EDWY (EADWIG), "THE FAIR" (C. , king of the English, eldest son of Edmund and Aelfgifu, succeeded his uncle Eadred in 955, when he was about 15 years old. He was crowned at Kingston by Archbishop Odo. At the coronation feast he re tired with Aethelgifu (perhaps his foster-mother) and her daugh ter Aelfgifu, whom the king intended to marry. The nobles resented the king's withdrawal, and he was induced by Dunstan and Cynesige, bishop of Lichfield, to return to the feast. Edwy resented this interference, and in 957 at the instigation of Aethel gifu Dunstan was driven into exile. By the year 956 Aelfgifu had become the king's wife, but in 958 Archbishop Odo of Canterbury secured their separation on the ground of their being too closely akin. The chief men of Mercia and Northumbria were disgusted by Edwy's partiality for Wessex; and in the year 957 his brother, the Aetheling Edgar, was chosen as king by the Mercians and Northumbrians. It is probable that no actual conflict took place, and in 959, on Edwy's death, Edgar acceded peaceably to the combined kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria.
See The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ed. Plummer, 1892-99), sub. ann.; Memorials of St. Dunstan (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series) ; William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series) ; Birch, Cartu larium Saxonicum, vol. ii. Nos. 932-1046.