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____ Egbert "the Great"
Birth: 775 Wessex
Death: 4 Feb 839 Winchester, Wessex
Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egbert_of_Wessex
Egbert (771/775839), also spelled Ecgberht, Ecgbert, or Ecgbriht, was King of
Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s
Egbert was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on
Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and took the throne.
Little is known of the first 20 years of Egbert'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 Egbert 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 Egbert defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily
ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Egbert received the submission of the
Northumbrian king at Dore. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Egbert
as a bretwalda or 'wide-ruler' of Anglo-Saxon lands.
Egbert was unable to maintain this dominant position, and within a year Wiglaf
regained the throne of Mercia. However, Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex,
and Surrey; these territories were given to Egbert's son Ęthelwulf to rule as a subking
under Egbert. When Egbert died in 839, Ęthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern
kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after Ęthelwulf's death in
858.
Historians do not agree on Egbert's ancestry. The earliest version of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, the Parker Chronicle, begins with a genealogical preface tracing the
ancestry of Egbert's son Ęthelwulf back through Egbert, 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.[2] Egbert's descent from Ingild was accepted by
Frank Stenton, but not the earlier genealogy back to Cerdic.[3] Heather Edwards in
her Online Dictionary of National Biography article on Egbert argues that he was of
Kentish origin, and that the West Saxon descent may have been manufactured during
his reign to give him legitimacy,[4] whereas Rory Naismith considered a Kentish origin
unlikely, and that it is more probable that "Egbert was born of good West Saxon royal
stock".[5]
Egbert's wife's name is unknown. A fifteenth century chronicle now held by Oxford
University names Egbert's wife as Redburga who was supposedly a relation of
Charlemagne that he married when he was banished to Francia, but this is dismissed
by academic historians in view of its late date.[6] He is reputed to have had a half-
sister Alburga, later to be recognised as a saint for her founding of Wilton Abbey. She
was married to Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire, and on his death in 802 she became
a nun, Abbess of Wilton Abbey.[7] He was believed at one time to also be the father
of Saint Eadgyth of Polesworth and Ęthelstan of Kent.
Parents
____ Eahlmund (Edmund) (ABT 758 - 788)
OF KENT ----- (ABT 758 - )
Siblings
____ Egbert "the Great" ( 775 - 4 Feb 839)
Marriage To OF THE CAROLINGIANS Raedburh (Raedberg) (BEF 768 - )
m.
Notes
Parents
____ Pepin III "Le Bref" ("the Short") ( 715 - 24 Sep 768)
DE LAON Bertha (Bertrade) "Broadfoot" ( 720 - 12 Jul 783)
Children by OF THE CAROLINGIANS Raedburh (Raedberg) BEF 768 -
____ Aethelwulf (ABT 806 - 13 Jan 859)
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