| Notes |
- Notes for King of Egbert of England, King:
Egbert, King of England (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 170, Line
233-41). AKA: Egbert 'the Great'. Born: in 775 in Wessex, England, son
of Eahlmund=Edmund, King of Kent. Egbert was King of England 827-836,
King of Wessex in 802 and Under-King of Kent from 784 to 786. Married
before 806: Redburga=Raedburh N? Died: on 4 Feb 839 in Wessex,
England.
EGBERT (d. 839) was King of Wessex from 802 until 839. He claimed
descent from Ingild, a brother of King Ine of Wessex. His father was a
certain Ealhmund who ruled briefly in Kent c. 784 in opposition to
Offa of Mercia. When King Cynewulf of Wessex died in 786, Egbert
disputed with Beorhtric for possession of the king-dom. Beorhtric,
Offa's protege, came out on top and Egbert departed into exile at the
Frankish court. On Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and
established himself as King of Wessex in a successful revolt against
Mercian ascendancy.
Egbert ruled an independent Wessex for the next twenty-three years, of
which we have little record. This was succeeded by a period of
frenzied activity. In 825 he Defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia at the
battle of Ellendun (probably Wroughton in Wiltshire) and immediately
afterwards sent his son Ethelwulf eastwards to wrest Kent, Surrey,
Sussex and Essex from Mercian overlordship. He also received an appeal
for protection from the East Anglians who had rebelled against the
Mercians. The Mercian empire seemed to be falling apart as rival
claimants contended for kingship over the next few years. In 829
Egbert conquered Mercia and went on to lay waste part of Northumbria
and exact submission and tribute from its king Eanred. For a short
period he was overlord of all the English kingdoms. But in 830 Mercia
threw off West Saxon lordship and for the rest of his reign Egbert's
direct authority was restricted to Wessex and the south east.
It has sometimes been claimed that Egbert was the first 'King of all
England'. But this is absurd. The notion is based upon the treat-ment
of Egbert in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, put together in the form in
which we have it at the court of Egbert's grandson Alfred and
concerned above all else to magnify the exploits of the West Saxon
royal dynasty. Mercian supremacy did not end with Offa. Ninth-century
Mercia may have been subject to dynastic instability, as which
Anglo-Saxon kingdom was not? But it could still produce some imposing
rulers such as Cenwulf (796-821), Wiglaf (827-40) and Beorhtwulf
(840-52). Further to the north the Northumbrian King Eanred (808-40)
continued to rule a kingdom stretching from the Humber to the Firth of
Forth: the submission to Egbert in 829 had no lasting effect.
Nevertheless, Egbert's reign is an important one. In the first place,
he consolidated West Saxon domination over the remaining British
princes of the southwest in a series of campaigns in 815, 825, 830 and
838. Secondly, his annexation of south-eastern England in 825 was to
be permanent. Kent became a dependency where West Saxon princes could
learn the business of kingship: just as Egbert entrusted Kent to his
son Ethelwulf, so after his accession in 839 Ethelwulf placed his son
Athelstan in authority there. Egbert and Ethelwulf were at pains to
cultivate good relations with the archbishops of Canterbury; they had
learnt the lessons of Offa's failure in this respect. In particular,
they tried to ensure that the see of Canterbury should be
well-disposed not just to individual kings of Wessex but to the
dynasty as a whole; in their own words in a charter of 838, 'that we
and our heirs for ever afterwards may have firm and unbroken
friendship from the archbishop and all his successors.' They wanted to
break free from the snares of dynastic instability and discon-tinuity
which plagued Mercia, Northumbria and their Frankish neighbours over
the Channel. That they succeeded in doing so no doubt owed much to
luck, but also something to shrewd management. Finally, Egbert showed
that he could cope with new enemies, the Vikings. They ravaged the
Island of Sheppey in 835, and Defeated him at Carhampton in 836. But
when in 838 they made common cause with the Britons of the south-west
Egbert Defeated them at Hingston Down in Cornwall. In the last battle
of his life, Egbert showed that the Danes were vulnerable.
Taken from MEDIEVAL HISTORY & CIVILIZATION by Daniel D. McGarry.
By the ninth century, Wessex had become the strongest of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It came to the fore under EGBERT (r.802-839),
who became Bretwalda and is often reckoned as the first King of
England.
Taken from ACADEMIC AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA.
EGBERT, d. 839, King of Wessex, laid the foundations for the
ascendancy of WESSEX among the English kingdoms. At first an
unsuccessful claimant to the Wessex crown, he finally became king in
802. EGBERT Defeated the Mercian king Beornwulf at Ellandune (825) and
briefly (828-29) held the kingdom of Mercia itself. He was also
recognized as king in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex and received the
nominal submission of Northumbria. The later years of his reign were
marked by frequent Danish raids on England.
Taken from ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES of The Counties and COUNTYL FAMILIES
OF WALES by Thomas Nicholas
With the establishment of the kingdom of Mercia the affairs of
Flintshire come out to the surface with some distinctness. That before
this time the Saxons had ravaged these parts is in some measure proved
by the desolating visit of Austin and the hosts of King Ethelbert to
Bangor Iscoed in the sixth century. Edwin of Northumbria and Egbert of
Wessex, also, who had both effected a kind of temporary conquest in
North Wales, doubtless for a time held Flintshire. But Offa made a
serious business of the conquest of a portion of the territory, and to
this day hasleft obvious proofs of his earnestness and determination
in the rampart of "Offa's Dyke," a line of Defence which cut off from
the Welsh the best part of the tract now called Flintshire. Whether
this vallum, remains of which are traceable from near Caergwrle to the
shore near Holywell, is more properly called "Offa's Dyke" or "Watt's
Dyke," is a question still sub judice; but be it the one or the other,
the work is a monument of most strenuous doings, a long scar on the
face of Flintshire reminding us of the bloody onslaughts of King Offa
and his Angles.
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Abt 775 - 839 (~ 64 years)