Eadwig. Eadwig, also spelled Edwy, sometimes called the All-Fair, was King of England from 955 until his premature death.
The elder son of Edmund I and Alfgifu of Shaftesbury, Eadwig became king in 955 aged 15 following the death of his uncle Eadred. Eadwig's short reign was tarnished by disputes with nobles and men of the church, including Archbishops Dunstan and Oda.
He died in 959, having ruled less than four years. He was buried in the capital Winchester.
His brother Edgar the Peaceful succeeded him. According to the earliest life of St Dunstan, written around the year 1000, Eadwig left the banquet which followed his coronation in Kingston upon Thames, and was found cavorting with a noblewoman named Athelgifu and her daughter.
Dunstan dragged him back to the banquet, earning the enmity of Eadwig and the two women, and at Athelgifu's instigation Dunstan was deprived of his abbacy of Glastonbury and forced into exile. The contemporary record of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports Eadwig's accession and Dunstan fleeing England, but does not explain why Dunstan fled. Thus this report of a feud between Eadwig and Dunstan could either have been based on a true incident of a political quarrel for power between a young king and powerful church officials who wished to control the king and who later spread this legend to blacken his reputation, or it could be mere folklore; the Chronicle also
The elder son of Edmund I and Alfgifu of Shaftesbury, Eadwig became king in 955 aged 15 following the death of his uncle Eadred. Eadwig's short reign was tarnished by disputes with nobles and men of the church, including Archbishops Dunstan and Oda.
He died in 959, having ruled less than four years. He was buried in the capital Winchester.
His brother Edgar the Peaceful succeeded him. According to the earliest life of St Dunstan, written around the year 1000, Eadwig left the banquet which followed his coronation in Kingston upon Thames, and was found cavorting with a noblewoman named Athelgifu and her daughter.
Dunstan dragged him back to the banquet, earning the enmity of Eadwig and the two women, and at Athelgifu's instigation Dunstan was deprived of his abbacy of Glastonbury and forced into exile. The contemporary record of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports Eadwig's accession and Dunstan fleeing England, but does not explain why Dunstan fled. Thus this report of a feud between Eadwig and Dunstan could either have been based on a true incident of a political quarrel for power between a young king and powerful church officials who wished to control the king and who later spread this legend to blacken his reputation, or it could be mere folklore; the Chronicle also
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