 Edward the Elder died in 924, leaving five sons by three marriages.Of these, Edmund and Eadred were infants and thus excluded from the succession.Edward's careful work of expansion was undone when the Mercians chose Edward's oldest son Æthelstan—probably raised in Mercia at the court of Æthelflæd—to be their king while the West Saxons picked Ælfweard, elder son of Edward's second wife Ælfflæd, who was perhaps Edward's own choice as successor.