda had strong connections with Continental centres of reform, especially Fleury Abbey. He had been a leading counsellor of Æthelstan and had helped to negotiate the return of Louis to France as king of the Franks in 936. Dunstan was to be a key figure in the reform and Archbishop of Canterbury, and according to his first biographer he was a leading figure at Edmund's court until his enemies persuaded Edmund to expel him, only for the king to have a change of heart after a narrow escape from death and give him a royal estate at Glastonbury, including its abbey. Williams rejects the story because there is no evidence that he was influential in this period; his brother attested charters, but he did not. Edmund may have given Dunstan the abbey to keep him at a distance because he was too much of a disruptive influence at court. He was joined by Æthelwold, another future reform leader, and they spent much of the next decade studying Benedictine texts at Glastonbury, which became the first centre for disseminating monastic reform.

Edmund visited the shrine of St Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street church, probably on his way to Scotland in 945. He prayed at the shrine and commended himself and his army to the saint. His men gave 60 pounds to the shrine, and Edmund placed two gold bracelets on the saint's body and wrapped two costly pallia graeca (lengths of Greek cloth) around it. One of the pallia graeca was probably an excellent Byzantine silk found in Cuthbert's tomb known as the "Nature Goddess silk". He also "granted peace and law better than any it ever had to the whole territory of St Cuthbert". Edmund's show of respect and support for the shrine reflected both the political power of the community of St Cuthbert in the north and southern reverence for him. According to William of Malmesbury, Edmund brought the relics of important Northumbrian saints such as Aidan south to Glastonbury Abbey.

Another sign of the religious revival was the number of aristocratic women who adopted a religious life. Several received grants from Edmund, including a nun called Ælfgyth, who was a patron of Wilton Abbey, and Wynflæd, the mother of Edmund's first wife. Æthelstan had granted two estates to religious women, Edmund made seven such grants and Eadred four. After this the practice ceased abruptly, apart from one further donation. The significance of the donations is uncertain, but the most likely explanation is that in the mid-tenth century some religious aristocratic women were granted the estates so that they could choose how to pursue their vocation, whether by establishing a nunnery or living a religious life in their own homes.

In the reign of Edmund's son Edgar, Æthelwold and his circle insisted that Benedictine monasticism was the only worthwhile form of religious life, but this was not the view of earlier kings such as Edmund. He was concerned to support religion, but was not committed to a particular ideology of religious development. In his grants, he continued Æthelstan's policies. When Gérard of Brogne reformed the Abbey of Saint Bertin by imposing the Benedictine rule in 944, monks who rejected the changes fled to England and Edmund gave them a church owned by the crown at Bath. He may have had personal motives for his assistance, as the monks had given burial to his half-brother, Edwin, who had drowned at sea in 933, but the incident shows that Edmund did not see only one monastic rule as valid. He may also have granted privileges to the unreformed (non-Benedictine) Bury St Edmunds Abbey, but the charter's authenticity is disputed.

Learning
Latin learning revived in Æthelstan's reign, influenced by Continental models and by the hermeneutic style of the leading seventh century scholar and Bishop of Sherborne, Aldhelm. The revival continued in Edmund's reign, and Welsh book production became increasingly influential. Welsh manuscripts were studied and copied, and they influenced the early use of Carolingian minuscule script in England, although Continental sources are also important. Edmund's reign also saw the development of a new style of the native square minuscule script, which was used in mid-century royal diplomas. Oda's school at Canterbury was praised by post-Conquest chroniclers, especially for the presence there of Frithegod, a brilliant Continental scholar and the most skilful poet in mid-tenth century England. The "Vatican" recension of the Historia Brittonum was produced in England in Edmund's reign, probably in 944.

Marriages and children
Edmund probably married his first wife Ælfgifu around the time of his accession to the throne, as their second son was born in 943. Their sons Eadwig and Edgar both became kings of England. Ælfgifu's father is not known, but her mother is identified by a charter of Edgar which confirms a grant by his grandmother Wynflæd of land to Shaftesbury Abbey. Ælfgifu was also a benefactor of Shaftesbury Abbey; when she died in 944 she was buried there and venerated as a saint. Edmund had no known children by his second wife, Æthelflæd, who died after 991. Her father Ælfgar became ealdorman of Essex in 946. Edmund presented him with a sword lavishly decorated with gold and silver, which Ælfgar later presented to King Eadred. Æthelflæd's second husband was Æthelstan Rota, a south-east Mercian ealdorman, and her will survives.

Death and succession
On 26 May 946, Edmund was killed in a brawl at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. According to the post-Conquest chronicler, John of Worcester:

"While the glorious Edmund, king of the English, was at the royal township called Pucklechurch in English, in seeking to rescue his steward from Leofa, a most wicked thief, lest he be killed, was himself killed by the same man on the feast of St Augustine, teacher of the English, on Tuesday, 26 May, in the fourth indiction, having completed five years and seven months of his reign. He was borne to Glastonbury, and buried by the abbot, St Dunstan."

The historians Clare Downham and Kevin Halloran dismiss John of Worcester's account and suggest that the king was the victim of a political assassination, but this view has not been accepted by other historians.

Like his son Edgar thirty years later, Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. The location may have reflected its spiritual prestige and royal endorsement of the monastic reform movement, but as his death was unexpected it is more likely that Dunstan was successful in claiming the body. His sons were still young children, so he was succeeded as king by his brother Eadred, who was in turn succeeded by Edmund's elder son Eadwig in 955.

Assessment
Historians' views of Edmund's character and record differ widely. The historian Barbara Yorke comments that when substantial powers were delegated there was a danger that subjects would become over-powerful: the kings following Æthelstan came to the throne young and had short reigns, and the families of Æthelstan 'Half-King' and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, developed unassailable positions. In the view of Cyril Hart: "For the whole of his brief reign, the young king Edmund remained strongly under the influence of his mother Eadgifu and the "Half King", who between them must have decided much of the national policy." In contrast, Williams describes Edmund as "an energetic and forceful ruler" and Stenton commented that "he proved himself to be both warlike and politically effective", while in Dumville's view, but for his early death "he might yet have been remembered as one of the more remarkable of Anglo-Saxon kings".

