Æthelbald (Mercia)

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Æthelbald's signature
Britain in the first half of the 8th century

Æthelbald († 757 ) was king of the Anglo-Saxon Empire of Mercia in the years 716–757 .

Life

Æthelbald was the son of Alweo and grandson of Eowa , a brother of King Penda . When he came to power, the rule of Penda's direct descendants ended. Apparently, after the death of King Cenred , Æthelbald clashed with his successor Ceolred and had to flee from him to East Anglia .

When Ceolred died in 716, a Ceolwald (or Ceolwold) is said to have asserted claims to the throne. However, all sources date the accession of Æthelbald to the year 716, as St. Guthlac had foretold in a vision.

The kingdom expanded rapidly during his reign. A number of smaller kingdoms, previously independent or at least relatively autonomous, were absorbed into the Kingdom of Mercia during Æthelbald's reign and disappeared as independent political entities. The kingdom of the Magonsaete , located on the outskirts of Mercia , was ruled by an indigenous dynasty until the 740s. That dynasty disappeared at that time and the government was transferred to an Ealdorman Mercias.

At that time the area of ​​the middle fishing was completely taken over by Mercia. Exactly how this happened is difficult to assess, since no charters have survived from this area . London and Middlesex , which had long been under the influence of Mercia, as well as parts of Hertfordshire , were taken from the Kingdom of Essex and Mercia was annexed. The original settlement areas of the East Saxony were not touched.

The former kingdom of Hwicce , which had already largely lost its independence under Æthelbald's predecessors, was completely incorporated into Mercia towards the end of Æthelbald's reign after it had fought for its independence again in 740 at the side and with the support of Cuthreds of Wessex .

After the resignation of King Ine of Wessex (726) there were no more serious opponents for Æthelbald in England, so that it was not difficult for him to conquer parts of Somerset during an advance to Wessex in 733 . In addition, Æthelbald fought repeatedly against Welsh associations. In 740 he moved towards Northumbria , where he burned the city of York . Later King Cuthred of Wessex succeeded in consolidating his power in the south. He drew against Mercia in 752 and defeated Æthelbald at Beorhford . As a result, Wessex gained independence from Mercia for some time, but it seems that Mercia's supremacy over Wessex was restored by the time of Æthelbald's death at the latest. After Cuthred's death, internal disputes broke out in Wessex, whereby Æthelbald succeeded in regaining control of the kingdom of Hwicce and driving its indigenous rulers out of the government forever. It also appears that Æthelbald was able to exercise some degree of authority over Wessex during the time of the civil turmoil in Wessex, since at that time he was able to give land in Wiltshire to a West Saxon abbot . One of the witnesses to the document was King Cynewulf of Wessex, a sign that Cynewulf must have been in a dependent relationship with Æthelbald. Wiltshire was an area that Mercia and Wessex fought over and over. However, for most of its history in Anglo-Saxon England it belonged to Wessex.

King Æthelbald's charter from 736.

Æthelbald was the first Mercian king who documented the claim to be ruler not only of Mercias, but of a much larger area. In the arenga of a charter of 736 he referred to himself as

rex non solum Marcersium sed et omnium provinciarum que generale nomine Sutangli dicuntur .

He also signed the same charter as rex Britanniae , a title which he repeated in the final protocol, implying that he would claim supremacy not only over the kingdoms south of the River Humber , but also over all others, whether it was now about British or Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Indeed, the wording used in this charter indicates that Æthelbald at least exercised supremacy over the kingdoms of southern England. This is also confirmed by a communication from Beda , which states that at the time of writing his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum all kingdoms and territories south of the Humber were subject to Æthelbald.

Æthelbald's relationship with the Church is ambiguous. Like his predecessor Ceolred, Æthelbald was criticized by the church. Although he was praised on the one hand by the church for his generosity in giving alms and maintaining inner peace, on the other hand he was severely criticized by Boniface and other Anglo-Saxon bishops for disregarding church privileges and misconduct towards nuns . His behavior is a bad example and has a deplorable effect on other sinners. Æthelbald apparently took the warnings to heart, in any case in 749 he largely exempted the church property in his country from taxes. Two years earlier he had already chaired the Council of Clovesho , which implemented numerous reforms.

