Editing Eadred (section)

=== Administration ===
{{Further|Government in Anglo-Saxon England}}

Charters issued in the 930s and the 940s suggest continuity of royal government and smooth transitions between the reigns of Æthelstan, Edmund and Eadred.{{sfn|Keynes|1999|p=473}} Eadred's principal councillors were mainly people he had inherited from his brother Edmund, and in a few cases went back to his half-brother Æthelstan. Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, and [[Æthelstan Half-King|Ealdorman Æthelstan]] of East Anglia, had been advisers of King Æthelstan who had become dominant under Edmund. Ealdorman Æthelstan's power under Edmund and Eadred was so great that he became known as Æthelstan Half-King.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2004a|2a1=Williams|2y=2004b|3a1=Lapidge|3y=2009|3p=85}} His prestige was further increased when his wife [[Ælfwynn, wife of Æthelstan Half-King|Ælfwynn]] became foster-mother to Edmund's younger son Edgar following his mother's early death. The Half-King's brother Eadric was ealdorman of central Wessex, and Eadred granted him land in Sussex which Eadric gave to [[Abingdon Abbey]].{{sfn|Hart|1992|pp=574, 579}} [[Dunstan]], the [[Abbot of Glastonbury]] and a future [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], was one of Eadred's most trusted friends and advisers, and he attested many of Eadred's charters.{{sfnm|1a1=Brooks|1y=1984|1p=234|2a1=Huscroft|2y=2019|2p=181}} Eadgifu had been sidelined under the rule of her stepson Æthelstan, but she became powerful under the rule of her own sons Edmund and Eadred.{{sfn|Stafford|2004}} Ælfgar, the father of Edmund's second wife [[Æthelflæd of Damerham|Æthelflæd]], was ealdorman of Essex from 946 to 951. Edmund presented Ælfgar with a sword decorated with gold on its hilt and silver on its sheath, which Ælfgar subsequently gave to Eadred. Ælfgar consistently attested last among the ealdormen, and he may have been subordinate to Æthelstan Half-King.{{sfn|Hart|1992|pp=127–129}} Two thegns, Wulfric Cufing and another Wulfric who was Dunstan's brother, received massive grants of land from Edmund and Eadred, showing that royal patronage could transform minor local figures into great nobles.{{sfn|Brooks|1992|pp=8–10}} 

Eadred is one of the few later Anglo-Saxon kings for whom no law code is known to survive, although he may have issued the ''[[Hundred (county division)#Hundred|Hundred Ordinance]]''.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=2013|1p=8 n. 40|2a1=Williams|2y=1999|2p=93}} Ealdormen issued legal judgments on behalf of the king at a local level. One example during Eadred's reign concerned the theft of a woman, probably a slave. A man called Æthelstan of [[Sunbury-on-Thames|Sunbury]] was later found to have her in his possession and could not prove he had acquired her legally. He surrendered possession and paid compensation to the owner, but Ealdorman Byrhtferth ordered him to pay his ''wer'' (the value of his life) to the king, and when Æthelstan could not pay Byrhtferth required him to forfeit his Sunbury estate.{{sfn|Molyneaux|2015|pp=72, 111}} In 952, Eadred ordered "a great slaughter" of the people of [[Thetford]] in revenge for their murder of Abbot Eadhelm, perhaps of [[St Augustine's, Canterbury]]. This was the usual punishment for crimes committed by communities.{{sfnm|1a1=Stenton|1y=1971|1pp=562–563|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2p=223}} The historian [[Cyril Roy Hart|Cyril Hart]] suggests that Eadhelm may have been trying to establish a new monastery there, against the opposition of the local inhabitants.{{sfn|Hart|1992|p=600}} Force was fundamental to West Saxon kings' domination of England, and the historian George Molyneaux sees the Thetford slaughter as an example of their "intermittently unleashed crude but terrifying displays of coercive power".{{sfn|Molyneaux|2015|p=78}}

The Anglo-Saxon court was peripatetic, travelling around the country, and there was no fixed capital.{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=539}} Like other later Anglo-Saxon kings, Eadred's royal estates were mainly in Wessex and he and his court travelled between them. All known locations in Eadred's itinerary were in Wessex, apart from Tanshelf.{{sfnm|1a1=Yorke|1y=1995|1pp=101–102|2a1=Hill|2y=1981|2loc=Map 158}} There was also no central treasury, but Eadred did travel with his sacred relics, which were in the custody of his mass priests.{{sfnm|1a1=Chaplais|1y=1973|1p=48|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2pp=555–556}} According to Dunstan's first biographer, Eadred "handed over to Dunstan his most valuable possessions: many land charters, the old treasure of earlier kings, and various riches of his own acquiring, all to be guarded faithfully behind the walls of his monastery".{{sfn|Winterbottom|Lapidge|2011|p=61}} However, Dunstan was only one of the people entrusted with Eadred's treasures; there were others such as [[Wulfhelm II|Wulfhelm]], [[Bishop of Wells]]. When Eadred was dying, he sent for the property so that he could distribute it, but he died before Dunstan arrived with his share.{{sfnm|1a1=Winterbottom|1a2=Lapidge|1y=2011|1p=65|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2p=555 and n. 6|3a1=Brooks|3y=1992|3pp=13–14}} Ceremonial was important. A charter issued at Easter 949 describes Eadred as "exalted with royal crowns",{{sfnm|1a1=Huscroft|1y=2019|1p= 140|2a1=Molyneaux|2y=2015|2p=55 n. 34|ps=; {{cite web|url=https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/549.html|title= S 549}} }} displaying the king as an exceptional and charismatic character set apart from other men.{{sfn|Maddicott|2010|pp=18–19}}