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Source: Æthelred I, King of Wessex From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Titre	Æthelred I, King of Wessex From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ÆTHELRED , King of Wessex
ALFRED The Great King Of Wessex RF01

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Æthelred I (or Aethelred or Ethelred; Old English Æthel-ræd, meaning noble counsel;[1] 845/848 to 871) was King of Wessex from 865 until his death. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king. He succeeded his elder brother Æthelberht and was followed by his youngest brother, Alfred the Great. Æthelred had two sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold, who were passed over for the kingship on their father's death because they were still infants. Alfred was succeeded byhis son, Edward the Elder, and Æthelwold unsuccessfully disputed the throne with him. Æthelred's accession coincided with the arrival of the Viking Great Heathen Army in England. Over the next five years the Vikings conquered Northumbria and East Anglia, and at the end of 870 they launched a full-scale attack on Wessex. In early January 871 Æthelred was defeated at the Battle of Reading. Four days later he scored a victory in the Battle of Ashdown, but this was followed by two defeats at Basing and Meretun. He died shortly after Easter. Alfred was forced to buy off the Vikings, but he scored a decisive victory over them seven years later at the Battle of Edington. Æthelred's reign was important numismatically. Wessex and Mercia were close allies when he became king, and he carried the alliance further by adopting the Mercian Lunettes design, thus creating a unified coinage design for southern England for the first time. The common design foreshadowed the unification of England over the next sixty years and the reform coinage[a] of King Edgar I a century later. Æthelred's grandfather, Ecgberht, became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historian Richard Abels it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For two hundred years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since Ceawlin in the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty.[b] This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839 he was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf; all subsequent West Saxon kings were Ecgberht's descendants, and were also sons of kings.[4] At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. The Midland kingdom of Mercia dominated southern England, but its supremacy came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the Battle of Ellendun.[5] The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks.[6] In 853, King Burgred of Mercia requested West Saxon help to suppress a Welsh rebellion, and Æthelwulf led a West Saxon contingent in a successful joint campaign. In the same year Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter, Æthelswith.[7] In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its sub-king, Baldred, was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had also submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as King of Kent.[8] The Vikings ravaged the Isle of Sheppey in 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset,[9] but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom.[10] When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan (who died in the early 850s) as sub-king of Kent.[11] Ecgberht and Æthelwulf may not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent as they both appointed sons as sub-kings and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.[12] Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated at Carhampton.[11] In 850 Æthelstan defeated a Danish fleet off Sandwich in the first recorded naval battle in English history.[13] In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son Æthelbald defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took thevictory".[14] Æthelwulf died in 858 and was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex and by his next oldest son, Æthelberht, as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his father by two years and Æthelberht then for the first time united Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom.[15] Æthelred was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf. His mother, Osburh, was of West Saxon royal descent. According to the historian Sean Miller, Æthelred was probably a year or so older than his younger brother, the future Alfred the Great, who was born 848–9,[16] but Richard Abels says that Æthelred was around eight years old in 853, which would mean he was born about 845.[17] Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was written in the 890s, states that in 853 Alfred was sent by his father toRome and was consecrated by the Pope as king. Historians do not believe that he was consecrated king at this young age and the real nature of the ceremony is explained in an extract from a letter of Pope Leo IV to Æthelwulf, which records that he decorated Alfred "as a spiritual son, with the dignity of the belt and the vestments of the consulate, as is customary with Roman consuls". The contemporary Liber Vitae (confraternity book) of San Salvatore, Brescia, records the names of both Æthelred and Alfred, indicating that both brothers went to Rome. It is likely that Æthelred was also decorated by the pope, but the ceremony was later regarded as foreshadowing Alfred's greatness and neither the chronicler nor the eleventh-century extractor from the Pope's letters were interested in recording the presence of his lesser known elder brother.[18] Æthelred first witnessed his father's charters as filius regis (king's son) in 854, and he witnessed with this title until he succeeded to the throne in 865. He may have acted as an underking before his accession, as in 862 and 863 he issued his own charters as King of the West Saxons. This must have been as deputy or in the absence of his elder brother, King Æthelberht, as there is no record of conflict between them and he continued to witness his brother's charters as a king's son in 864.[19][c] Æthelred succeeded to the throne on Æthelberht's death in 865, and he married Wulfthryth at an unknown date. West Saxon kings' wives had a low status in the ninth century and very little is known about them. They were not usually given the title of regina(queen), an omission which Alfred the Great justified on the ground of the misconduct of a queen at the beginning of the ninth century. The name of Æthelred's wife is only known because she was recorded as a witness to one charter, S 340 of 868, where she is shown as Wulfthryth regina, suggesting that she had a higher status than other kings' wives. The only other ninth century king's wife known to have been given the title was Æthelwulf's second wife, Judith of Flanders, a great granddaughter of Charlemagne. Wulfthryth and Æthelred had two known sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold.[24][d] She may have been Mercian[27] or a daughter of Wulfhere, Ealdorman of Wiltshire, who forfeited his lands after being charged with deserting King Alfred for the Danes in about 878, perhaps because he attempted to secure Viking support for his elder grandson Æthelhelm's claim to the throne against Alfred.[28] Alfred records in the preamble to his will that Æthelwulf had left property jointly to three of his sons, Æthelbald, Æthelred and Alfred, with the proviso that the brother who lived longest would succeed to all of it. When Æthelbald died in 860, Æthelred and Alfred, who were still young, agreed to entrust their share to the new king, Æthelberht, on a promise that he would return it to them intact. When Æthelred succeeded to the throne, Alfred asked him at a meeting of the witan (assembly of leading men) to give him his share of the property. However, Æthelred said that he had attempted many times to divide it but had found it too difficult, and he would instead leave the whole to Alfred on his death. Some historians see the bequest as including the whole of Æthelwulf's bookland, his personal property which he could leave in his will (as opposed to the folkland which passed according to customary law and property earmarked for the support of the crown); it is further argued that it was considered desirablethat the bookland would be kept by the king, so Æthelwulf's provision implies that the throne would pass to each brother in turn.[29] However, other historians assert that the bequest had nothing to do with the kingship,[11] and Alfred Smyth argues that the bequest was provision for Æthelwulf's young sons when they reached adulthood, with Æthelbald as trustee and residuary beneficiary if they died young.[30] When Alfred succeeded, the supporters of Æthelred's infant sons complained that Alfred should have shared the property with them, and Alfred had his father's will read to a meeting of the witan to prove his right to keep the whole of the property.[31] Alfred rarely witnessed Æthelred's charters, and this together with the argument over their father'swill suggests that they may not have been on good terms. The historian Pauline Stafford suggests that Æthelred may have chosen to highlight his wife's status as queen in a charter in order to assert his own sons' claims to the succession.[32] information continues.....

