Uhtred was seen digging up his heathen wife in consecrated ground and then burning her on a funeral pyre, and prince Aethelwold craftily sets him up to be accused of desecration by the already hostile queen. Alfred wouldn't hear of punishment, but the gross phrasing by brother Godwin enrages Uhtred enough to smack the old monk, who makes a fatal fall. Now Alfred still offers to buy off banishment by 'weregeld', but the proud knight prefers to leave court with his faithful followers. On the road to his Danish brother Ragnar, he gets poisoned, but dares not kill the witch and recovers. Prince Aethelwold plots a grand coalition against Alfred, promising Mercian king Aethelred they can each have an Anglosaxon throne and convincing the rogue Dane leaders to put their differences aside to amass a great Danish army.