It was in Eadgar's day indeed that London rose to the commercial greatness it has held ever since.
[Sidenote: Eadward the Martyr] Though Eadgar reigned for sixteen years, he was still in the prime of manhood when he died in 975.

His death gave a fresh opening to the great nobles.

He had bequeathed the crown to his elder son Eadward; but the ealdorman of East-Anglia, AEthelwine, rose at once to set a younger child, AEthelred, on the throne.

But the two primates of Canterbury and York who had joined in setting the crown on the head of Eadgar now joined in setting it on the head of Eadward, and Dunstan remained as before master of the realm.

The boy's reign however was troubled by strife between the monastic party and their opponents till in 979 the quarrel was cut short by his murder at Corfe, and with the accession of AEthelred, the power of Dunstan made way for that of ealdorman AEthelwine and the queen-mother.
Some years of tranquillity followed this victory; but though AEthelwine preserved order at home he showed little sense of the danger which threatened from abroad.