This strategy did not last long, and at Thunderfield Æthelstan returned to the hard line, softened by raising the minimum age for the death penalty to fifteen "because he thought it too cruel to kill so many young people and for such small crimes as he understood to be the case everywhere".
这一策略并没有施行很长时间，而且艾塞斯坦很快就在赞德菲尔德恢复了严酷的刑罚，只是将死刑的最小年龄提高到了15岁，因为他认为“对于这么个小罪行就处死年龄这么小的人是非常残忍的，尤其是几乎到处都有这种罪行发生。