The historian Ryan Lavelle comments that "a case can be made, as Alaric Trousdale has recently done [in his PhD thesis on Edmund's reign], for assigning Edmund a central role to the achievements of the tenth century English state". Trousdale comments that the period between the reigns of Æthelstan and Edgar has been comparatively neglected by historians: the reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig "are often lumped together as a sort of interim period between the much more interesting reigns of Æthelstan and Edgar". He argues that "King Edmund's legislation shows an ambition towards tighter control of the localities through increased cooperation between all levels of government, and that king and archbishop were working closely together in restructuring the English administrative framework". Trousdale sees a transition which "was marked in part by a small yet significant shift away from a reliance on traditional West Saxon administrative structures and the power blocs that had enjoyed influence under King Æthelstan, towards increased cooperation with interests and families from Mercia and East Anglia". He also sees Edmund as moving away from Æthelstan's centralisation of power to a more collegial relationship with local secular and ecclesiastical authorities. Trousdale's picture contrasts with that of other historians such as Sarah Foot, who emphasises the achievements of Æthelstan, and George Molyneaux in his study of the formation of the late Anglo-Saxon state in the reign of Edgar.

title: Edmund I


text:
Endothermic process

An endothermic process is a chemical or physical process that absorbs heat from its surroundings. In terms of thermodynamics and thermochemistry, it is a thermodynamic process with an increase in the enthalpy $H$ (or internal energy $U$) of the system. In an endothermic process, the heat that a system absorbs is thermal energy transfer into the system. Thus, an endothermic reaction generally leads to an increase in the temperature of the system and a decrease in that of the surroundings.

The term was coined by 19th-century French chemist Marcellin Berthelot. The term endothermic comes from the Greek ἔνδον (endon) meaning 'within' and θερμ- (therm) meaning 'hot' or 'warm'.

An endothermic process may be a chemical process, such as dissolving ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) in water (H2O), or a physical process, such as the melting of ice cubes.

The opposite of an endothermic process is an exothermic process, one that releases or "gives out" energy, usually in the form of heat and sometimes as electrical energy. Thus, endo in endothermic refers to energy or heat going in, and exo in exothermic refers to energy or heat going out. In each term (endothermic and exothermic) the prefix refers to where heat (or electrical energy) goes as the process occurs.

In chemistry
Due to bonds breaking and forming during various processes (changes in state, chemical reactions), there is usually a change in energy. If the energy of the forming bonds is greater than the energy of the breaking bonds, then energy is released. This is known as an exothermic reaction. However, if more energy is needed to break the bonds than the energy being released, energy is taken up. Therefore, it is an endothermic reaction.

Details
Whether a process can occur spontaneously depends not only on the enthalpy change but also on the entropy change ($∆S$) and absolute temperature $T$. If a process is a spontaneous process at a certain temperature, the products have a lower Gibbs free energy $G = H – TS$ than the reactants (an exergonic process), even if the enthalpy of the products is higher. Thus, an endothermic process usually requires a favorable entropy increase ($∆S > 0$) in the system that overcomes the unfavorable increase in enthalpy so that still $∆G < 0$. While endothermic phase transitions into more disordered states of higher entropy, e.g. melting and vaporization, are common, spontaneous chemical processes at moderate temperatures are rarely endothermic. The enthalpy increase$∆H ≫ 0$ in a hypothetical strongly endothermic process usually results in $∆G = ∆H – T∆S > 0$, which means that the process will not occur (unless driven by electrical or photon energy). An example of an endothermic and exergonic process is

 * $$\Delta_r H^\circ = +627 \ \text{kJ/mol},\quad \Delta_r G^\circ = -31 \ \text{kJ/mol}$$.
 * $$\Delta_r H^\circ = +627 \ \text{kJ/mol},\quad \Delta_r G^\circ = -31 \ \text{kJ/mol}$$.

Examples

 * Evaporation
 * Sublimation
 * Cracking of alkanes
 * Thermal decomposition
 * Hydrolysis
 * Nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than nickel in stellar cores
 * High-energy neutrons can produce tritium from lithium-7 in an endothermic process, consuming 2.466 MeV. This was discovered when the 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear test produced an unexpectedly high yield.
 * Nuclear fusion of elements heavier than iron in supernovae
 * Dissolving together barium hydroxide and ammonium chloride
 * Dissolving together citric acid and baking soda

Distinction between endothermic and endotherm
The terms "endothermic" and "endotherm" are both derived from Greek ἔνδον endon "within" and θέρμη thermē "heat", but depending on context, they can have very different meanings.

In physics, thermodynamics applies to processes involving a system and its surroundings, and the term "endothermic" is used to describe a reaction where energy is taken "(with)in" by the system (vs. an "exothermic" reaction, which releases energy "outwards").

In biology, thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to maintain its body temperature, and the term "endotherm" refers to an organism that can do so from "within" by using the heat released by its internal bodily functions (vs. an "ectotherm", which relies on external, environmental heat sources) to maintain an adequate temperature.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Endothermic process


text:
Earle Page

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (8 August 1880 – 20 December 1961) was an Australian politician and surgeon who served as the 11th prime minister of Australia from 7 to 26 April 1939, holding office in a caretaker capacity following the death of Joseph Lyons. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1921 to 1939, and was the most influential figure in its later years.

Page was born in Grafton, New South Wales. He entered the University of Sydney at the age of 15, and completed a degree in medicine at the age of 21. After completing his medical residency at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he moved back to Grafton and opened a private hospital. He soon became involved in local politics, and in 1915 purchased a part-share in The Daily Examiner, a local newspaper. He also briefly was a military surgeon during World War I. Page gained prominence as an advocate of various development schemes for the Northern Rivers region, especially those involving hydroelectricity. He also helped found a movement for New England statehood.

In 1919, Page was elected to Federal Parliament representing the Division of Cowper. He joined the new Country Party the following year as its inaugural whip, and then replaced William McWilliams as party leader in 1921. Page opposed the economic policies of Prime Minister Billy Hughes, and when the Country Party gained the balance of power at the 1922 election, he demanded Hughes' resignation as the price for a coalition with the Nationalist Party. He was subsequently made Treasurer of Australia under the new prime minister, Stanley Bruce, serving in that role from 1923 to 1929. He had a significant degree of influence on domestic policy, with Bruce concentrating on international issues.

