Ecgbert

Ecgberht (771/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, or Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802 Ecgberht returned and took the throne. In Chester he is commemorated by a bas-relief in the porch of the Town Hall with the somewhat enigmatic label "KING EGBERT UNITING THE KINGDOMS MERCIA" and a lot of foot-kissing by what are presumably the then local administration in Chester. Ecgbert was the king of Wessex who saw Mercia reach its zenith and begin its decline, while the fortunes of Wessex were to improve. At the time that the bas-relief at the Town Hall was created it was believed that Ecgbert was the first king of all England. If he was, he was so only briefly.

Offa's Mercia
For 200 years (between 626 and 825), having annexed or gained submissions from five of the other six kingdoms of the Heptarchy (East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex), Mercia dominated England south of the River Humber: this period is known as the Mercian Supremacy. The reign of King Offa (757-796), who is best remembered for his Dyke that designated the boundary between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms, is sometimes known as the "Golden Age of Mercia". However, historians differ on whether building of the eponymous dyke was actually started by Offa and some have suggested that work on the dyke started much earlier.

In the early years of Offa's reign, it is likely that he consolidated his control of Midland peoples such as the Hwicce and the Magonsæte. Taking advantage of instability in the kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord, Offa also controlled the kingdom of Sussex by 771, though his authority did not remain unchallenged in either territory. In the 780s he extended Mercian Supremacy over most of southern England, allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and regained complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of East Anglia and had King Æthelberht II of East Anglia beheaded in 794, perhaps for rebelling against him. He was not the ruler of all England as his dominance never extended to Northumbria, though he gave his daughter Ælfflæd in marriage to the Northumbrian king Æthelred I in 792. Northumbria was soon to collapse into a renewal of the civil war that had been on and off for some years. A group of nobles conspired to assassinate Æthelred in April 796 and he was succeeded by Osbald: Osbald's reign lasted only twenty-seven days before he was deposed and Eardwulf became king on 14 May 796. This record of disputed succession was by no means unique to Northumbria, and the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex experienced similar troubles during the eighth and ninth centuries. In Wessex, from the death of Centwine in 685 to Egbert's seizure of power in 802, the relationships between successive kings are far from clear and few kings are known to have been close kinsmen of their predecessors or successors. The same may be true of Mercia from the death of Ceolred in 716 until the disappearance of the Mercian kingdom in the late ninth century. Offa died in July 796. His son Ecgfrith succeeded him but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf came to the throne.

A key source for the period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle was a West Saxon production, however, and is sometimes thought to be biased in favour of Wessex; hence it may not accurately convey the extent of power achieved by Offa, a Mercian.

Ecgbert
Historians do not agree on Ecgbert's ancestry. The earliest version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Parker Chronicle, begins with a genealogical preface tracing the ancestry of Ecgbert's son Æthelwulf (Alfred's father) back through Ecgbert, Ealhmund (thought to be Ealhmund of Kent), and the otherwise unknown Eoppa and Eafa to Ingild, brother of King Ine of Wessex, who abdicated the throne in 726. It continues back to Cerdic, founder of the House of Wessex. Ecgbert's descent from Ingild is accepted by historians, but not the earlier genealogy back to Cerdic. Some have argued that he was of Kentish origin, and that the West Saxon descent may have been manufactured during his reign to give him legitimacy.

Cynewulf's murder
Cynewulf became king of Wessex in 757 after his predecessor, Sigeberht, was deposed. He may have come to power under the influence of Æthelbald of Mercia, since he was recorded as a witness to a charter of Æthelbald shortly thereafter. However, it was not long before Æthelbald was assassinated (also in 757) and as a consequence, Mercia fell into a brief period of disorder as rival claimants to its throne fought. Cynewulf took the opportunity to assert the independence of Wessex: in about 758 he took Berkshire from the Mercians. In 779, Cynewulf was defeated by the new King of Mercia, Offa, at the Battle of Bensington, and Offa then retook Berkshire, and perhaps also London. The relationship between Offa and Cynewulf is not well documented, but it seems likely that Cynewulf maintained some independence from Mercian overlordship and there is no evidence to suggest Cynewulf subsequently became subject to Offa. In 786, Cynewulf was the victim of a surprise attack at his mistress's house in Merton by Cyneheard, brother of the deposed Sigeberht. Cynewulf was killed and Cyneheard was either killed or died very shortly after. The succession was contested by Ecgbert, but he was defeated by Beorhtric, maybe with Offa's assistance. The precise details are not clear, by some accounts hold that Egbert was forced to take refuge at the court of the powerful Offa and that Beorhtric responded by proposing an alliance between himself and Offa, which was to be cemented by his marriage to Offa's daughter Eadburh. He further requested that Offa deliver the rebel Ecgbert to him. Offa accepted Beorthric's offer for his daughter's hand in marriage, but instead of handing over Egbert to his enemy and certain death, he merely banished him from England.

