 In 871 King Ethelred I of Wessex, elder brother of Alfred the Great, was buried in the minster.Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder in 899, and Ethelred's son, Ethelwold, rebelled and attempted to claim the throne.He seized a nun, probably of Wimborne, and made a stand there, probably because of its symbolic importance as his father's burial place, but he was unable to gain enough support to fight Edward and fled to the Vikings of Northumbria.