Page returned to cabinet after the 1934 election, when the Country Party entered a new coalition with Joseph Lyons' United Australia Party (UAP). He was appointed Minister for Commerce, and concentrated on agricultural issues. When Lyons died in office in April 1939, Page was commissioned as his successor in a caretaker capacity while the UAP elected a new leader, Robert Menzies. Page subsequently denounced Menzies and refused to serve in his cabinet, withdrawing the Country Party from the coalition, but this proved unpopular and he resigned the party leadership after a few months. The coalition was eventually reconstituted, and Page served again as Minister for Commerce under Menzies and Arthur Fadden until the government's defeat in October 1941.

Page's last major role was as Minister for Health (1949–1956) in the post-war Menzies Government. He retired from cabinet at the age of 76, and died a short time after losing his seat at the 1961 election. Page served in parliament for almost 42 years, the third longest-serving Australian parliamentarian of all time; only Menzies lasted longer as the leader of a major Australian political party. He secured his party's independence by refusing overtures to merge with the Nationalists and the UAP, and the policies that he favoured – decentralisation, agrarianism, and government support of primary industry – have remained the basis of its platform up to the present day. The coalitions that he established and maintained with Bruce and Lyons have served as a model for all subsequent coalition governments.

Birth and family background
Earle Christmas Grafton Page was born in Grafton, New South Wales, on 8 August 1880. His first middle name, which he disliked, was given to him to carry on the surname of a childless relative, while his second middle name was in honour of his birthplace. Page was the fifth of eleven children born to Charles Page and Mary Johanna Haddon (Annie) Cox. His older brother Rodger was chaplain to the royal family of Tonga and his younger brother Harold was the deputy administrator of the Territory of New Guinea and a Japanese prisoner of war. Page's parents had both lived in Grafton since they were children. His mother was born in Tasmania to an English father and a Scottish mother. His father, born in London, was a successful businessman and a member of the Grafton City Council, serving a single term as mayor in 1908. The family business was a hardware manufacturing firm, which had its origins in a coachbuilding firm established in 1858 by Page's maternal grandfather, Edwin Cox. His other grandfather, James Page, arrived in Grafton in 1855, serving as the town's first schoolmaster and first town clerk.

Education
Page began his schooling at Grafton Public School, where he excelled academically. His family could not afford to send him to boarding school, as a result of financial difficulties caused by the banking crisis of 1893. Page consequently had to rely on scholarships to advance his education. He won a bursary to attend Sydney Boys High School in 1895, where he passed the university entrance exams, and the following year – aged 15 – began studying a liberal arts course at the University of Sydney. He was equal top in mathematics in his first year, and was also awarded the lucrative Struth Exhibition for "general proficiency in the arts", which allowed him to switch to medicine and covered his first four years of medical school. His role model was Grafton Smith, who had followed a similar path from Grafton Public School to university. At Sydney Medical School, Page's lecturers included William Haswell (biology), James Hill (biology), Charles Martin (physiology), Anderson Stuart (physiology), and James Wilson (anatomy). He graduated at the top of his class in 1901, with the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine (M.B.) and Master of Surgery (Ch.M.).

Medical career
Page's first professional posting came before he had even been registered as a medical practitioner. Due to a shortage of doctors, he was acting superintendent of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children for one month. In 1902, he took up a position as a resident at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, serving in a variety of roles including as house surgeon under Robert Scot Skirving. During that time he contracted a near-fatal infection from a postmortem examination. He also met his future wife, nurse Ethel Blunt. Page returned to his home town in 1903, taking over a practice in South Grafton. He and two partners subsequently established a new private hospital, Clarence House Hospital, which opened in 1904 and served both Grafton and the surrounding region.

Page was a keen adopter of new technologies. In 1904, he bought what he claimed was "the first Rover car in Australia", which was powered by kerosene. He upgraded to an Itala in 1908, and had the chassis enlarged so it could be used as an ambulance. He also had an x-ray machine installed in his hospital, one of the first in Australia outside a major city. Page developed a reputation for surgical innovation, taking a number of patients from Sydney and even some from interstate. One operation that brought him particular fame was the removal of a patient's diseased lung, a procedure that had only been invented a few years previously. Page became an inaugural Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1927, and in 1942 was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS).

In February 1916, Page enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was chief medical officer aboard the troopship HMAT Ballarat, and was then stationed at an army hospital in Cairo for several months. He was transferred to a hospital in England in July 1916, and concluded his service as a surgical specialist at a casualty clearing station in France. Page returned to Australia in March 1917 and was discharged from the military in July 1917. Although his active involvement in medicine declined as his political career progressed, he was frequently called upon to treat his fellow MPs or parliamentary staff. This was particularly true after the federal government moved to Canberra, as the new capital had only a handful of qualified surgeons. In 1928, for instance, he performed an emergency appendectomy on Parker Moloney.

Early political involvement
Page's medical career brought him considerable wealth, and he began investing in land. He bought several large farming properties in South-East Queensland, including in Nerang, Kandanga, and the Numinbah Valley; Pages Pinnacle in the Numinbah State Forest is named after him. His entry into public life came about as a result of his passion for hydroelectricity, which he first observed in New Zealand while attending a medical convention in 1910. He believed that it could be applied to the Northern Rivers region, which was still mostly unelectrified outside of the major towns. Page was elected to the South Grafton Municipal Council in 1913, believing his position as an alderman would be useful in his lobbying efforts. However, his overtures to the state government were rebuffed. In 1915, Page was one of the founders of the Northern New South Wales Separation League, which advocated the creation of a new state in the New England region. He toured a number of towns to raise awareness of the new movement, but interest waned as a result of the ongoing war. Later that year, he was part of a syndicate that bought The Daily Examiner, the local newspaper in Grafton.

Page visited a number of hydroelectric sites in North America in 1917, on his way back from military service in France. He was elected mayor of South Grafton in 1918, serving until 1920, and also became the inaugural president of the North Coast Development League. He developed more concrete plans for a hydroelectric project on the Clarence River, and put forward various other development schemes relating to roads, railways, and ports, all of which served to raise his profile in the local district. Page was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 1919 federal election, defeating the sitting Nationalist MP, John Thomson in the Division of Cowper. He stood as an independent with the endorsement of the Farmers' and Settlers' Association, and after the election joined the new Country Party, along with 10 other MPs from rural seats. Page continued to advocate for hydroelectricity throughout his political career, and many such projects were built in New South Wales. However, the specific scheme he favoured for the Clarence River was never put in place, only the smaller Nymboida Power Station. Decentralisation also remained a pet project, with Page frequently arguing for New South Wales and Queensland to be divided into smaller states to aid regional development. The movement for New England statehood waned in the 1920s, but re-emerged in the 1950s; a legally binding referendum on the subject was finally held in 1967, after Page's death, but was narrowly defeated in controversial circumstances.

