Norse activity in the British Isles the back and left shaggy on the front, whilst in contrast to this the latter typically wore their hair long. Under the reign of Wessex King Edgar the Peaceful, England came to be further politically unified, with Edgar coming to be recognized as the king of all England by both Anglo-Saxon and Norse populations living in the country. However, under the regimes of his son Edward the Martyr, who was murdered in 978, and then Æthelred the Unready, the political strength of the English monarchy waned, and in 980 Viking raiders from Scandinavia once more started making attacks against England.
Stigand would not have a son from his marriage, and he and his advisors began to search for an heir. Edward the Atheling, the son of King Edmund Ironside (reigned 1016), had been exiled from England in 1017, after his father's death. Although Ealdred, the Bishop of Worcester, went to the Continent in search of Edward the Exile, Ian Walker, the biographer of King Harold Godwinson, feels that Stigand was behind the effort. In the end, although Edward did return to England, he died soon after his return, leaving a young son Edgar the Ætheling. King Edward, on his deathbed, left