WESSEX Æthelwulf

Abt 0800 - Abt 0858  (58 years)

• Name	WESSEX Æthelwulf
  Birth	Abt 0800	England
  Gender	Male
  Death	Abt 13 Jan 0858	England
  Notes	Æthelwulf was the son of Ecgberht. There is no clear source for the name of his mother,[1] though a late source names her as "Rædburh, regis Francorum sororia" - Rædburh, sister of the king of the Franks[2] - and this is hesitantly reflected in Medlands.[3] His birth date is uncertain, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records him being with the army in 825,[4] so he will almost certainly have been born by 810, and possibly around 800. During his father's reign in Wessex, Æthelwulf acted as sub-king of Kent.[1] Some charters suggest that Æthelwulf was ruling Kent by the mid-820s, but these charters are of doubtful validity.[2] In 839 he succeeded to the kingdom of Wessex on his father's death, making his oldest son Athelstan sub-king of Kent.[1][4] Kent - which had previously had ties to Mercia - became increasingly linked to Wessex, though it was not formally incorporated into Wessex, and, after he became king of Wessex, Æthelwulf had his main mint at Canterbury.[1] There had been a long-running dispute with Mercia over control of Berkshire: by 850 this was settled in Wessex's favour.[3] Æthelwulf's reign was characterised by an intensification of Viking attacks. In 843 he fought unsuccessfully against a Danish force at Carhampton, Somerset. In 851, he and his son Æthelbald won a victory at a place called Aclea (location unknown) against Vikings who had attacked Canterbury and London and defeated a Mercian army.[1][4][5] In 853 Æthewlulf helped his son-in-law Burghred against the Welsh.[1][4][5] That year he sent his son Alfred, the future Alfred the Great, to Rome, where Asser claims that the Pope anointed Alfred as king,[5] though this is doubtful.[6] In 855 Æthelwulf granted the church a tenth of his lands.[4][7] There are a significant number of surviving charters of religious houses purporting to record grants that were part of this, but most of them may be later fabrications.[8] Æthelwulf's first wife was Osburh according to Asser's biography of King Alfred.[5] The date of their marriage is not known. She is normally regarded as the mother of Æthelwulf's children:[1] Athelstan Æthelbald Æthelberht Æthelred Alfred the Great Æthelswith Osburh presumably died by 856, when Æthelwulf remarried.[1] In 855 Æthelwulf made a pilgrimage to Rome, staying about a year, and making generous gifts to the church of St Peter, and to the clergy and people of Rome.[1] According to Asser, Æthelwulf's son Alfred accompanied him.[5] On his way back, he stopped for several months in the kingdom of Charles the Bald, king of the West Franks. There, in July 856, he was betrothed to Charles's daughter Judith. They married on 1 October 856, and Æthelwulf had her formally consecrated as queen, which was fairly unusual.[1] The marriage strengthened already existing links between Wessex and the Franks: from the 840s, one of Æthelwulf's main officials had been a Frank called Felix.[1] While he was abroad, Æthelwulf's son Æthelbald was left in charge of Wessex, and Æthelberht became sub-king of Kent. Asser, in his Life of King Alfred, states that there was a plot, in which Æthelbald was involved, to try and prevent Æthelwulf from resuming kingship of Wessex:[5] this may have been because Æthelbald feared his rights to the throne of Wessex might be threatened by a child of his father's second marriage.[1] There is, though, no mention of any such rebellion in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and Asser's account of Æthelbald is clearly written from a very hostile viewpoint. Whatever the facts, Æthelwulf divided his realm between himself and Æthelbald, with Æthelbald becoming king of western Wessex, while Æthelwulf kept control of eastern Wessex.[1] According to Asser, the division was made to avoid civil war.[5] Æthelwulf died in early 858. John of Worcester, writing in the 12th century, gives the death date as 13 January 858,[2] there appears to be no earlier source to confirm this; though the Annuls of Ulster record that in the year 858, Cinaed son of Ailpín, king of the Picts, and Ethelwulf, king of the Saxons, died.[9] He was initially buried at Steyning, Sussex: his remains were later transferred to Winchester.[1] It is thought that they may be among the bones in surviving mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral.[10] In his will, Æthelwulf provided that his two oldest surviving sons, Æthelbald and Æthelberht, should share in the rule of his realm bequeathed most of his private property to his children and other relatives made a charitable bequest to the poor stipulated that each year three hundred mancuses - £37 10s - should be sent to the Church in Rome[5] Æthelbald succeeded to the kingdom of Wessex, and Æthelberht to Kent.[4] Sources ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Janet L Neslon for 'Æthelwulf', print and online 2004 ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Henry Project, entry for Æthelwulf ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cawley, Charles. "Medieval Lands": A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families © by Charles Cawley, hosted by Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG). See also WikiTree's source page for MedLands.Entry for ÆTHELWULF, son of ECGBERHT King of Wessex ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Michael Swanton (editor and translator). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, new edition, Phoenix Press, 2000, pp. 60-67 ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Asser. Life of King Alfred, translated by Albert S Cook, Ginn and Company, 1906, pp. 2-11, Internet Archive ↑ Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge (translators and editors). Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, Penguin Books, 1983, p. 232, note 19 ↑ A J Robertson. Anglo-Saxon Charters, 2nd edition, 1956, reissued by Cambridge University Press in 2009, pp. 14-15 ↑ Dorothy Whtekock (ed.). English Historical Documents, Volume I, c.500-1042, 2nd edition, Eyre Methuen, 1979, p. 525 ↑ Celt corpus of Electronic texts : Annals of Ulster : U858.2 ↑ 'The riddle of Winchester Cathedral's skeletons', BBC News website, 18 May 2019, accessed 29 June 2021 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Janet L Neslon for 'Æthelwulf', print and online 2004 Cawley, Charles. "Medieval Lands": A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families © by Charles Cawley, hosted by Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG). See also WikiTree's source page for MedLands.Entry for ÆTHELWULF, son of ECGBERHT King of Wessex The Henry Project, entry for Æthelwulf Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol. 18, pp. 40-43, entry for 'ETHELWULF, ÆTHELWULF, ADELWLF, or ATHULF (d. 858)', Wikisource Wikipedia: Æthelwulf, King of Wessex See also: Yorke, Barbara. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, Routledge, 1990 Humble, Richard. The Saxon Kings. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980. 41 Kirby, D P. The Earliest English Kings, 2nd edition, Routledge, 2000, pp. 155-172
  Person ID	I58458	Freeman-Smith
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026

  
  

  Father	WESSEX Ecgberht,   b. 0775, Wessex, England d. 0839, Wessex, England (Age ~ 64 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	UNKNOWN Redburga,   b. Abt 0788   d. 13 Jan 0857, Wessex, England (Age 69 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F26106	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	UNKNOWN Osburh,   b. Abt 0810, Wessex, England d. Bef 0856, Wessex, England (Age < 45 years)
  Marriage	0825	Wessex, England
  Children	1. WESSEX Ælfred,   b. 0849, Wantage, Berkshire, Wessex, England d. 26 Oct 0899, Wessex, England (Age ~ 50 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F26065	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026