User:Mike Christie/Sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
< User:Mike Christie

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mike Christie (talk | contribs) at 18:42, 27 January 2008 (→‎Mercia and southern England at Ecgfrith's death: Reduce claim). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Coenwulf

<lead>

Background and sources

For most of the eighth century, Mercia was dominant among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the river Humber. Aethelbald, who came to the throne in 716, had established himself as the overlord of the southern English by 731. He was assassinated in 757, and was briefly succeeded by Beornred, but within a year Offa ousted Beornred and took the throne for himself. Offa remained on the throne for nearly forty years, and by the 780s had become the overlord of most of the kingdoms in the south.

Offa's daughter Eadburh married Beorhtric of Wessex in 789, and Beorhtric became an ally thereafter. In Kent, Offa intervened decisively in the 780s and at some point also became the overlord of East Anglia, whose king, Æthelred, was beheaded at Offa's orders in 794. Offa also appears to have moved to eliminate dynastic rivals to the succession of his son, Ecgfrith. According to a contemporary letter from Alcuin of York, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade at Charlemagne's court as one of his chief advisors, Ecgfrith died because of the blood shed by Offa in trying to secure the throne for his son. Alcuin adds "This was not a strengthening of the kingdom, but its ruin."[1] Offa died in July 796, and Ecgfrith succeeded, but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf came to the throne.

A significant corpus of letters dates from the period, especially from Alcuin, who corresponded with kings, nobles and ecclesiastics throughout England.[2] Another 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.[3] Charters dating from Coenwulf's reign have survived; these were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land.[4][5] A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere of the Hwicce, is described as a "subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald's.[6]

Mercia and southern England at Ecgfrith's death

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ecgfrith only reigned for 141 days. Offa is known to have died on either 26 July or 29 July 796, so Ecgfrith's date of death is either 14 December or 17 December of the same year. Coenwulf succeeded Ecgfrith as king. Coenwulf's father's name was Cuthberht, and according to the genealogy of Mercian kings preserved in the Anglian collection he was descended from a brother of Penda's named Cenwealh of whom there is no other record.[7] It is possible that this refers to Cenwealh of Wessex, who was married to (and later repudiated) a sister of Penda's.[8] It appears that Coenwulf's family were powerful, but they were not of recent royal lineage. (Kirby 177) A letter of Alcuin's to the people of Kent in 797 laments that "scarcely anyone is found now of the old stock of kings, and I weep to say it; the more obscure their origin, the less their courage". It was also in 796 that Eardwulf of Northumbria gained his throne, and Alcuin's meaning is not clear, but it may be that he intended it as a slur on Eardwulf or Coenwulf or on both.(Kirby 156 and 177; need direct quote ref from EHD)

Coenwulf's early reign was marked by a breakdown in Mercian control in southern England. In East Anglia, King Eadwald minted coins at about this time, implying that he was no longer subject to Mercia. A charter of 799 seems to show that Wessex and Mercia were estranged for some time before that date, though the charter is not regarded as undoubtedly genuine (Kirby 179; ref charter online). In Kent, an uprising began, probably starting after Ecgfrith's death, though it has been suggested that it began much earlier in the year, before Offa's death. The uprising was led by Eadberht Præn, who had been an exile at Charlemagne's court. Eadberht became king of Kent, and Aethelheard, the archbishop of Canterbury at that time, fled his see; it is likely that Christ Church, Canterbury was sacked. (Kirby 178)

  • Lichfield

Reign

  • Correspondence with the Pope re Kent and Lichfield; London as abpric
  • Aethelheard fled; Alcuin's comments
  • Suppression of Eadberht
  • Restoration of Aethelheard
  • East Anglia
  • History of Egbert, exile by Beorhtric + Offa, Kentish connections
  • Hwicce attack
  • Wales
  • Northumbria

Relations with the church

  • Relationship with Wulfhere, rift
  • Lay control of religious houses
  • Estrangement from Europe
  • W reconciled after C's death

Death and succession

  • Date, successor - dynastic discord
  • Mercia in the 820s
  • Ealhswith as descendant

Notes

  1. ^ Letter of Alcuin to Mercian ealdorman Osbert, tr. in Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 787
  2. ^ Michael Lapidge, "Alcuin of York", in Lapidge et al. Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 24.
  3. ^ Campbell, Anglo-Saxon State, p. 144.
  4. ^ Hunter Blair, Roman Britain, pp. 14–15.
  5. ^ Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 95-98.
  6. ^ Whitelock, English Historical Documents, 67, pp.&nbsp453–454.
  7. ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 118.
  8. ^ Williams, Kingship and Government, p. 29.