Government formation
Page was elected leader of the Country Party in 1921, replacing William McWilliams. At the 1922 federal election the party campaigned on a platform which included the establishment of a national sinking fund, national insurance scheme covering "sickness, unemployment, poverty and age", and conversion of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia into a full central bank. The party emerged from the election with the balance of power in the House; the Nationalist government of Billy Hughes lost its majority and could not govern without Country Party support. It soon became apparent that the price for that support would be a full coalition with the Nationalists. However, the Country Party had been formed partly due to discontent with Hughes' rural policy, and Page's animosity toward Hughes was such that he would not even consider supporting him. Indeed, he would not even begin talks with the Nationalists as long as Hughes remained leader. Bowing to the inevitable, Hughes resigned.

Page then began negotiations with Hughes' successor as leader of the Nationalists, Stanley Bruce. His terms were stiff; he wanted his Country Party to have five seats in an 11-man cabinet, including the post of Treasurer and the second rank in the ministry for himself. These demands were unprecedented for a prospective junior coalition partner in a Westminster system, and especially so for such a new party. Nonetheless, Bruce agreed rather than force another election. For all intents and purposes, Page was the first Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (a title that did not officially exist until 1968). Since then, the leader of the Country/National Party has been the second-ranking member in nearly every non-Labor government. Page was acting prime minister on several occasions, and in January 1924 chaired the first meeting of Federal Cabinet ever held in Canberra, at Yarralumla. Parliament did not move to Canberra until 1927.

Treasurer
As Treasurer, Page formed a close working relationship with Bruce. Due to favourable economic conditions the government was able to abolish land tax, cut income tax, and establishment the national sinking fund that Page had campaigned on. The government also established an investment fund for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and sponsored the first national housing program. The final years of Page's treasurership were marked by the beginnings of an economic downturn. The budget went into deficit in 1927 and his 1929 budget speech referred to a "temporary financial depression". He was a strong believer in orthodox finance and conservative policies, as well as a "high protectionist" supporting tariff barriers to protect Australian rural industries.

Page introduced a series of reforms to the Commonwealth Bank to enhance its central banking functions. In 1924, he announced that the government would place the Commonwealth Bank under an independent board, comprising a governor, the Treasury secretary, and representatives of industry. The same bill placed banknotes under the direct control of the bank, whereas previously it had been under a nominally independent Note Issue Board. Later reforms saw the establishment of a Rural Credits Department within the bank, the profits of which were partly hypothecated to agricultural research. In March 1925, cabinet decided to return Australia to the gold standard, which it had left during World War I. It delayed its announcement until the United Kingdom had decided it would do the same, which "disguised what was arguably Australia’s first explicit macroeconomic policy decision".

In 1924, Bruce and Page established the Loan Council to coordinate public-sector borrowings between the state and federal governments. It was given constitutional force with an amendment passed in 1928. The government abolished the previous system of per-capita grants to states that had been implemented in 1911 and began introducing tied grants, initially for road building. It also established a royal commission into the proposed National Insurance scheme, chaired by Senator John Millen. Page was one of the chief supporters of the National Insurance Bill 1928, which would have provided "sickness, old age, disability and maternity benefits", as well as payments to orphans and a limited form of child endowment. It was to be paid for by compulsory contributions from workers and co-contributions from employers. The government took the policy to the 1928 Australian federal election but failed to pass the bill by the time of its defeat in 1929.

As Treasurer, Page continued his professional medical practice. On 22 October 1924, he had to tell his best friend, Thomas Shorten Cole (1870–1957), the news that his wife Mary Ann Crane had just died on the operating table from complications of intestinal or stomach cancer, reputed by their daughter Dorothy May Cole to be "the worst day of his life". Due to a shortage of surgeons in Canberra, in 1928 Page performed an appendectomy on fellow MP Parker Moloney.

Out of office, 1929–1934
In his memoirs, Page recalled that the defeat of the government at the 1929 election came as a relief, following the intense stress of the government's final term. He and the Country Party sat on the crossbench, with John Latham replacing Bruce as Nationalist leader and leader of the opposition. Page regarded time out of office as a period which "sharpened our wits and enabled us to prepare public opinion for the policies we hoped to implement when the next opportunity came".

In 1931, a group of dissident Labor MPs led by former Scullin government minister Joseph Lyons merged with the Nationalists to form the United Australia Party (UAP), with Lyons replacing Latham as opposition leader. Page and Lyons produced a joint policy statement in October 1931 and Page expected that the Country Party would form a new coalition government. However, at the 1931 election the UAP won majority government in its own right. Lyons offered the Country Party three cabinet positions, on the basis that he would choose the ministers and portfolios. Page rejected this and also insisted that the trade and customs portfolio be assigned to the Country Party. Negotiations eventually collapsed and Lyons formed a UAP-only ministry.

Page's oldest son Earle Jr. was killed by a lightning strike in January 1933; shortly after his wife Ethel suffered a stroke. Page considered retiring from politics but was persuaded to instead take a leave of absence, with his deputy Thomas Paterson serving as acting leader of the Country Party for nine months.

Lyons government, 1934–1939
The UAP lost its majority at the 1934 election, after which Lyons governed in minority for two months. He eventually negotiated a new coalition agreement with Page, which provided four ministerial positions and assurances around tariff policies. Page was appointed Minister for Commerce, a significant portfolio covering agriculture and trade policy, and again became the de facto deputy prime minister.

One of Page's first initiatives in the commerce portfolio was the creation of the Australian Agricultural Council (AAC) in December 1934, which aimed to coordinate state and federal agricultural policy on a similar basis to the Loan Council. In his 1934 election policy he had envisioned the AAC as a "board of directors for Australian agriculture" that would "eliminate needless waste of public and private capital". The council "quickly became central to agricultural policy", covering a wide variety of topics including debt relief for farmers, agricultural marketing (reforms to which were rejected in a 1937 referendum), soil erosion, pest control, and problems in the wheat and dairy industries. Page found some of his attempts to guide policy were stymied by state agricultural ministers, with the AAC remaining a voluntary body reliant on passage of state legislation.

