gst the ealdormen, some declaring for the succession of Eadward
and others for the succession of AEthelred. The political quarrel was
complicated by an ecclesiastical quarrel. The supporters of Eadward
were the friends of the secular clergy; the supporters of AEthelred
were the friends of the monks. Dunstan, with his usual moderation,
gave his voice for the eldest son, and Eadward was chosen king and
crowned. Not only had he a strong party opposed to him, but he had a
dissatisfied step-mother in AElfthryth, the mother of AEthelred, whilst
his own mother, who had probably been married to Eadgar without full
marriage rites, had been long since dead. After reigning for four
years Eadward was murdered near Corfe by some of the opposite party,
and, as was commonly supposed, by his step-mother's directions.

[Footnote 4: Genealogy of the English kings from Eadgar to Eadgar
the AEtheling:--

EADGAR
959-975
|
-----------------------
| |
EADWARD AETHELRED
the Martyr the Unready
975-979 979-1016
|
-----------------------
| |
EADMUND EADWARD
Ironside the Confessor
1016 1042-1066
|
Eadward
the AEtheling
|
Eadgar
the AEtheling]

2. =AEthelred's Early Years. 979--988.=--AEthelred, now a boy of ten,
became king in =979=. The epithet the Unready, which is usually
assigned to him, is a mistranslation of a word which properly means
the Rede-less, or the man without counsel. He was entirely without the
qualities which befit a king. Eadmund had kept the great chieftains in
subordination to himself because he was a successful leader. Eadgar
had kept them in subordination because he treated them with respect.
AEthelred could neither lead nor show respect. He was always picking
quarrels when he ought to have been making peace, and always making
peace when he ought to have been fighting. What he tried to do was to
lessen the power of the great ealdormen, and bring the whole country
more directly under his own authority. In =985= he drove out AElfric,
the Ealdorman of the Mercians. In =988= Dunstan died, and AEthelred had
no longer a wise adviser by his side.

3. =The Return of the Danes. 984.=--It would have be