Mercia under his brother.

Solemn and imposing was the meeting of the Witenagemot, or "assembly of
the wise." It was divided into three estates. The first consisted of the
only class who, as a rule, had any learning in those days--the clergy,
represented by the bishop, abbot, and their principal officials: the
second consisted of the vassal kings of Scotland, Cumbria, Wales, Mona,
the Hebrides, and other dependent states, the great earls, as of Mercia
or East Anglia, and other mighty magnates: the third, of the lesser
thanes, who were the especial vassals of the king, or the great
landholders, for the possession of land was an essential part of a title
to nobility.

Amongst these sat Ella of Aescendune, who, in spite of his age, had come
to the metropolis to testify his loyalty and fealty to the son of the
murdered Edmund, his old friend and companion in arms, and to behold his
own eldest son once more.

It was the morning of a beautiful day in early spring, one of those days
of which the poet has written--

"Sweet day, so calm, so pure, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky"

--when winter seems to have loosed its stern hold upon the frozen
earth, and the songs of countless birds welcome the bright sunlight, the
harbinger of approaching summer.

The roads leading to Kingston-on-Thames were thronged with travellers of
every degree--the ealdorman or earl with his numerous attendants, the