![]() ![]() Following Offa's death, King Coenwulf of Mercia (796–821) maintained Mercian dominance, but it is uncertain whether Beorhtric ever accepted political subordination, and when he died in 802 Ecgberht became king, perhaps with the support of Charlemagne. Ecgberht was the son of Ealhmund, who had briefly been King of Kent in 784. ![]() Beorhtric and Offa drove Æthelwulf's father Ecgberht into exile, and he spent several years at the court of Charlemagne in Francia. King Beorhtric of Wessex (786–802), married Offa's daughter in 789. ![]() Offa, king of Mercia from 757 to 796, was the dominant figure of the second half of the 8th century. Mercia was dominant until the 820s, and it exercised overlordship over East Anglia and Kent, but Wessex was able to maintain its independence from its more powerful neighbour. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.īackground Southern Britain in the middle of the ninth centuryĪt the beginning of the 9th century, England was almost completely under the control of the Anglo-Saxons, with Mercia and Wessex the most important southern kingdoms. Historians in the 21st century see him very differently, as a king who consolidated and extended the power of his dynasty, commanded respect on the continent, and dealt more effectively than most of his contemporaries with Viking attacks. In the 20th century Æthelwulf's reputation among historians was poor: he was seen as excessively pious and impractical, and his pilgrimage was viewed as a desertion of his duties. On Æthelwulf's death in 858 he left Wessex to Æthelbald and Kent to Æthelberht, but Æthelbald's death only two years later led to the reunification of the kingdom. When Æthelwulf returned to England, Æthelbald refused to surrender the West Saxon throne, and Æthelwulf agreed to divide the kingdom, taking the east and leaving the west in Æthelbald's hands. Æthelwulf spent a year in Rome, and on his way back he married Judith, the daughter of the West Frankish king Charles the Bald. In preparation he gave a "decimation", donating a tenth of his personal property to his subjects he appointed his eldest surviving son Æthelbald to act as King of Wessex in his absence, and his next son Æthelberht to rule Kent and the south-east. In 855 Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome. In 853, he joined a successful Mercian expedition to Wales to restore the traditional Mercian hegemony, and in the same year his daughter Æthelswith married King Burgred of Mercia. In 843, he was defeated in a battle against the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but he achieved a major victory at the Battle of Aclea in 851. The Vikings were not a major threat to Wessex during Æthelwulf's reign. After 830, Ecgberht maintained good relations with Mercia, and this was continued by Æthelwulf when he became king in 839, the first son to succeed his father as West Saxon king since 641. Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf with an army to Kent, where he expelled the Mercian sub-king and was himself appointed sub-king. In 825, his father, King Ecgberht, defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending a long Mercian dominance over Anglo-Saxon England south of the Humber. Æthelwulf ( Old English: Old English for "Noble Wolf" died 13 January 858) was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. ![]()
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