July 17, 924. Edward dies
Ælfweard, Edward's son, succeeds (in Wessex?)
August 924. Ælfweard dies
Æthelstan, Edward's son, succeeds
September 4, 925. Æthelstan's coronation

Pulling together information from several pre-Conquest sources we can say that Edward died on July 17, 924, at Farndon in Mercia. His son Ælfweard was recognized as king at least in Winchester (the Liber Vitae of the New Minster at Winchester calls him king, and one version of the West Saxon regnal list includes his reign), but he died either 16 days or 4 weeks later (either way, in the first half of August 924). Both Edward and Ælfweard were buried at the New Minster. No version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Ælfweard's kingship: the West Saxon branch says only that Edward died and Æthelstan succeeded, while the Mercian annals say that Edward died, Ælfweard died shortly after (without suggesting that Ælfweard was king), the Mercians chose Æthelstan as king, and he was consecrated at Kingston. A charter issued on the day of Æthelstan's coronation gives us the date, September 4, 925 (S 394).

The puzzle in all this is why was the coronation delayed for over a year, from Ælfweard's death in August 924 until September 925? Pre-Conquest sources shed no light on this problem, so later sources must be cautiously invoked. From William of Malmesbury's writings in the 12th century come hints that the delay should be seen in terms of a division between the Mercians and the West Saxons.

First of all, William adds the detail that Edward died shortly after putting down an English and British revolt in Chester (in Mercian territory; Farndon, where the Mercian annals report Edward died, is nearby). Unfortunately the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is blank for the last three years of Edward's reign, so there is no contemporary corroboration of this revolt, but in view of the apparent resentment in the Mercian annals of the treatment of Ælfwyn in 918, a Mercian revolt is plausible. (Another reason for revolt might be the reorganization of western Mercia into shires, which it has been suggested took place in the last years of Edward's reign, after his assertion of direct control over Mercia in 918; see Gelling, p.141. These new boundaries ran rough-shod over the older divisions of Mercia, and the rearrangement would probably have caused at least as much outrage in the 10th as it did in the 20th century.)

William also notes that Æthelstan was brought up at the court of Æthelred and Æthelflæd. This might have made him more acceptable as a ruler to the Mercians, though this might well depend on what part he played (if any) in the suppression of Ælfwyn in 918 and the Mercian revolt at Chester in 924 (if this really happened). If he had sided with the Mercians against his father on either occasion, it might also have made him less acceptable as a ruler to the West Saxons. That some of the West Saxons did object to Æthelstan is suggested by William's note that there was a conspiracy, led by a certain Alfred, to have Æthelstan blinded at Winchester. William reports that Alfred's conspiracy was based on the assertion that Æthelstan was illegitimate, the son of a concubine. This suggests that there may have been a faction, based perhaps at Winchester, which favoured the accession of Ælfweard's brother Edwin after Ælfweard's death in August 924. (According to William of Malmesbury, Ælfweard and Edwin were sons of Edward and Ælfflæd, while Æthelstan was the son of Edward and Ecgwynn.)

Perhaps the Mercians chose Æthelstan as king immediately after Ælfweard's death in August 924, and the West Saxons chose Edwin, and it was the resolution of this conflict that delayed the coronation. (The only document of Æthelstan's reign witnessed by Edwin is a charter of the New Minster of Winchester, S 1417, which may strengthen the case that support for Ælfweard and Edwin was based at Winchester.) Edwin lived on until 933, when he was driven abroad by troubles in the kingdom and died at sea; later legend (perhaps inevitably) suggested that Æthelstan was somehow to blame.

D. Dumville, "The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List: Manuscripts and Texts", Anglia 104 (1986), pp.1-32 [for Ælfweard see p.29]

M. Gelling, The West Midlands in the Early Middle Ages (Leicester: 1992)

B. Yorke, "Æthelwold and the Politics of the Tenth Century", Bishop Æthelwold: His Career and Influence (Woodbridge: 1988), pp.65-88