Æthelred (Ealdorman)

Æthelred (also Aethelred, Ethelred, Ethered; † 911 ) was ruler of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia from approx. 883 to 911 . Æthelred's rule was limited to the western part of Mercia, because the eastern part was part of the Danish domain on British soil, the Danelag . In contrast to his predecessor, the last Merzian king Ceolwulf II , Æthelred was an Ealdorman and was under the sovereignty of the King of Wessex . This dependence of Mercia on Wessex was mainly a consequence of the raids and conquests of the Danish Vikings in the north and east of England, which had led to the partition of Mercia and the loss of Mercia's long supremacy among the Anglo-Saxon empires of Britain. During his reign, Æthelred succeeded in pushing back the influence of the Danes, often acting militarily in cooperation with the King of Wessex ( Alfred the Great or his successor, Edward the Elder ). Æthelred was also related to the Kingdom of Wessex, because his wife Æthelflæd was the daughter of Alfred the Great. After Æthelred's death in 911 he was followed by his wife Æthelflæd 911–918 as ruler of Mercia, who continued Æthelred's policy and military actions against the Danes.

Historical background

The Danelag area around 878

See also: Viking Age

In the second half of the 9th century and at the beginning of the 10th century, Danish Vikings overran much of the English kingdoms of Northumbria , parts of Mercia and East Anglia and threatened the existence of the Kingdom of Wessex.

After the kingdom of Mercia held a predominance of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms for a long time, its influence began to wane with the robbery and conquest of the Danish Vikings in the north and east of England. Under the rule of the Merzian king Burgred (852–874), the Danish Vikings managed to establish themselves in the north of England. In the winter of 867/868 the Danes invaded Mercia for the first time. In the years 871-873 Mercia managed to make peace with the Danes through financial donations and to move them to withdraw from Mercia, until Mercia finally had to surrender in Repton in the winter of 873/874. King Burgred was expelled from Mercia and spent the rest of his life in exile in Rome . Ceolwulf II became the new king of Mercia . In 877 Mercia was divided: The eastern part of Mercias fell to the Danish Vikings and became part of the Danish domain. The western part in turn remained under Anglo-Saxon rule under Ceolwulf II, who was followed a few years later by Æthelred.

Wessex was more capable of repelling the Viking invasions, and with the fall of Mercia, Wessex began to rise as the dominant power in England. King Alfred of Wessex was finally able to achieve military success after a few defeats. The Battle of Edington in 878 was significant, as a result of which Alfred was able to negotiate a peace treaty with the King of the Danish Vikings, Guthrum . Thus England was de facto divided into two parts: a domain of the Danes, the Danelag , and the English domain, mainly King Alfred Wessex and his allies. In the treaty, the boundaries between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the area of ​​influence of the Vikings on English soil (Danelag) were set, with Watling Street, which dates back to Roman times in England , marking the eastern border of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Alfred then began a twofold strategy against the Danes: he began to build fortifications ( burhs ) against external attacks. At the same time he and his successors had the ambition to recapture the territories occupied by the Danes.

Life

Nothing is known about the origins and childhood of Æthelred. Some historians suggest that it may have come from the royal line of the former Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Hwicce , which was part of the heartland of the Kingdom of Mercia in the 9th century. Others suspect that Æthelred may be related to the merzian Ealdorman Æthelred Mucel, Alfred the great's father-in-law.

Historically, Æthelred first appeared in 883 when he granted some privileges in a charter to Berkeley Abbey in Gloucestershire . In this charter it is said that Æthelred is acting with the consent of Alfred the Great, which would suggest that Æthelred recognizes Alfred's sovereignty. However, later charters do not mention Alfred, from which some historians conclude that Æthelred was able to rule Mercia relatively independently from Wessex. The contemporary sources are also not entirely clear in their description of Æthelred's status: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes him as Ealdorman or as myrcna hlaford ( Eng . 'Lord of the Mercier'). Charters from Wessex use the title subregulus (German for 'little sub-king'). Later sources such as the chronicler Æthelweard or Irish sources from the 10th century refer to him as rex (Eng. 'King'), which may suggest that Æthelred had powers comparable to a king.

Æthelred is also mentioned by Asser , the biographer of Alfred the Great: According to Asser, Æthelred brought the Welsh rulers Hywel ap Rhys, king of Gleguising, and the brothers Ffyrnfael and Brochfael ap Meuric, kings of Gwent, into such great distress through several campaigns that they submitted to King Alfred's rule and protection.

Around 886 Æthelred married Æthelflæd , the eldest daughter of King Alfred the Great of Wessex , who had just reached marriageable age. Æthelred and Æthelflæd together had a daughter named Ælfwynn . Alfred gave Æthelred the rulership of London, probably either in recognition of the fact that London was formerly merzisch, or possibly as a wedding present on the occasion of his wedding to Æthelflæd.