Beorhtric's murder
Egbert was forced to flee to Francia, then ruled by the Emperor Charlemagne and is said to have served in his army. He remained safely in France for the rest of Beorhtric's reign in Wessex. According to Asser, Eadburh became all powerful, and often demanded the executions or exile of her enemies. She was also alleged to have assassinated those men whom she couldn't compel Beorhtric to kill through poisoning their food or drink. Beorhtric's dependency on Mercia continued into the reign of Cenwulf, who became king of Mercia a few months after Offa's death.

In 802, according to Asser, Eadburh attempted to poison a young favourite of the king but instead killed both of them. Eadburg subsequently fled to Francia and took refuge at the court of Charlemagne. There Asser relates that Charlemagne was smitten by the former queen. He brought in one of his sons and asked her which she preferred, him or his son, as a husband. She answered that, given the son's youth, she preferred the son. Charlemagne replied famously: "Had you chosen me, you would have had both of us. But, since you chose him, you shall have neither." He instead offered her a position as an abbess of a convent which she accepted. Soon though she was caught in a sexual affair with another Saxon man and, after being duly convicted, was expelled on the direct orders of Charlemagne, penniless, into the streets. In her last years she lived as a beggar on the streets of Pavia. It is possible that much of the blackening of her name by later writers may have been to discredit Beorhtric's line.

Ecgbert becomes king
When Beorhtric died in 802, Ecgberht came to the throne of Wessex, probably with the support of Charlemagne and perhaps also the papacy. The Mercians opposed his succession. Wessex was attacked by the Hwicce, under ealdorman Æthelmund (the Hwicce had originally formed a separate tribal kingdom, but by that time formed part of Mercia). Weohstan, a Wessex ealdorman and said by one source to be Egbert's brother-in-law, met him with men from Wiltshire. The Hwicce were defeated in the Battle of Kempsford, and Weohstan and Æthelmund slain.



Little is known of the first 20 years of Ecgberht's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain the independence of Wessex against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In 825 Ecgberht defeated Beornwulf of Mercia, ended Mercia's supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. In 829 he defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Ecgberht received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Ecgberht as a bretwalda or 'wide-ruler' of Anglo-Saxon lands.

West Saxon scribe described him as a bretwalda, meaning "wide-ruler" or "Britain-ruler", in a famous passage in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The relevant part of the annal reads, in the [C] manuscript of the Chronicle: ⁊ þy geare geeode Ecgbriht cing Myrcna rice ⁊ eall þæt be suþan Humbre wæs, ⁊ he wæs eahtaþa cing se ðe Bretenanwealda wæs (and the same year King Egbert conquered the kingdom of Mercia, and all that was south of the Humber, and he was the eighth king who was 'Wide Ruler'). Egbert seems to have plundered every territory he conquered - to quote Roger of Wendover: "When Egbert had obtained all the southern kingdoms, he led a large army into Northumbria, and laid waste that province with severe pillaging, and made King Eanred pay tribute". Egbert didn't even keep Mercia for that long - in 830, Mercia regained its independence under Wiglaf — the Chronicle merely says that Wiglaf "obtained the kingdom of Mercia again". Samuel Lewis (in his Topographical Dictionary of Wales) does not paint Egbert in a good light: "Immediately after surrender of Chester to Egbert of Wessex, the whole of the present county of Flint, being an open tract devoid of those rugged and almost inaccessible elevations which occupy so much of the rest of North Wales, became subject to the arms of that powerful monarch who carried his devastations to the foot of the mountains.". Egbert appears to have visited Chester but once, around 830. As one writer records:


 * During Egbert’s final war with Cornwall, the North Welsh had to the best of their ability aided their fellow Britons, and therefore Egbert launched a punitive expedition against them. He laid siege to and took Chester, then capital of the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd – strongest of all the several North Welsh states. Of the punishments Egbert visited upon these Britons, the most humiliating was his command that the statue of their ancient king, Cadwalhon, be destroyed and never replaced. When he returned to Wessex, Egbert decreed that all the Welsh and their offspring leave his kingdom within six months or be put to death. Egbert ordered this apparently at the instigation of his wife, Redburga, who did exercise some political influence over her husband, and whose hatred of the Welsh was well-known.