Page was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the New Year's Day Honours of 1938. While nine Australian Prime Ministers were knighted (and Bruce was elevated to the peerage), Page is the only one who was knighted before becoming Prime Minister.

Prime Minister and aftermath
When Lyons died suddenly in 1939, the Governor-General of Australia Lord Gowrie appointed Page as caretaker Prime Minister pending the UAP choosing a new leader. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected former deputy leader Robert Menzies as its new leader, and hence Prime Minister. Page had been close to Lyons, but disliked Menzies, whom he charged publicly with having been disloyal to Lyons. Page contacted Stanley Bruce (now in London as Australian High Commissioner to the UK) and offered to resign his seat if Bruce would return to Australia to seek re-election to the parliament in a by-election for Page's old seat, and then seek election as UAP leader. Bruce said that he would only re-enter the parliament as an independent.

When Menzies was elected UAP leader, Page refused to serve under him, and made an extraordinary personal attack on him in the House, accusing him not only of ministerial incompetence but of physical cowardice (for failing to enlist during World War I). His party soon rebelled, though, and Page was deposed as Country Party leader in favour of Archie Cameron.

World War II
In March 1940, Archie Cameron led the Country Party back into coalition with the UAP. However, he resigned as party leader on 16 October, following the 1940 federal election. Page attempted to regain the party's leadership, but was deadlocked with John McEwen over multiple ballots. As a compromise, the party elected Arthur Fadden as acting leader; he was confirmed in the position a few months later. Page replaced Cameron as Minister for Commerce in the reconstituted ministry.

Fadden replaced Menzies as prime minister in August 1941. A few weeks later, cabinet decided to send Page to London as resident minister, with the intention that he would be granted access to the British War Cabinet. While he was en route to England, the Fadden government lost a confidence motion and was replaced by an ALP minority government. The new prime minister John Curtin nonetheless allowed Page to take up the position, declining his offer to return to Australia. The attack on Pearl Harbor in December changed the dynamic of Anglo-Australian relations, as the War in the Pacific became the primary concern of the Australian government. Page assisted in the creation of the Pacific War Council early the following year. He later recalled Winston Churchill's frustration in war cabinet meetings with Curtin's decision to withdraw troops from the Middle East and North Africa and return them to Australia. He credited himself with helping negate the tensions between the two men, but in February 1942 mistakenly advised Churchill that the Australian government was amenable to diverting the 7th Division to Burma rather than return it directly to Australia. He was heavily rebuked by Curtin and external affairs minister H. V. Evatt for his error.

Page wrote to Curtin in April 1942 that since January he had been through "the worst period of acute mental distress of my whole life". His tenure was not regarded as a success, and he was said to have suffered from a lack of experience in diplomacy. Field Marshal Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, recalled that in war cabinet meetings he had "the mentality of a greengrocer". Page left London in June 1942 following a severe bout of pneumonia. He had been made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) before his departure. He returned to Australia in August, travelling via the United States, and quickly turned his attention to planning for post-war reconstruction.

Page spent the remaining years of the Curtin and Chifley governments on the opposition backbench. He served on the Advisory War Council and was a delegate to the constitutional convention in Canberra in late 1942, which included members of all major political parties. However, he was frustrated by the government's failure to offer him any formal role in developing post-war policy, which he believed was due to him given his past work. Page's brother Harold and nephew Robert were killed by the Japanese during the war.

Return to the ministry
Page was reappointed Minister for Health after the Coalition won the 1949 federal election, at the age of 69. He was the chief architect of the National Health Act 1953, which established a national public health scheme based on government subsidies of voluntary private insurance and free medical services for pensioners. He played a key role in securing the support of the medical profession, which had strongly opposed the Chifley government's attempt to introduce universal health care. Unlike in previous governments, Page had little influence beyond his own policy area and was frustrated by the lack of interest in his ideas for national development. In 1951 when Senator Gordon Brown of the ALP suffered a stroke while speaking in the Senate, Page, a trained surgeon rushed in from the House to treat him before medical professionals could take Brown to hospital for treatment.

Upon the death of Billy Hughes in October 1952, Page became the Father of the House of Representatives and Father of the Parliament. In 1954, he became the first chancellor of the University of New England, which had become fully autonomous from the University of Sydney. He retired from cabinet at the age of 76, moving to the backbench in January 1956 after the December 1955 election.

Upon Arthur Fadden's retirement in 1958, Page became the only former Prime Minister returned at that year's election.

Later life and death
Page sought a 17th term in parliament at the 1961 election, having joined Billy Hughes two years earlier as only the second person to serve over 40 years in federal parliament. Two weeks before the election, he experienced stomach pains while visiting the home of Ian Robinson near Coraki, New South Wales. His health then dramatically declined and he was admitted to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer and underwent immediate surgery.

Page died in hospital on 20 December 1961, aged 81. He was granted a state funeral at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. At his request, his ashes were scattered over the Clarence River near his home. On the same date Page died, the election result in Cowper was declared and recorded his defeat by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate Frank McGuren, as part of a nationwide swing against the Coalition.

Page had represented Cowper for just four days short of 42 years, making him the longest-serving Australian federal parliamentarian who represented the same seat throughout his career. Only Billy Hughes and Philip Ruddock have served in Parliament longer than Page. He was the last former Prime Minister to lose his seat until Tony Abbott lost his seat of Warringah in 2019, though John Howard would lose his seat of Bennelong as a sitting Prime Minister in 2007.

Page's defeat/death saw the Australian Federal Parliament having no former Prime Ministers among its members, for the first time since the period between Sir Joseph Cook's resignation from Parliament in 1921 to become Australia's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Billy Hughes' forced resignation as Prime Minister in 1923.

Personal life
Page married Ethel Blunt on 18 September 1906. They had met at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital while he was undertaking his medical residency; she was a senior nurse there. Page soon began courting her, and convinced her to become the matron of his new hospital in Grafton. She gave up nursing after their marriage, but was active in politics and community organisations. The couple had five children: Mary (b. 1909), Earle Jr. (b. 1910), Donald (b. 1912), Iven (b. 1914), and Douglas (b. 1916). Their grandchildren include Don Page, who was active in New South Wales state politics, and Geoff Page, a poet.

