tarrying there a whole year with his son, he had him crowned king by the pope, and a few days afterwards he set out on his return home, and by the way he married Judith, daughter of Charles king of the Franks, and brought her with him to England. But meantime, while the king tarried beyond the seas, a conspiracy was formed against him by certain nobles, headed by Athelbald the king's eldest son, Alstan bishop of Sherburne, and Eanwulf earl of Somerset, whose object it was to exclude the king for ever from the kingdom. Now the cause was twofold, the one because he had had his younger son Alfred crowned king at Rome, as if to the exclusion of his other sons from a share in the kingdom; the other because he had lightly esteemed all the women of England, and had married the daughter of the king of the Franks, a stranger. The aforesaid conspirators had moreover heard that, in violation of the customs and laws of the kings of the West-Saxons, he had bestowed the title of queen on his new wife, the daughter of the king of the Franks, and made her sit by his side at table ; whereas among the West-Saxons it is not permitted the queen to sit by the king, or even to be styled queen, but only the king's wife. This disgrace was brought upon them by Eadburga, daughter of king Offa and queen of the same people, who poisoned her husband king Brithric, and was wont, as she sat by the king, to accuse all the nobles of the kingdom, and those against whom she could not prevail by her accusations, she would take off by poison. On account of the wickedness, therefore, of this queen, which has been fully treated of before, they had all conspired never to permit a king to reign over them who should be found guilty in this respect. At length, on the return of the peaceful king Athelwulf from Rome, the aforesaid Athelbald his son, and his accomplices, attempted to carry their wicked plot into effect. But God Almighty did not permit it; for the king, with ineffable clemency, and with a view to prevent a worse than civil war raging between him and his son, repressed the conspiracy of the nobles and bishops by sharing with his son the kingdom of the West-Saxons, which had never before been divided, so that the eastern part of the kingdom fell to the son's lot, and the western portion remained with the father. And when all the nobility of the kingdom took part with the king, and would have deprived the son of the right of reign