Ęthelwulf King of Wessex and King of Kent 1 2
- Born: Between 795 and 800
- Marriage (1): Osburga before 844
- Marriage (2): Judith Princess of France on 1 Oct 856 in Verberie-sur-Oise, (Oise), France
- Died: 13 Jan 858
Other names for Ęthelwulf were Aethelwulf King of Wessex and Ethelwulf King of Wessex.
Research Notes:
From Wikipedia - Ęthelwulf of Wessex :
Ęthelwulf, also spelled Aethelwulf or Ethelwulf; Old English : Ęželwulf, means 'Noble Wolf' (c. 795 - 858 ) was the elder son of King Egbert of Wessex . He conquered Kent on behalf of his father in 825. Thereafter he was styled King of Kent [1] until he succeeded his father as King of Wessex in 839 , whereupon he became King of Wessex, Kent, Cornwall, the West Saxons and the East Saxons. [2] He was crowned at Kingston upon Thames .
In 839 , Ęthelwulf succeeded his father Egbert as King. Egbert had been a grizzled veteran who had fought for survival since his youth. Ęthelwulf had a worrying style of Kingship. He had come naturally to the throne of Wessex. He proved to be intensly religious, cursed with little political sense, and too many able and ambitious sons. [Humble, Richard. The Saxon Kings. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980. 41.] One of the first acts Ęthelwulf did as King, was to split the kingdom. He gave the eastern half, that of Kent, Essex, Surrey and Sussex to his eldest son Athelstan (not to be confused with the later Athelstan the Glorious). Ęthelwulf kept the ancient, western side of Wessex (Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon) for himself. Ęthelwulf and his first wife, Osburga , had five sons and a daughter. After Athelstan came Ethelbald , Ethelbert , Ethelred , and Alfred . Each of his sons succeeded to the throne. Alfred, the youngest son, has been praised as one of the greatest kings to ever reign in Britain. Ęthelwulf's only daughter, Aethelswith , was married as a child to the king of Mercia .
... In 853 Ęthelwulf, sent his son Alfred, a child of about four years, to Rome. In 855 , about a year after his wife Osburh's death, Ęthelwulf followed Alfred to Rome . In Rome, he was generous with his wealth. He distributed gold to the clergy of St. Peter's, and offered the Blessed Peter chalices of the purest gold and silver-gilt candelabra of Saxon work. [Hodgkin, RH. A History of the Anglo-Saxons. London: Oxford UP, 1935. 512.] During the return journey in 856 he married Judith a Frankish princess and a great-granddaughter of Charlemagne. She was about twelve years old, the daughter of Charles the Bald , King of the West Franks .
Upon their return to England in 856 Ęthelwulf met with an acute crisis. His eldest son Ethelbald (Athelstan had since died) had devised a conspiracy with the Ealdorman of Somerset and the Bishop of Sherborne to oppose Ęthelwulf's resumption of the kingship once he returned. There was enough support of Ęthelwulf to either have a civil war, or to banish Ethelbald and his fellow conspirators. Instead Ęthelwulf yielded Wessex proper to his son, and accepted Surrey, Sussex and Essex for himself. he ruled there until his death on January 13 , 858 . The family quarrel, had it been allowed to continue, could have ruined the House of Egbert. Ęthelwulf and his advisors deserved the adoration bestowed upon them for their restraint and tolerance.
... He was buried first at Steyning and then later transferred to the Old Minster in Winchester . His bones now reside in one of several mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral .
Noted events in his life were:
King of Wessex, 839-855.
Ęthelwulf married Osburga, daughter of Oslac Royal Cup Bearer and Unknown, before 844. (Osburga was born about 805 in Hampshire, England and died after 876 in England.)
Ęthelwulf next married Judith Princess of France, daughter of Charles II "the Bald" of France and Holy Roman Emperor and Ermentrude of Orléans, on 1 Oct 856 in Verberie-sur-Oise, (Oise), France. (Judith Princess of France was born in Oct 844 in France and died after 870.)
Marriage Notes:
Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593871945
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