Chester must have been changing hands rapidly at this time. In 839 Egbert's successor, Æthelwulf of Wessex, held the Witenagemot (literally "meeting of the wise") in Chester, and, being crowned (in Kingston not Chester?), received at Chester the homage of tributary kings, "From Berwick to Kent." (Encyl Brit 1911 - not found in the A.S. Chron - and Wiglaf should have been in charge then). Æthelwulf and his first wife, Osburh, had five sons and a daughter. After Æthelstan came Æthelbald, Æthelbert, Æthelred, and (his most famous son) Ælfred. Each of his sons, with the exception of Æthelstan, succeeded to the throne.

9th Cent

 * 789: Annals of Chester record "Primus Danorum educatus [adventus] in Angliam qui docuerunt Anglos nimis potare" (The first arrival in England of the Danes, who taught the English to drink too much).
 * 793: Lindisfarne sacked by Vikings;
 * 794: Iona attacked by Vikings (for the first of many times). Vikings sack the Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria;
 * 802: Ecgbert becomes ruler of Wessex;
 * 806: Vikings massacre Columba's monks, and all the inhabitants on the island of Iona. Other monks flee to safety in the monastery of Kells (Ireland). They take with them the Book of Kells;
 * 807: The Vikings land on the Cornish coast, and form an alliance with the Cornish to fight against Wessex;
 * 828: Ecgbert takes Chester (briefly);
 * 835: Danish Viking raiders ally with the Cornish, against the rule of King Egbert of Wessex (approximate date). The Isle of Sheppey is attacked by Vikings.
 * 836: Ecgberht was defeated in 836 at Carhampton by the Danes
 * 837: Battle of Hingston Down: The West Saxons, led by King Egbert of Wessex, defeat a combined force of Cornish and Danish Vikings, at Hingston Down in Cornwall;
 * 839: King Egbert of Wessex dies after a 37-year reign, and is succeeded by his son Æthelwulf ("Noble Wolf") as ruler of Wessex;
 * 840: Vikings make permanent settlements with their first 'wintering over', located at Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland (approximate date).
 * 841: The town of Dyflin (meaning "Black Pool") or Dublin (modern Ireland) is founded by Norwegian Vikings, on the south bank of the River Liffey. The settlement is fortified with a ditch and an earth rampart, with a wooden palisade on top. The Norsemen establish a wool weaving industry, and there is also a slave trade. An artificial hill is erected, where the nobility meets to make laws and discuss policy.
 * 850: The Pillar of Eliseg is erected by King Cyngen ap Cadell of Powys (Wales), as a memorial to his great-grandfather Elisedd ap Gwylog (or Eliseg);
 * 851: Danish Viking raiders enter the Thames Estuary, and plunder Canterbury and London. They land at Wembury near Plymouth, but are defeated by Anglo-Saxon forces led by King Ethelwulf of Wessex. His eldest son Æthelstan of Kent, accompanied by Ealdorman Ealhhere, attacks a Viking fleet off the coast at Sandwich, and captures nine of the enemy vessels while the remainder flees.
 * 852: A Viking fleet of 350 vessels enters the Thames Estuary before turning north, and engages the Mercian forces under King Beorhtwulf. The Mercians are defeated, and retreat to their settlements. The Vikings then turn south and cross the river somewhere in Surrey; there they are slaughtered by a West Saxon army, led by King Æthelwulf and his son Aethelbald, at Oak Field (Aclea). King Æthelstan, the eldest son of Æthelwulf, is killed by a Viking raiding party. He is succeeded by his brother Æthelberht, who becomes sub-king of Kent, Essex, Surrey and Sussex;
 * 858: King Æthelwulf of Wessex dies after an 18-year reign, and is succeeded by his eldest son Æthelbald. He marries his father's young widow Judith (daughter of Charles the Bald), and becomes sole ruler of Wessex. His brother, Æthelberht, is left to rule Kent and the south-east of England;
 * 859: Winter - The weather is so severe that the Adriatic Sea freezes, and Italy is covered in snow for 100 days;
 * 860:
 * 865: Great Heathen Army arrives in Britain;
 * 869: Bardney Abbey destroyed by Vikings;
 * 870: Ely Abbey destroyed by Vikings;

Alfred the Great(23 April 871 — 26 October 899)

 * 876: Vikings at Repton (possibly with plague). Remains of St Werburgh translated to Chester;
 * 878: Alfred makes treaty with Danes;
 * 890: Plegmund becomes Archbishop of Canterbury;
 * 892: Hastein arrives with new wave of Vikings;
 * 894: Vikings at Chester;
 * 900: Alfred dies, Plegmund crowned his son Edward the Elder as king;

Related Pages

 * Dark Ages;
 * Town Hall;
 * Viking;