Edward was a great man; in statecraft and war certainly his father's equal. He was held in high regard on the Continent; five of his daughters married foreign princes, of whom Otho afterwards became Emperor of Germany. But in learning and in purity of life he compares indifferently with Alfred, and it has been thought that Athelstan, who succeeded him, was illegitimate. Concerning Athelstan's mother, the chronicler, William of Malmesbury, relates that she was the daughter of a shepherd, and, whilst watching her father's flock, fell asleep in the fields, and had an extraordinary dream. She dreamt that a globe of light, resembling the moon, shone out from her body, and that all England was illuminated by it. This she related to Edward's nurse, who was so struck by it that she adopted her, gave her a good education, and purposely threw her in the way of the king, by whom she had three children. On the death of Edward, the Mercians and West Saxons chose Athelstan for king, to the secret discontent of many of the nobility and clergy. Concerning this conspiracy, which was headed by a member of the royal house, named Alfred, William of Malmesbury tells a story which, even though we find it repeated several times in old English history, can hardly be accepted as genuine. Alfred, he says, had even taken private measures to seize Athelstan at Winchester, and put out his eyes. The plot being discovered, he was apprehended by the king's order, but would confess nothing; he obstinately persisted in protesting his innocence, and offered to purge himself by oath in the presence of the Pope, an ordeal looked upon in that age as infallible in discovering the truth, since he who was rash or wicked enough to forswear himself was certain, according to the superstition of the time, to meet with a signal punishment. Athelstan agreed to this, and sent him to Rome, to take the oath before Pope John. Shortly after the arrival of the accused in Rome, word was sent that Alfred, having sworn to his innocence before the Pope, suddenly fell into a fainting fit, which, lasting three days, ended with his life; and that the Pope, convinced by his death that he had committed perjury, had ordered his body to remain in the English college till the king's pleasure should be known; upon which Athelstan, pleased with being thus rid of his enemy, consented he should have Christian burial. His lands were, however, confiscated, and given to Malmesbury monastery, and the king had inserted in the grant an account of the whole conspiracy, "to testify to the world that he dedicated to God what was His own."