References

  • "Aldfrith 1 (Male)". Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
  • "The Annals of Ulster, volume 1". CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved 2007-02-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  • Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Translated by Leo Sherley-Price, revised R.E. Latham, ed. D.H. Farmer. London: Penguin, 1990. ISBN 0-14-044565-X
  • Bede, "Life of Cuthbert" in D.H. Farmer (ed.) & J.H. Webb (trans.), The Age of Bede. London: Penguin, 1998. IBN 0-140-44727-X
  • Bede, "Life of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow" in D.H. Farmer (ed.) & J.H. Webb (trans.), The Age of Bede. London: Penguin, 1998. IBN 0-140-44727-X
  • Blair, Peter Hunter, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 1977, reprinted 2000. ISBN 0-521-29219-0
  • Blair, Peter Hunter, Northumbria in the days of Bede. London: Victor Gollancz, 1976. ISBN 0-575-01840-2
  • Blair, Peter Hunter, The World of Bede. Cambridge University Press, reprinted 1990. ISBN 0-521-39138-5
  • Campbell, James, "Elements in the Background to the Life of Saint Cuthbert and his early cult" in The Anglo-Saxon State, pp. 85–106. London: Hambledon, 2000. ISBN 1-85285-176-7
  • Charles-Edwards, T.M., Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-39395-0
  • Cramp, Rosemary (2004), "Aldfrith (d. 704/705)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 2007-08-20
  • Eddius, "Life of Wilfrid" in D.H. Farmer (ed.) & J.H. Webb (trans.), The Age of Bede. London: Penguin, 1998. IBN 0-140-44727-X
  • Fraser, James, The Pictish Conquest: The Battle of Dunnichen 685 & the birth of Scotland. Stroud: Tempus, 2006. ISBN 0-7524-3962-6
  • Gannon, Anna, The Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage: Sixth to Eighth Centuries. Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-925465-6
  • Grimmer, Martin (2006), "The Exogamous Marriages of Oswiu of Northumbria", The Heroic Age (9), retrieved 2007-04-06
  • Higham, N.J., The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350-1100. Stroud: Sutton, 1993. ISBN 0-86299-730-5
  • Holdsworth, Philip, "Northumbria" in M. Lapidge, et al, (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
  • Holdsworth, Philip, "Oswiu" in M. Lapidge, et al, (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
  • Ireland, C.A., Old Irish wisdom attributed to Aldfrith of Northumbria: An edition of Briathra Flainn Fhina maic Ossu. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1999. ISBN 0-86698-247-7.
  • Kirby, D.P., The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991. ISBN 0-04-445691-3
  • Lapidge, Michael, "Aldfrith" in M. Lapidge, et al, (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
  • Lapidge, Michael, "Aldhelm" in M. Lapidge, et al, (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. London, Batsford, 1972. ISBN 0-7134-1360-3
  • Rollason, D.W., "Why was St Cuthbert so popular?" in D.W. Rollason (ed.), Cuthbert: Saint and Patron. Durham: Dean and Chapter of Durham, 1987. ISBN 0-907078-24-9
  • Stenton, Sir Frank, Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1971. ISBN 0-19-280139-2
  • Williams, Ann, Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500–1066. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. ISBN 0-333-56798-6
  • Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby, 1990. ISBN 1-85264-027-8
  • Yorke, Barbara, The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c. 600–800. London: Longman, 2006. ISBN 0-582-77292-3
  • Zeigler, Michelle (2001), "Oswald and the Irish", The Heroic Age (4), retrieved 2007-04-06
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Mike_Christie/Sandbox&oldid=187294986"