Aethelbald was founded in 757 in Seckington ( Warwickshire ) near Tamworth murdered by his own bodyguard. The reasons for this act are unknown. However, a man who has been labeled a royal tyrant must have made a large number of enemies in the course of his life. Æthelbald had been involved in many feuds . This is not atypical of a society in which the feud is often the only regulative a person knows in order to get what he believes is his right. Ornthelbald's successor was Beornrad . However, his rule was short-lived. In the same year he was expelled from Offa .

swell

  • Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography, Peter Hayes Sawyer (Ed.), Royal Historical Society, London 1968, ISBN 0-901050-18-0 .
  • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: MS A v. 3 , Janet Bately (Ed.), Brewer, Rochester (NY) 1986, ISBN 0-85991-103-9 .
  • Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People , B. Colgrave & RAB Mynors (Eds.), Clarendon, Oxford 1969, ISBN 0-19-822202-5 .
  • Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac, Bertram Colgrave (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1956
  • Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae III, S. Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae , E. Dümmler (Ed.), Berlin 1892

literature

  • Steven Basset (Ed.): The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms , Leicester University Press, Leicester 1989, ISBN 0-7185-1317-7 .
  • Nicholas Brooks : "The Formation of the Mercian Kingdom" in: Steven Basset (ed.): The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms , Leicester University Press, Leicester 1989, ISBN 0-7185-1317-7 .
  • James Campbell (Ed.): The Anglo-Saxons , Phaidon, London 1982, ISBN 0-7148-2149-7 .
  • Wendy Davies: "Annals and the Origins of Mercia" in Ann Dornier: Mercian Studies. Leicester University Press, Leicester 1977, ISBN 0-7185-1148-4 .
  • Ann Dornier: Mercian Studies. Leicester University Press, Leicester 1977, ISBN 0-7185-1148-4 .
  • David Dumville: "Essex, Middle Anglia and the Expansion of Mercia in the South East" in: Steven Basset (Ed.): The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms , Leicester University Press, Leicester 1989, ISBN 0-7185-1317-7 .
  • Margaret Gallyon: The Early Church in Wessex and Mercia. Terence Dalton, Lavenham 1980, ISBN 0-900963-58-1
  • Peter Hunter Blair: Roman Britain and Early England. 55 BC - AD 871. Nelson, Edinburgh 1963, ISBN 0-17-711044-9 .
  • DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings . Unwin Hyman, London 1991, ISBN 0-04-445691-3 .
  • Frank M. Stenton: Anglo-Saxon England . 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford 1971, ISBN 0-19-280139-2 .
  • Ian W. Walker: Mercia and the Making of England . Sutton, Stroud 2000 ISBN 0-7509-2131-5
  • John M. Wallace-Hadrill: Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent . Clarendon, Oxford 1971, ISBN 0-19-873011-X .
  • CP Wormald: Æthelbald . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , column 186 f.
  • Barbara Yorke : Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 . PDF (6.2 MB)
Commons : Æthelbald of Mercia  - collection of images

Remarks

  1. ^ Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac. Pp. 138, 148.
  2. ^ B. Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. P. 113.
  3. ^ PH Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters , no. 98, 100
  4. ↑ ASC , s. a. 740
  5. ↑ a b F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England , p. 204
  6. ^ PH Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters , no. 73
  7. ^ PH Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters , no. 89
  8. ↑ Beda, HE , V, 23
  9. ↑ S. Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae , no. 73
  10. ↑ ASC , s. a. 757
  11. ↑ S. Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae , no. 113
predecessor Office successor
Ceolred King of Mercien
716–757 		Beornrad
personal data
SURNAME Æthelbald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Mercia
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century or 8th century
DATE OF DEATH 757
Place of death Seckington