acted to put a stop to all this." However, Simon Keynes comments: "whether Eadwig and Edgar were able to assert their own independence of action, or remained at the mercy of established interests at court, is unclear". Eadwig quarrelled with some of his uncle's leading counsellors, especially Dunstan, who he exiled abroad. Eadgifu had frequently attested charters in the reigns of her sons Edmund and Eadred, but she only attested one of Eadwig's, and she later alleged that she had been "despoiled of all her property" during his reign. On the other hand, Edgar was prominent at his brother's court between 955 and 957, attesting many of his charters, in one of which he is shown as regulus (underking). Some of the hostility towards Eadwig was probably due to his promotion of his friends, especially Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, at the expense of the old guard, such as Dunstan. Ælfhere and his brothers were acknowledged by several kings as relatives, but the nature of the relationship is unknown. They were close to Eadwig and he made the eldest brother, Ælfheah, his discifer (seneschal). Ælfheah and his wife Ælfswith, who was also acknowledged by Eadwig as a relative, benefited from his generosity. Ælfhere, who was to become the pre-eminent lay magnate until his death in 983, was appointed an ealdorman in Mercia in 956. Other ealdormen appointed were Æthelstan Rota in Mercia in late 955 and Byrhtnoth, the future hero of the Battle of Maldon, who became ealdorman of Essex in 956. Eadwig appointed Æthelwold, the eldest son of Æthelstan Half-King, as an ealdorman in East Anglia. These were sound appointments of men from established families and Edgar kept them when he came to power. Frank Stenton, in his "magisterial and massively authoritative" volume in the Oxford History of England, Anglo-Saxon England, comments that "it can at least be said for King Eadwig that he agreed to the promotion of good servants". King of Mercia, 957 to 959 In 957 the kingdom was divided between Eadwig, who kept Wessex, and Edgar who became king of Mercia, with the River Thames forming the boundary. It is uncertain whether this was the result of a coup against Eadwig or a decision to divide the kingdom between the brothers. The historian Christopher Lewis sees the division as the solution to "a dangerously unstable government and a court in deep crisis", while Sean Miller and