The next quarter century can be disposed of quite quickly as an interlude of Anglo-Saxon complacency between periods of Danish threat under three successive kings - the unpopular Eadwig the All-Fair (955-959), nephew of Edred, Edgar the Peaceable (959-975) and his ill-fated 13 year old son, Edward the Martyr (975-979).
Eadwig's reign is marked by a rebellion by his brother Edgar who is proclaimed King of Mercia in 957 (effectively ruling all England north of the Thames) before he acquires the throne in 959 on the death of his brother. Edgar unites the Kingdom. It is his reign that sees the high point of Church-State relations that we discussed in the previous posting in which Archbishop Dunstan, having engaged in a dynamic process of monastic reform, used his religious authority to buttress the authority of the King as 'Emperor of Britain' in 973.
Edgar's death in 973 placed the Kingdom in a very vulnerable position. Edward the Martyr was murdered at Corfe Castle and became revered as a martyr but his death handed the throne to the notorious Ethelred II the Unready. Within a year, the Danish raids had begun again.
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