Page was predeceased by his first wife and his oldest son. Earle Jr., a qualified veterinarian, was killed by a lightning strike in January 1933, aged 22. Ethel died in May 1958, aged 82, after a long illness. On 20 July 1959 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, Page married for a second time, wedding his long-serving secretary Jean Thomas (32 years his junior). Stanley Bruce was his best man. The second Lady Page lived for almost 50 years after her husband's death, dying on 20 June 2011; her ashes were interred at Northern Suburbs Crematorium.

Honours

 * Decorations
 * In 1929, Page was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom (PC).
 * In 1938, Page was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG).
 * In 1942, Page was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH).
 * In 1942, Page was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS).
 * In 1952, Page was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa by the University of Sydney.
 * In 1955, Page was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa by the University of New England (the first honorary degree awarded by the institution).

 * Namesakes
 * Division of Page – division of the federal House of Representatives; established in 1984, includes the city of Grafton
 * Page, Australian Capital Territory – suburb of Canberra
 * The Sir Earle Page Library and Education Centre, in the city of Grafton
 * Earle Page College – residential college of the University of New England; opened in 1963
 * Page Chest Pavilion – building at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; opened in 1957, demolished in 2010
 * Page Research Centre – think tank associated with the National Party of Australia; established in 2003

title: Earle Page


text:
Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306 – 373), also known as Saint Ephrem, Saint Ephraim, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, was a prominent Christian theologian and writer who is revered as one of the most notable hymnographers of Eastern Christianity. He was born in Nisibis, served as a deacon and later lived in Edessa.

Ephrem is venerated as a saint by all traditional Churches. He is especially revered in Syriac Christianity, both in East Syriac tradition and West Syriac tradition, and also counted as a Holy and Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted monk) in the Eastern Orthodox Church, especially in the Slovak Tradition. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church in 1920. Ephrem is also credited as the founder of the School of Nisibis, which, in later centuries, was the centre of learning of the Church of the East.

Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as prose exegesis. These were works of practical theology for the edification of the Church in troubled times. Some of these works have been examined by feminist scholars who have analyzed the incorporation of feminine imagery in his texts. They also examine the performance practice of all-women choirs singing his madrāšê, or his teaching hymns. Ephrem's works were so popular that, for centuries after his death, Christian authors wrote hundreds of pseudepigraphal works in his name. He has been called the most significant of all of the fathers of the Syriac-speaking church tradition. In Syriac Christian tradition, he is considered patron of the Syriac Aramaic people.

Life
Ephrem was born around the year 306 in the city of Nisibis (modern Nusaybin, Turkey), in the Roman province of Mesopotamia, that was recently acquired by the Roman Empire. Internal evidence from Ephrem's hymnody suggests that both his parents were part of the growing Christian community in the city, although later hagiographers wrote that his father was a pagan priest. In those days, religious culture in the region of Nisibis included local polytheism, Judaism and several varieties of the Early Christianity. Most of the population spoke the Aramaic language, while Greek and Latin were languages of administration. The city had a complex ethnic composition, consisting of "Assyrians, Arabs, Greeks, Jews, Parthians, Romans, and Iranians".

Jacob, the second bishop of Nisibis, was appointed in 308, and Ephrem grew up under his leadership of the community. Jacob of Nisibis is recorded as a signatory at the First Council of Nicea in 325. Ephrem was baptized as a youth and almost certainly became a son of the covenant, an unusual form of Syriac proto-monasticism. Jacob appointed Ephrem as a teacher (Syriac malp̄ānâ, a title that still carries great respect for Syriac Christians). He was ordained as a deacon either at his baptism or later. He began to compose hymns and write biblical commentaries as part of his educational office. In his hymns, he sometimes refers to himself as a "herdsman" (ܥܠܢܐ, ‘allānâ), to his bishop as the "shepherd" (ܪܥܝܐ, rā‘yâ), and to his community as a 'fold' (ܕܝܪܐ, dayrâ). Ephrem is popularly credited as the founder of the School of Nisibis, which, in later centuries, was the centre of learning of the Church of the East.

In 337, Emperor Constantine I, who had legalised and promoted the practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire, died. Seizing on this opportunity, Shapur II of Persia began a series of attacks into Roman North Mesopotamia. Nisibis was besieged in 338, 346 and 350. During the first siege, Ephrem credits Bishop Jacob as defending the city with his prayers. In the third siege, of 350, Shapur rerouted the River Mygdonius to undermine the walls of Nisibis. The Nisibenes quickly repaired the walls while the Persian elephant cavalry became bogged down in the wet ground. Ephrem celebrated what he saw as the miraculous salvation of the city in a hymn that portrayed Nisibis as being like Noah's Ark, floating to safety on the flood.

One important physical link to Ephrem's lifetime is the baptistery of Nisibis. The inscription tells that it was constructed under Bishop Vologeses in 359. In that year, Shapur attacked again. The cities around Nisibis were destroyed one by one, and their citizens killed or deported. Constantius II was unable to respond; the campaign of Julian in 363 ended with his death in battle. His army elected Jovian as the new emperor, and to rescue his army, he was forced to surrender Nisibis to Persia (also in 363) and to permit the expulsion of the entire Christian population. Ephrem declined being ordinated a bishop by feigning madness, because he regarded himself unworthy for it.

Ephrem, with the others, went first to Amida (Diyarbakır), eventually settling in Edessa (Urhay, in Aramaic) in 363. Ephrem, in his late fifties, applied himself to ministry in his new church and seems to have continued his work as a teacher, perhaps in the School of Edessa. Edessa had been an important center of the Aramaic-speaking world, and the birthplace of a specific Middle Aramaic dialect that came to be known as the Syriac language. The city was rich with rivaling philosophies and religions. Ephrem comments that orthodox Nicene Christians were simply called "Palutians" in Edessa, after a former bishop. Arians, Marcionites, Manichees, Bardaisanites and various gnostic sects proclaimed themselves as the true church. In this confusion, Ephrem wrote a great number of hymns defending Nicene orthodoxy. A later Syriac writer, Jacob of Serugh, wrote that Ephrem rehearsed all-female choirs to sing his hymns set to Syriac folk tunes in the forum of Edessa. In 370 he visited Basil the Great at Caesarea, and then journeyed to the monks of Egypt. As he preached a panegyrie on St. Basil, who died in 379, his own death must be placed at a later date. After a ten-year residency in Edessa, in his sixties, Ephrem succumbed to the plague as he ministered to its victims. He died in 373.