Æthelred I (or Aethelred or Ethelred; Old English Æthel-ræd, meaning noble counsel;[1] 845/848 to 871) was King of Wessex from 865 until his death. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king. He succeeded his elder brother Æthelberht and was followed by his youngest brother, Alfred the Great. Æthelred had two sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold, who were passed over for the kingship on their father's death because they were still infants. Alfred was succeeded byhis son, Edward the Elder, and Æthelwold unsuccessfully disputed the throne with him.

Æthelred's accession coincided with the arrival of the Viking Great Heathen Army in England. Over the next five years the Vikings conquered Northumbria and East Anglia, and at the end of 870 they launched a full-scale attack on Wessex. In early January 871 Æthelred was defeated at the Battle of Reading. Four days later he scored a victory in the Battle of Ashdown, but this was followed by two defeats at Basing and Meretun. He died shortly after Easter. Alfred was forced to buy off the Vikings, but he scored a decisive victory over them seven years later at the Battle of Edington.

Æthelred's reign was important numismatically. Wessex and Mercia were close allies when he became king, and he carried the alliance further by adopting the Mercian Lunettes design, thus creating a unified coinage design for southern England for the first time. The common design foreshadowed the unification of England over the next sixty years and the reform coinage[a] of King Edgar I a century later.
Æthelred's grandfather, Ecgberht, became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historian Richard Abels it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For two hundred years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since Ceawlin in the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty.[b] This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839 he was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf; all subsequent West Saxon kings were Ecgberht's descendants, and were also sons of kings.[4]

At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. The Midland kingdom of Mercia dominated southern England, but its supremacy came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the Battle of Ellendun.[5] The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks.[6] In 853, King Burgred of Mercia requested West Saxon help to suppress a Welsh rebellion, and Æthelwulf led a West Saxon contingent in a successful joint campaign. In the same year Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter, Æthelswith.[7]

In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its sub-king, Baldred, was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had also submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as King of Kent.[8] The Vikings ravaged the Isle of Sheppey in 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset,[9] but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom.[10] When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan (who died in the early 850s) as sub-king of Kent.[11] Ecgberht and Æthelwulf may not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent as they both appointed sons as sub-kings and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.[12]

Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated at Carhampton.[11] In 850 Æthelstan defeated a Danish fleet off Sandwich in the first recorded naval battle in English history.[13] In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son Æthelbald defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took thevictory".[14] Æthelwulf died in 858 and was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex and by his next oldest son, Æthelberht, as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his father by two years and Æthelberht then for the first time united Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom.[15]

Æthelred was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf. His mother, Osburh, was of West Saxon royal descent. According to the historian Sean Miller, Æthelred was probably a year or so older than his younger brother, the future Alfred the Great, who was born 848–9,[16] but Richard Abels says that Æthelred was around eight years old in 853, which would mean he was born about 845.[17] Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was written in the 890s, states that in 853 Alfred was sent by his father toRome and was consecrated by the Pope as king. Historians do not believe that he was consecrated king at this young age and the real nature of the ceremony is explained in an extract from a letter of Pope Leo IV to Æthelwulf, which records that he decorated Alfred "as a spiritual son, with the dignity of the belt and the vestments of the consulate, as is customary with Roman consuls". The contemporary Liber Vitae (confraternity book) of San Salvatore, Brescia, records the names of both Æthelred and Alfred, indicating that both brothers went to Rome. It is likely that Æthelred was also decorated by the pope, but the ceremony was later regarded as foreshadowing Alfred's greatness and neither the chronicler nor the eleventh-century extractor from the Pope's letters were interested in recording the presence of his lesser known elder brother.[18]

Æthelred first witnessed his father's charters as filius regis (king's son) in 854, and he witnessed with this title until he succeeded to the throne in 865. He may have acted as an underking before his accession, as in 862 and 863 he issued his own charters as King of the West Saxons. This must have been as deputy or in the absence of his elder brother, King Æthelberht, as there is no record of conflict between them and he continued to witness his brother's charters as a king's son in 864.[19][c]

Æthelred succeeded to the throne on Æthelberht's death in 865, and he married Wulfthryth at an unknown date. West Saxon kings' wives had a low status in the ninth century and very little is known about them. They were not usually given the title of regina(queen), an omission which Alfred the Great justified on the ground of the misconduct of a queen at the beginning of the ninth century. The name of Æthelred's wife is only known because she was recorded as a witness to one charter, S 340 of 868, where she is shown as Wulfthryth regina, suggesting that she had a higher status than other kings' wives. The only other ninth century king's wife known to have been given the title was Æthelwulf's second wife, Judith of Flanders, a great granddaughter of Charlemagne. Wulfthryth and Æthelred had two known sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold.[24][d] She may have been Mercian[27] or a daughter of Wulfhere, Ealdorman of Wiltshire, who forfeited his lands after being charged with deserting King Alfred for the Danes in about 878, perhaps because he attempted to secure Viking support for his elder grandson Æthelhelm's claim to the throne against Alfred.[28]

Alfred records in the preamble to his will that Æthelwulf had left property jointly to three of his sons, Æthelbald, Æthelred and Alfred, with the proviso that the brother who lived longest would succeed to all of it. When Æthelbald died in 860, Æthelred and Alfred, who were still young, agreed to entrust their share to the new king, Æthelberht, on a promise that he would return it to them intact. When Æthelred succeeded to the throne, Alfred asked him at a meeting of the witan (assembly of leading men) to give him his share of the property. However, Æthelred said that he had attempted many times to divide it but had found it too difficult, and he would instead leave the whole to Alfred on his death. Some historians see the bequest as including the whole of Æthelwulf's bookland, his personal property which he could leave in his will (as opposed to the folkland which passed according to customary law and property earmarked for the support of the crown); it is further argued that it was considered desirablethat the bookland would be kept by the king, so Æthelwulf's provision implies that the throne would pass to each brother in turn.[29] However, other historians assert that the bequest had nothing to do with the kingship,[11] and Alfred Smyth argues that the bequest was provision for Æthelwulf's young sons when they reached adulthood, with Æthelbald as trustee and residuary beneficiary if they died young.[30] When Alfred succeeded, the supporters of Æthelred's infant sons complained that Alfred should have shared the property with them, and Alfred had his father's will read to a meeting of the witan to prove his right to keep the whole of the property.[31] Alfred rarely witnessed Æthelred's charters, and this together with the argument over their father'swill suggests that they may not have been on good terms. The historian Pauline Stafford suggests that Æthelred may have chosen to highlight his wife's status as queen in a charter in order to assert his own sons' claims to the succession.[32]

information continues.....