Ælfweard of Wessex

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply states that Ælfweard died soon after his father's death on 17 July 924 and that they were buried together at Winchester. Manuscript D of the Chronicle specifies that he outlived his father by only 16 days. No reign is explicitly attributed to him here. However, a list of West-Saxon kings in the 12th-century Textus Roffensis[1] mentions him as his father's successor, with a reign of four weeks.[2] He is also described as king in the New Minster Liber Vitae,[3][4] an 11th-century source based in part on earlier material. On the other hand, William of Malmesbury, summarising a text dating to the lifetime of Ælfweard's elder brother Æthelstan, states that Æthelstan succeeded under the terms of his father's will.[5]

This conflicting documentation has led to alternative interpretations, some modern historians concluding that he had succeeded his father in preference to his older half-brother Æthelstan, while others maintain that Æthelstan was the only heir to his father.[5] Alternatively, a divided rule has been suggested, since the so-called Mercian register of the Chronicle reports that Æthelstan became king of the Mercians, and William of Malmesbury, though denying a reign for Ælfweard, reports that Æthelstan was educated at the Mercian court of his aunt Æthelflæd.[2][5][6] In the view of Simon Keynes, Ælfweard was recognised as king in Wessex and Æthelstan in Mercia, and although it is possible that Edward intended a division of the kingdom after his death, it is more likely that the leaders of Wessex chose Ælfweard and Mercia set up Æthelstan in opposition.[7]

Ælfweard died only 16 days after his father, on 2 August 924 at Oxford, and was buried at the New Minster, Winchester. Æthelstan still had difficulty in securing acceptance in Wessex, and he was not crowned King of the Anglo-Saxons until 4 September 925.[7][8]

• Family tree of English monarchs

• Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan the first king of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1.
• Keynes, Simon (2001). "Rulers of the English, c.450–1066". In Michael Lapidge; John Blair; Simon Keynes; Donald Scragg (eds.). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1.
• Lapidge, Michael (2001). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1.
• Mynors, R. A. B.; Thomson, R. M.; Winterbottom, M., eds. (1998). William of Malmesbury: Gesta Regum Anglorum, The History of the English Kings. Vol. I. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820678-1.
• Walker, Ian W. (2000). Mercia and the Making of England. Sutton Pub Limited. ISBN 978-0-7509-2131-2.
• Williams, Ann, "Some Notes and Considerations on Problems Connected with the English Royal Succession, 860–1066", Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1978, R. Allen Brown, ed., Boydell & Brewer, 1979, 144–167.
• Yorke, Barbara. Bishop Æthelwold. His Career and Influence. Woodbridge, 1988.

• Keynes, Simon (1996). The Liber Vitae of the New Minster and Hyde Abbey in Winchester. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger. pp. 20–22.

• Ælfweard 4 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England