Ælfthryth, wife of Edgar the brother of Ælfthryth's first husband, Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia. Supporting the unsuccessful claim of Æthelred were his mother, the Queen dowager, Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia. On 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth at Corfe Castle, King Edward was killed by servants of the Queen, leaving the way clear for Æthelred to be installed as king. Edward was soon considered a martyr, and later medieval accounts blamed Ælfthryth for his murder. According to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", King Edward was murdered at Corfe Castle in 978. As the king developed into a cult figure, a
Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia killed at the Battle of Maldon in 991 and Ælfheah's son Godwine may be the same person as Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey, who died in the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016. Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia Ælfhere (died in 983) was ealdorman of Mercia. His family, along with those of Æthelstan Half-King and Æthelstan Rota, rose to greatness in the middle third of the 10th century. In the reign of Edward the Martyr, Ælfhere was a leader of the anti-monastic reaction and an ally of Edward's stepmother Queen Dowager Ælfthryth. After the killing of Edward by Ælfthryth's servants in 978, Ælfhere