Language

Ephrem wrote exclusively in his native Aramaic language, using the local Edessan (Urhaya) dialect, that later came to be known as the Classical Syriac. Ephrem's works contain several endonymic (native) references to his language (Aramaic), homeland (Aram) and people (Arameans). He is therefore known as "the authentic voice of Aramaic Christianity".

In the early stages of modern scholarly studies, it was believed that some examples of the long-standing Greek practice of labeling Aramaic as "Syriac", that are found in the Cave of Treasures, can be attributed to Ephrem, but later scholarly analyses have shown that the work in question was written much later (c. 600) by an unknown author, thus also showing that Ephrem's original works still belonged to the tradition unaffected by exonymic (foreign) labeling.

One of the early admirers of Ephrem's works, theologian Jacob of Serugh (d. 521), who already belonged to the generation that accepted the custom of a double naming of their language not only as Aramaic (Ārāmāyā) but also as "Syriac" (Suryāyā), wrote a homily (memrā) dedicated to Ephrem, praising him as the crown or wreath of the Arameans, and the same praise was repeated in early liturgical texts. Only later, under the Greek influence already prevalent in the works of the middle fifth century author Theodoret of Cyrus, did it became customary to associate Ephrem with Syriac identity, and label him only as "the Syrian", thus blurring his Aramaic self-identification, attested by his own writings and works of other Aramaic-speaking writers, and also by examples from the earliest liturgical tradition.

Some of those problems persisted up to the recent times, even in scholarly literature, as a consequence of several methodological problems within the field of source editing. During the process of critical editing and translation of sources within Syriac studies, some scholars have practiced various forms of arbitrary (and often unexplained) interventions, including the occasional disregard for the importance of original terms, used as endonymic (native) designations for Arameans and their language (ārāmāyā). Such disregard was manifested primarily in translations and commentaries, by replacement of authentic terms with polysemic Syrian/Syriac labels. In previously mentioned memrā, dedicated to Ephrem, one of the terms for Aramean people ( / Arameandom) was published correctly in original script of the source, but in the same time it was translated in English as "Syriac nation", and then enlisted among quotations related to "Syrian/Syriac" identity, without any mention of Aramean-related terms in the source. Even when noticed and corrected by some scholars, such replacements of terms continue to create problems for others.

Several translations of his writings exist in Classical Armenian, Coptic, Old Georgian, Koine Greek and other languages. Some of his works are extant only in translation (particularly in Armenian).

Writings
Over four hundred hymns composed by Ephrem still exist. Granted that some have been lost, Ephrem's productivity is not in doubt. The church historian Sozomen credits Ephrem with having written over three million lines. Ephrem combines in his writing a threefold heritage: he draws on the models and methods of early Rabbinic Judaism, he engages skillfully with Greek science and philosophy, and he delights in the Mesopotamian/Persian tradition of mystery symbolism.

The most important of his works are his lyric, teaching hymns (ܡܕܖ̈ܫܐ, madrāšê). These hymns are full of rich, poetic imagery drawn from biblical sources, folk tradition, and other religions and philosophies. The madrāšê are written in stanzas of syllabic verse and employ over fifty different metrical schemes. The form is defined by an antiphon, or congregational refrain (ܥܘܢܝܬܐ, ‘ûnîṯâ), between each independent strophe (or verse), and the refrain's melody mimics that of the opening half of the strophe. Each madrāšâ had its qālâ (ܩܠܐ), a traditional tune identified by its opening line. All of these qālê are now lost. It seems that Bardaisan and Mani composed madrāšê, and Ephrem felt that the medium was a suitable tool to use against their claims. The madrāšê are gathered into various hymn cycles. Each group has a title — Carmina Nisibena, On Faith, On Paradise, On Virginity, Against Heresies — but some of these titles do not do justice to the entirety of the collection (for instance, only the first half of the Carmina Nisibena is about Nisibis). Some of these hymn cycles provide implicit insight into Ephrem's perceived level of comfort with incorporating feminine imagery into his writings. One such hymn cycle was Hymns on the Nativity, centered around Mary, which contained 28 hymns and had the clearest pervasive theme of Ephrem's hymn cycles. An example of feminine imagery is found when Ephrem writes of the baby Jesus: "he was lofty but he sucked Mary's milk and from his blessings all creation sucks."

Particularly influential were his Hymns Against Heresies. Ephrem used these to warn his flock of the heresies that threatened to divide the early church. He lamented that the faithful were "tossed to and fro and carried around with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness and deceitful wiles" (Eph 4:14). He devised hymns laden with doctrinal details to inoculate right-thinking Christians against heresies such as docetism. The Hymns Against Heresies employ colourful metaphors to describe the Incarnation of Christ as fully human and divine. Ephrem asserts that Christ's unity of humanity and divinity represents peace, perfection and salvation; in contrast, docetism and other heresies sought to divide or reduce Christ's nature and, in doing so, rend and devalue Christ's followers with their false teachings.

Performance Practices and Gender
The relationship between Ephrem's compositions and femininity is shown again in documentation suggesting that the madrāšê were sung by all-women choirs with an accompanying lyre. These women's choirs were composed of members of the Daughters of the Covenant, an important institution in historical Syriac Christianity, but they weren't always labeled as such. Ephrem, like many Syriac liturgical poets, believed that women's voices were important to hear in the church as they were modeled after Mary, mother of Jesus, whose acceptance of God's call led to salvation for all through the birth of Jesus. One variety of the madrāšê, the soghyatha, was sung in a conversational style between male and female choirs. The women's choir would sing the role of biblical women, and the men's choir would sing the male role. Through the role of singing Ephrem's madrāšê, women's choirs were granted a role in worship.

Further writings
Ephrem also wrote verse homilies (ܡܐܡܖ̈ܐ, mêmrê). These sermons in poetry are far fewer in number than the madrāšê. The mêmrê were written in a heptosyllabic couplets (pairs of lines of seven syllables each).

The third category of Ephrem's writings is his prose work. He wrote a biblical commentary on the Diatessaron (the single gospel harmony of the early Syriac church), the Syriac original of which was found in 1957. His Commentary on Genesis and Exodus is an exegesis of Genesis and Exodus. Some fragments exist in Armenian of his commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles and Pauline Epistles.

