On King Edward's accession to the throne, there was a great famine in the land and violent attacks were stirred up against monasteries by a prominent noblemen who wanted the lands which his father King Edgar had endowed to them. Many of these monasteries were destroyed, and the monks forced to flee. However, the King stood firm together with archbishop Dunstan to defend the Church and the monasteries. For this, some of the nobles decided to remove him and replace him with his younger brother Ethelred.