General Notes

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Mayflower PAF

Danish Duke of East Angles; father of Alware who m. Leofwine, Earl of Mercia.
[GRS 3.03, Automated Archives, CD#100]

Earl of East Anglia, one of the most powerful of the advisors of King Eadred.
Was not a fan of King Eadwig; foster-father of Eadgar who was elected king by
the Mercians and the Northumbrians when he was only 14. Under Edmund and
Eadred, Aethelstan was known as the "Half-king," on account of the influence
that he possessed. All the mentions that we have of him are to his credit: but
as he was on the winning side, and moreover was a close friend of Dunstan, this
is but what might have been expected. That he was no mere ambitious
self-seeker, anxious to exercise the powers of a regent, seems to be shown by
the fact that in 958 he resigned his ealdormanry, and retired into a monastery
within a year after Eadgar had been made king. His province, and some part at
least of his political power, passed to his sons, Aethelsige, Aethelweald and
Aethelwine, of whom the first two can be proved by charters to have been
already ealdormen before their father retired to his monastery. The third,
Aethelwine, succeeded ultimately (962) to the paternal ealdormanry of East
Anglia. [A History of England Prior to the Norman Conquest, pp. 538-542]