He also wrote refutations against Bardaisan, Mani, Marcion and others.

Syriac churches still use many of Ephrem's hymns as part of the annual cycle of worship. However, most of these liturgical hymns are edited and conflated versions of the originals.

The most complete, critical text of authentic Ephrem was compiled between 1955 and 1979 by Dom Edmund Beck, OSB, as part of the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium.

Ephrem is attributed with writing hagiographies such as The Life of Saint Mary the Harlot, though this credit is called into question.

One of the works attributed to Ephrem was the Cave of Treasures, written by a much later but unknown author, who lived at the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century.

Symbols and metaphors
Ephrem's writings contain a rich variety of symbols and metaphors. Christopher Buck gives a summary of analysis of a selection of six key scenarios (the way, robe of glory, sons and daughters of the Covenant, wedding feast, harrowing of hell, Noah's Ark/Mariner) and six root metaphors (physician, medicine of life, mirror, pearl, Tree of life, paradise).

Greek Ephrem
Ephrem's meditations on the symbols of Christian faith and his stand against heresy made him a popular source of inspiration throughout the church. There is a huge corpus of Ephrem pseudepigraphy and legendary hagiography in many languages. Some of these compositions are in verse, often mimicking Ephrem's heptasyllabic couplets.

There is a very large number of works by "Ephrem" extant in Greek. In the literature this material is often referred to as "Greek Ephrem", or Ephraem Graecus (as opposed to the real Ephrem the Syrian), as if it was by a single author. This is not the case, but the term is used for convenience. Some texts are in fact Greek translations of genuine works by Ephrem. Most are not. The best known of these writings is the Prayer of Saint Ephrem, which is recited at every service during Great Lent and other fasting periods in Eastern Christianity.

There are also works by "Ephrem" in Latin, Slavonic and Arabic. "Ephrem Latinus" is the term given to Latin translations of "Ephrem Graecus". None is by Ephrem the Syrian. "Pseudo Ephrem Latinus" is the name given to Latin works under the name of Ephrem which are imitations of the style of Ephrem Latinus.

There has been very little critical examination of any of these works. They were edited uncritically by Assemani, and there is also a modern Greek edition by Phrantzolas.

Veneration as a saint
Soon after Ephrem's death, legendary accounts of his life began to circulate. One of the earlier "modifications" is the statement that Ephrem's father was a pagan priest of Abnil or Abizal. However, internal evidence from his authentic writings suggest that he was raised by Christian parents.

Ephrem is venerated as an example of monastic discipline in Eastern Christianity. In the Eastern Orthodox scheme of hagiography, Ephrem is counted as a Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted monk). His feast day is celebrated on 28 January and on the Saturday of the Venerable Fathers (Cheesefare Saturday), which is the Saturday before the beginning of Great Lent.

On 5 October 1920, Pope Benedict XV proclaimed Ephrem a Doctor of the Church ("Doctor of the Syrians").

The most popular title for Ephrem is Harp of the Spirit (Syriac: ܟܢܪܐ ܕܪܘܚܐ, Kenārâ d-Rûḥâ). He is also referred to as the Deacon of Edessa, the Sun of the Syrians and a Pillar of the Church.

His Roman Catholic feast day of 9 June conforms to his date of death. For 48 years (1920–1969), it was on 18 June, and this date is still observed in the Extraordinary Form.

Ephrem is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on June 10.

Ephrem is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 9 June.

Translations

 * Sancti Patris Nostri Ephraem Syri opera omnia quae exstant (3 vol), by Peter Ambarach Rome, 1737–1743.
 * Ephrem the Syrian Hymns, introduced by John Meyendorff, translated by Kathleen E. McVey. (New York: Paulist Press, 1989) ISBN 0-8091-3093-9
 * St. Ephrem Hymns on Paradise, translated by Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990). ISBN 0-88141-076-4
 * Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709 with Introduction and Notes, translated by Carmel McCarthy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
 * St. Ephrem the Syrian Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on our Lord, Letter to Publius, translated by Edward G. Mathews Jr., and Joseph P. Amar. Ed. by Kathleen McVey. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1994). ISBN 978-0-8132-1421-4
 * St. Ephrem the Syrian The Hymns on Faith, translated by Jeffrey Wickes. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2015). ISBN 978-0-8132-2735-1
 * San Efrén de Nísibis Himnos de Navidad y Epifanía, by Efrem Yildiz Sadak Madrid, 2016 (in Spanish). ISBN 978-84-285-5235-6
 * Saint Ephraim the Syrian Eschatological Hymns and Homilies, translated by M.F. Toal and Henry Burgess, amended. (Florence, AZ: SAGOM Press, 2019). ISBN 978-1-9456-9907-8

title: Ephrem the Syrian


text:
Amiga Enhanced Chip Set

The Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) is the second generation of the Amiga computer's chipset, offering minor improvements over the original chipset (OCS) design. ECS was introduced in 1990 with the launch of the Amiga 3000. Another version was developed around 1994 but was unreleased due to Commodore International filing for bankruptcy. Amigas produced from 1990 onwards featured a mix of OCS and ECS chips, such as later versions of the Amiga 500 and the Commodore CDTV. Other ECS models were the Amiga 500+ in 1991 and lastly the Amiga 600 in 1992.

Features
The enhanced chip set had two new chips, the 8373 HR Agnus and 8375 HR Denise. The ECS Denise chip offers Productivity VGA output (640×480 non-interlaced) and SuperHiRes (1280×200 or 1280×256) display modes (also available in interlaced mode), which are however limited to only 4 bits on-screen colors. The Productivity output required a multi-sync monitor. It also allowed for a greyscale resolution of 1008 x 800 pixels with the A2024 monitor.

Some Amigas, such as the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000 came with the ECS version of the Agnus chip but the original chipset version (OCS) of the Denise chip. It is possible to upgrade one or both of them to obtain partial or full ECS functionality by replacing OCS chips with ECS versions. Not all OCS chipset computers were upgradable, some such as the Amiga 2000-A and the Amiga 1000 had different Agnus sockets.

ECS was followed by the third generation AGA chipset with the launch of the Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200 in 1992.

title: Amiga Enhanced Chip Set