A large part of Æthelred's rule was marked by campaigns against the Danes in the north and west of England, often in cooperation with Alfred and his successor, Edward the Elder . So Æthelred was one of the commanders of an Anglo-Saxon army that defeated the Danes in 893 in Buttington near Welshpool in Montgomeryshire . In 905, plundering Danes from East Anglia invaded Mercia and returned home with rich booty. The retaliatory campaign that followed was led by King Edward the Elder of Wessex, Æthelred's brother-in-law.

Æthelred and his wife Æthelflæd also followed the policy of King Alfred, in which they fortified Mercia with refuge castles (old English burh ) and thus could better defend it against invading Vikings. A number of new burhs were founded on Æthelred and thelflæd , including the later cities of Gloucester and Shrewsbury . In 908 Æthelflæd had the destroyed city of Chester rebuilt. The construction of St. Oswald's Church in Gloucester also goes back to Æthelred and Æthelflæd. In 909 a joint army with troops from Wessex and Mercia led a successful campaign against the Danish Lindsey , where they took the remains of Saint Oswald of Northumbria in Bardney Abbey and transferred them to Gloucester, where they were relics in the one founded by Æthelred and Æthelflæd Church were kept.

There are different assessments of Æthelred's last years and his death. Some historians assume that Æthelred was probably ill during the last years of his reign, because his wife apparently took over the political and military leadership in Mercia in the last years of his life. Another possibility would be that Æthelred was wounded in the battle of Tettenhall against the Danes on August 5, 910, but this is seen as less likely because the available sources speak for an earlier withdrawal of Aktivitätenthelred from military activities. Æthelred died in 911. After Æthelred's death, his widow Æthelflæd took over and ruled Mercia for almost eight years, one of the rare examples of female rule in medieval Europe. Both Æthelred and Æthelflæd found their final resting place in the St. Oswald in Gloucester, which they founded.

literature

• Marios Costambeys: Æthelred (d. 911), ruler of the Mercians. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004 (not viewed).
• Æthelred . In: Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth, David Kirby (Eds.): A Bibliograpical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain . Seaby, London 1991, ISBN 1-85264-047-2 , p. 27.
• Ethelred . In: Richard Fletcher: Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England . Shepheard-Walwyn, London 1989, ISBN 0-85683-114-X , pp. 144-146.
• Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 .
• FM Stenton: Anglo-Saxon England , 3rd edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1971.

Web links

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in Project Gutenberg (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London / New York 1990, ISBN 0-415-16639-X , pp. 122-123.
2. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , p. 261.
3. ^ Simon Keynes: Mercia and Wessex in the Ninth Century . In: Michelle P. Brown, Carol A. Farr (Eds.): Mercia. To Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe . Leicester University Press, London / New York 2001, ISBN 0-7185-0231-0 , p. 327.
4. ^ Frank Stenton: Anglo-Saxon England , 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1971. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 , pp. 260-265, 323.
5. ↑ Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 , p. 105.
6. ↑ Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 , p. 50.
7. ↑ Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 , pp. 50-52.
8. ↑ Æthelred . In: Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth, David Kirby (Eds.): A Bibliograpical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain . Seaby, London 1991, ISBN 1-85264-047-2 , p. 27.
9. ↑ Simon Keynes, Michael Lapidge (Eds. / Transl.): Alfred the Great. Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources . Penguin, London 1983, ISBN 978-0-14-044409-4 , p. 96.
10. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , see 886
11. ↑ Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 , pp. 50-52.
12. ↑ Ethelred . In: Richard Fletcher: Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England . Shepheard-Walwyn, London 1989, ISBN 0-85683-114-X , p. 145.
13. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , see 905
14. ↑ Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 , pp. 72, 82, 92.
15. ↑ Carolyn Heighway: Gloucester and the New Minster of St Oswald . In: NJ Higham, DH Hill (Ed.): Edward the Elder 899-924 . Routledge, London / New York 2001, ISBN 0-415-21497-1 , pp. 103, 108.
16. ↑ Ethelred . In: Richard Fletcher: Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England . Shepheard-Walwyn, London 1989, ISBN 0-85683-114-X , p. 146.
17. ↑ Tim Clarkson: Æthelflæd. The Lady of the Mercians . John Donald, Edinburgh 2018, ISBN 978-1-910900-16-1 , pp. 99, 103.
18. ↑ Carolyn Heighway: Gloucester and the New Minster of St Oswald . In: NJ Higham, DH Hill (Ed.): Edward the Elder 899-924 . Routledge, London / New York 2001, ISBN 0-415-21497-1 , p. 108.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ceolwulf II.	Ruler of Mercien 883–911	Æthelflæd