Æthelbald of Mercia
Æthelbald | |
---|---|
King of Mercia | |
Reign | 716–757 |
Predecessor | Ceolred |
Successor | Beornred |
Born | Unknown |
Died | 757 Seckington |
Burial | |
House | Iclingas |
Father | Alweo |
Æthelbald (also spelled Ethelbald or Aethelbald;
When Æthelbald came to the throne, both Wessex and Kent were ruled by stronger kings, but within fifteen years the contemporary chronicler Bede describes Æthelbald as ruling all England south of the Humber estuary. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not list Æthelbald as a bretwalda, or "Ruler of Britain", though this may be due to the West Saxon origin of the Chronicle.
Early life and accession
Æthelbald came of the Mercian royal line, although his father, Alweo, was never king. Alweo's father was
During Æthelbald's youth, Penda's dynasty ruled Mercia;
When Ceolred died of a fit at a banquet,[8] Æthelbald returned to Mercia and became ruler. It is possible that a king named Ceolwald, perhaps a brother of Ceolred, reigned for a short while between Ceolred and Æthelbald.[4][9] Æthelbald's accession ended Penda's line of descent; Æthelbald's reign was followed, after a brief interval, by that of Offa, another descendant of Eowa.[3]
Other than his father, Alweo, little of Æthelbald's immediate family is known, although in the witness list of two charters[10] a leading ealdorman named Heardberht is recorded as his brother.
Mercian dominance
Æthelbald's reign marked a resurgence of Mercian power, which would last until the end of the eighth century.
By 731, Æthelbald had all the English south of the Humber under his overlordship.[14] There is little direct evidence of the relationship between Æthelbald and the kings who were dependent on him.[6] Generally, a king subject to an overlord such as Æthelbald would still be regarded as a king, but would have his independence curtailed in some respects. Charters are an important source of evidence for this relationship; these were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen, and were witnessed by the kings who had power to grant the land.[15][16] A charter granting land in the territory of one of the subject kings might record the names of the king as well as the overlord on the witness list appended to the grant; such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma, for example. The titles given to the kings on these charters could also be revealing: a king might be described as a "subregulus", or underking.[17]
Enough information survives to suggest the progress of Æthelbald's influence over two of the southern kingdoms,
As for Kent, there is evidence from Kentish
Less is known about events in Essex, but it was at about this time that London became attached to the kingdom of Mercia rather than that of Essex. Three of Æthelbald's predecessors—Æthelred, Coenred, and Ceolred—had each confirmed an East Saxon charter granting Twickenham to Waldhere, the bishop of London. From Kentish charters it is known that Æthelbald was in control of London, and from Æthelbald's time on, the transition to Mercian control appears to be complete; an early charter of Offa's, granting land near Harrow, does not even include the king of Essex on the witness list.[6][21] For the South Saxons, there is very little charter evidence, but as with Kent, what there is does not show any requirement for Æthelbald's consent to land grants.[22] The lack of evidence should not obscure the fact that Bede, who was after all a contemporary chronicler, summarized the situation of England in 731 by listing the bishops in office in southern England, and adding that "all these provinces, together with the others south of the Humber and their kings, are subject to Æthelbald, King of the Mercians."[14]
There is evidence that Æthelbald had to go to war to maintain his overlordship. In 733 Æthelbald undertook an expedition against Wessex and captured the royal
In 740, a war between the Picts and the Northumbrians is reported. Æthelbald, who might have been allied with
Titles and Bretwaldaship
Earlier in Bede's
Further evidence of Æthelbald's power, or at least his titles, is provided by an important charter of 736, the Ismere Diploma, which survives in a contemporary (and possibly original) copy. It starts by describing Æthelbald as "king not only of the Mercians but also of all the provinces which are called by the general name South English"; in the witness list he is further named "Rex Britanniae", "King of Britain".[31][32] One historian described this title as "a phrase which can only be interpreted as a Latin rendering of the English title Bretwalda";[6] but it may be that at that time these titles would not have been acknowledged much beyond Worcester, where this and other documents from the 730s that use similar titles were written.[33]
Relations with the church
In 745–746, the leading Anglo-Saxon missionary in Germany, Boniface, along with seven other bishops, sent Æthelbald a scorching letter reproaching him for many sins—stealing ecclesiastical revenue, violating church privileges, imposing forced labour on the clergy, and fornicating with nuns.[32] The letter implored Æthelbald to take a wife and abandon the sin of lust:
We therefore, beloved son, beseech Your Grace by Christ the son of God and by His coming and by His kingdom, that if it is true that you are continuing in this vice you will amend your life by penitence, purify yourself, and bear in mind how vile a thing it is through lust to change the image of God created in you into the image and likeness of a vicious demon. Remember that you were made king and ruler over many not by your own merits but by the abounding grace of God, and now you are making yourself by your own lust the slave of an evil spirit.[34]
Boniface first sent the letter to
Æthelbald may have influenced the appointment of successive archbishops of Canterbury in
Two years after this, in 749, at the synod of Gumley, Æthelbald issued a charter that freed ecclesiastical lands from all obligations except the requirement to build forts and bridges—obligations which lay upon everyone, as part of the trinoda necessitas. This charter was witnessed only by Mercian bishops, and it is possible it had no effect outside Mercia, but it is also possible that it was essentially part of a reform programme inspired by Boniface and instigated at Clovesho.[39][40]
Death
In 757, Æthelbald was killed at
A fragment of a cross shaft from Repton includes on one face a carved image of a mounted man which, it has been suggested, may be a memorial to Æthelbald. The figure is of a man wearing mail armour and brandishing a sword and shield, with a diadem bound around his head. If this is Æthelbald, it would make it the earliest large-scale pictorial representation of an English monarch.[45][46]
Legend of Alfred III, King of Mercia
According to a story recorded by the 16th-century antiquarian
See also
- Kings of Mercia family tree
Notes
- Anglo-Saxon alphabet, and so can be considered the most authentic; it has occasionally been modernised in secondary sources to "Ethelbald" or "Aethelbald".
