Æthelwulf is not listed in the index of Peter Hunter Blair's An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, first published in 1956, but in a new introduction to the 2003 edition Keynes listed him among people "who have not always been accorded the attention they might be thought to deserve ... for it was he, more than any other, who secured the political fortune of his people in the ninth century, and who opened up channels of communication which led through Frankish realms and across the Alps to Rome". [g] Egbert thus ensured support for Æthelwulf, who became the first son to succeed his father as West Saxon king since 641. [88], Kelly argues that most charters were based on genuine originals, including the First Decimation of 844. Instead of immediately attacking the strange men, he decides to camp close to the vikings. Athelwulf sets off the rescue Queen Kwenthrith, who is being held captive with her son in Mercia. [109] Æthelbald may also have acted out of resentment at the loss of patrimony he suffered as a result of the decimation. [59], The silver penny was almost the only coin used in middle and later Anglo-Saxon England. Her ear is removed, and she reveals that the father of her child is Athelstan. The following year the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records five different attacks on southern England. The five Old Minster charters are S 309-13. 1 In 855 Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome. David Murray 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. Nelson states that it is uncertain whether Osburh died or had been repudiated, The authenticity of the Winchester charter is accepted by. A proud man, Æthelwulf would not accept advice from his brother's soldiers. Wulfred had devoted his archiepiscopate to fighting against secular power over Kentish monasteries, but Ceolnoth now surrendered effective control to Æthelwulf, whose offer of freedom from control after his death was unlikely to be honoured by his successors. It is possible that the Canterbury mint continued to produce portrait coins at the same time. "[91] His eldest surviving sons Æthelbald and Æthelberht were then adults, while Æthelred and Alfred were still young children. 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. King Beorhtric of Wessex(786–802), married Offa's daughte… Lupus also wrote to his "most beloved friend" Felix, asking him to manage the transport of the lead. Aethelwulf was faced with repeated Viking incursions during his reign, and he met them with strong military skill. At Canterbury in 828 Egbert granted privileges to the bishopric of Rochester, and according to the historian of Anglo-Saxon England Simon Keynes, Egbert and Æthelwulf took steps to secure the support of Archbishop Wulfred. In the show, his marriage to Judith (a princess of Northumbria) is arranged by his father Ecbert and she gives birth to Aethelred and, through an affair with the cleric Athelstan, Alfred. He won a notable victory in 851 against Danish invaders at Aclea in Surrey. Updates? [14] For the latter, he left one tenth of his hereditary land to be set aside to feed the poor, and he ordered that three hundred mancuses be sent to Rome each year, one hundred to be spent on lighting the lamps in St Peter's at Easter, one hundred for the lights of St Paul's, and one hundred for the pope. Carolingian princesses rarely married and were usually sent to nunneries, and it was almost unknown for them to marry foreigners. Although empresses had been anointed before, this is the first definitely known anointing of a Carolingian queen. At 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. King Ælle † (Brother)younger unamed brother † [a] In 825, his father, King Egbert, defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending a long Mercian dominance over Anglo-Saxon England south of the Humber. Æthelwulf (of Northumbria) She was the daughter of Oslac, described by Asser, biographer of their son Alfred the Great, as "King Æthelwulf's famous butler",[b] a man who was descended from Jutes who had ruled the Isle of Wight. In Abels' view Æthelwulf sought loyalty from the aristocracy and church during the king's forthcoming absence from Wessex, and displayed a sense of dynastic insecurity also evident in his father's generosity towards the Kentish church in 838, and in an "avid attention" in this period to compiling and revising royal genealogies. His son Alfred later became one of the most successful kings in English history. [14], Æthelwulf was first recorded in 825, when Egbert won the crucial Battle of Ellandun in Wiltshire against King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending the long Mercian ascendancy over southern England. At Rochester, Bishop Beornmod produced only one issue, a cross-and-wedges design which was contemporary with Æthelwulf's Saxoniorum issue. His successors Ceolwulf I (821–23) and Beornwulf (823–26) restored relations with Archbishop Wulfred, and Beornwulf appointed a sub-king of Kent, Baldred. The two bishoprics of Wessex were Selborne in the west and Winchester in the east. [90], In the early 850s Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the West Saxon levies "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen that we have heard tell of up to the present day". Some historians such as Keynes and Abels think that his rule was then confined to the south-east,[112] while others such as Kirby think it is more likely that it was Wessex itself which was divided, with Æthelbald keeping Wessex west of Selwood, Æthelwulf holding the centre and east, and Æthelberht keeping the south-east. Finberg's terminology has been adopted, but his defence of the First Decimation generally rejected. Character Information [92][p] Kirby argues that the journey may indicate that Alfred was intended for the church,[94] while Nelson on the contrary sees Æthelwulf's purpose as affirming his younger sons' throneworthiness, thus protecting them against being tonsured by their elder brothers, which would have rendered them ineligible for kingship. This may have originated in Egbert's reign, and it becomes clear in the 840s, when Æthelwulf had a Frankish secretary called Felix. In 855 Danish Vikings stayed over the winter on Sheppey, before carrying on their pillaging of eastern England. Osburh had probably died, although it is possible that she had been repudiated. Many of its features are typical of 9th-century metalwork, such as the design of two birds, beaded and speckled borders, and a saltire with arrow-like terminals on the back. He was a respected warrior and commander and had been known to command Northumbria's armies … Kelly states that there are six charters, but she only lists five and she states that there are fourteen in total, whereas there would be fifteen if there were six Old Minster charters. Corrections? "[128] Early medieval writers, especially Asser, emphasise his religiosity and his preference for consensus, seen in the concessions made to avert a civil war on his return from Rome. Smyth dismisses all the Decimation Charters as spurious. He allied his kingdom, Wessex, with the kingdom of Mercia and thereby withstood the invasions. The Decimation Charters are divided by Susan Kelly into four groups: None of the charters are original, and Stevenson dismissed all of them as fraudulent apart from the Kentish one of 855. [87] Nelson states that the decimation took place in two phases, in Wessex in 854 and Kent in 855, reflecting that they remained separate kingdoms. [d] There were no children from Æthelwulf's marriage to Judith, and after his death she married his eldest surviving son and successor, Æthelbald. [26][f] Historians take differing views on the attitude of the new regime to the Kentish church. In 1994, Keynes defended the Wilton charters in group 2, and his arguments have been widely accepted.[76]. However, he made a grant of land in Somerset to his leading ealdorman, Eanwulf, and on 26 December 846 he granted a large estate to himself in South Hams in west Devon. [95], Æthelwulf set out for Rome in the spring of 855, accompanied by Alfred and a large retinue. He is known to have had two wives in succession, and so far as is known, Osburh, the senior of the two, was the mother of all his children. [28] However, the medievalist Nicholas Brooks argues that Wulfred's Mercian origin and connections proved a liability. Æthelwulf's coinage became debased by the end of his reign, and though the problem became worse after his death it is possible that the debasement prompted the changes in coin type from as early as 850. [34] At the same meeting Kentish monasteries chose Æthelwulf as their lord, and he undertook that, after his death, they would have freedom to elect their heads. A hoard of coins deposited at the beginning of Æthelwulf's reign in about 840, found in the Middle Temple in London, contained 22 coins from Rochester and two from Canterbury of the first issue of each mint. In addition West Saxon custom, described by Asser as "perverse and detestable", was that the wife of a king of Wessex could not be called queen or sit on the throne with her husband – she was just the king's wife. [47] King Wiglaf of Mercia died in 839 and his successor, Berhtwulf, revived the Mercian mint in London; the two kingdoms appear to have struck a joint issue in the mid-840s, possibly indicating West Saxon help in reviving Mercian coinage, and showing the friendly relations between the two powers. These were followed by an inscribed cross design that was uniform with Æthelwulf's final coinage. [14] The art historian David Wilson sees it as a survival of the pagan tradition of the generous king as the "ring-giver". [100] Ryan sees it as an attempt to placate the divine wrath displayed by Viking attacks,[86] whereas Nelson thinks he aimed to enhance his prestige in dealing with the demands of his adult sons. He left a bequest to be inherited by whichever of Æthelbald, Æthelred, and Alfred lived longest. 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. It was more a display of the king's international standing and a demonstration of the prestige his dynasty enjoyed in Frankish and papal circles. [10], England had suffered Viking raids in the late 8th century, but no attacks are recorded between 794 and 835, when the Isle of Sheppey in Kent was ravaged. 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.