His relative Beorhtwulf then asked for permission to marry the widowed queen, Æfflæd, and when Wigstan refused, he had him murdered.
John of Worcester has a different version of Wigstan's parentage and death, which he dates to 849.
Wigstan was regarded as a saint, like many other Anglo-Saxon royals murdered for political reasons.
[2] She was the heir of her father and his brother Coenwulf, and, by the middle of the century, she was probably abbess of Winchcombe, as she was disposing of its property.
She died after 850, and may have been the mother of King Ceolwulf II[3] and Eadburh, wife of Æthelred Mucel.