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 91.
- ^ a b See the genealogy in figure 8 of the appendix, in Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 227.
- ^ a b c d Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 129.
- ^ Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, p. 82.
- ^ a b c d Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 203–205.
- ^ Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, p. 94.
- ^ Whitelock, Dorothy (1968). English Historical Documents: Vol. 1 c. 500–1042. Oxford University Press. p. 755.
- ISBN 1-85264-027-8.
- ^ Heardberht 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 2012-12-20.
- ^ Hunter Blair, Roman Britain, p. 168.
- ^ Beornrad was "put to flight" by Offa in one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; according to another, he held the kingdom for "a little while, and unhappily". Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 46–50.
- ^ Hunter Blair, An Introduction, p. 755.
- ^ a b Bede, p. 324, translated by Leo Sherley-Price.
- ^ Hunter Blair, Roman Britain, pp. 14–15.
- ^ Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 95–98.
- ^ For an account of the progression from Offa's overlordship of the Hwicce to suppression of the ruling dynasty, and consequent absorption of the kingdom into Mercia, see Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, p. 123.
- ^ Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 42–43.
- ^ a b Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 133.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 131.
- ^ a b c Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, p. 95.
- ^ a b c Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 132.
- ^ Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 46–47.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 96". Retrieved 28 April 2007.
- ^ Anderson, Scottish Annals, pp. 55–56.
- ^ The different versions of the title, "bretwalda" and "brytenwalda", are in the A and E texts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the entry for 827. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 60–61.
- ISBN 0-14-044409-2.
- ^ Hunter Blair, An Introduction, p. 201.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 19.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 89". Retrieved 27 April 2007.
- ^ a b c d Fletcher, Who's Who, pp. 98–100.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p.130.
- ^ Emerton, Letters, p. 105.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 135; Emerton, Letters, pp. 108–109.
- ISBN 0-19-821716-1.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 135–136.
- ^ Richard Fletcher (Who's Who, p. 100) says that Archbishop Cuthbert of Canterbury presided, though he adds that the council could not have been convened without royal sanction; James Campbell (The Anglo-Saxons, p. 78) says that Aethelbald presided.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 92". Retrieved 28 April 2007.
- ^ Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, p. 100.
- ^ The "continuation of Bede" is by other hands than Bede's, though the first few entries may be by Bede himself. See "Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England: Christian Classic Ethereal Library". Retrieved 3 June 2007.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 134.
- ^ Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Fletcher, Who's Who, p. 116.
- S2CID 162992853. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- ISBN 0-631-22492-0.
- ISBN 9780521652032– via Google Books.
- ^ Images of Anglo-Saxon England (Simon Keynes) Archived 2009-07-13 at the Wayback Machine
References
Primary sources
- Anderson, Alan Orr (1908). Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers A.D. 500–1286. London: D. Nutt. ISBN 1-871615-45-3)
- ISBN 0-14-044565-X
- Emerton, Ephraim (2000) [1940]. Noble, Thomas F.X (ed.). The Letters of St. Boniface: With a New Introduction and Bibliography. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12093-1.
- Swanton, Michael (1996). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-92129-5.
Secondary sources
- Hunter Blair, Peter (1960). An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2003 edition: ISBN 0-521-83085-0)
- Hunter Blair, Peter (1966). Roman Britain and Early England: 55 B.C. – A.D. 871. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-00361-2.
- Campbell, James; John, Eric; Wormald, Patrick (1991). The Anglo-Saxons. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-014395-5.
- Fletcher, Richard (1989). Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England. London: Shepheard-Walwyn. ISBN 0-85683-089-5.
- Hill, David; Margaret Worthington (2005). Aethelbald and Offa: two eighth-century kings of Mercia. British Archaeological Reports, British series, 383. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 1-84171-687-1.
- Kirby, D. P. (1992). The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09086-5.
- ISBN 0-19-821716-1.
External links
- Æthelbald 4 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- "Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Continuation of Bede" (PDF)., at CCEL, tr. A.M. Sellar
- Anglo-Saxon charters, at Anglo-Saxons.net.