Beornwulf of Mercien

Britain at the beginning of the 9th century

Beornwulf († 825 ) was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia from 823 to 825 . During his reign, Mercia lost its dominant role among the kingdoms of England.

Life

Little is known about Beornwulf's origin. His father was the Mercian Ealdorman Beorhtweald. Beornwulf could be the same person who witnessed a charter of King Cenwulf in 812 and a charter of King Ceolwulf I in 823. On the basis of the place where his signature appears in the documents, however, it can be assumed that he did not belong to the very highest social class in the rule of the kingdom.

Beornwulf overthrew his predecessor Ceolwulf I in 823. He successfully completed the conquest of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys , which Ceolwulf had already begun .

The conflict with the Archbishop of Canterbury Wulfred over secular control of monasteries, which had already begun under Cenwulf, was settled in 825 in the Council of Clovesho . As a result of the agreement, Beornwulf Baldred was able to use under the suzerainty of Mercias as king in the Kingdom of Kent . Not only was Kent under the suzerainty of Mercias, but Sussex , Essex , Middlesex , Surrey, and East Anglia were also under the direct control of the ruler Mercias. The only kingdom south of the Humber that could maintain its independence was Wessex .

In 825 there was the battle between Mercia and Wessex near Ellandun , from which the West Saxon army under their King Egbert emerged victorious and Beornwulf and his troops inflicted a devastating defeat and put them to flight.

As a result of the lost battle, Mercia's system of rule collapsed. During the years of political and dynastic instability within Mercia prior to Beornwulf's takeover, personal loyalties and allegiances had been shattered, weakening the use of royal power and control of the government apparatus. Egbert sent troops under the leadership of his son Æthelwulf to Kent, where the king drove Balrded out. The people of Sussex and Surrey submitted to King Egbert, and Essex also seems to have accepted his supremacy. After the kingdom of the East Anglers regained its independence, it also made peace with Wessex. King Beornwulf fell during the fighting in East Anglia that year.

swell

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Edited by Dorothy Whitelock , David C. Douglas , Susie I. Tucker. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 1961.
• Cartularium saxonicum . Edited by Walter de Gray Birch. Whiting, London 1885.

literature

• James Campbell (Ed.): The Anglo-Saxons. Phaidon, London 1982, ISBN 0-7148-2149-7 .
• Peter Hunter Blair: Roman Britain and Early England. 55 BC - AD 871. Nelson, Edinburgh 1963, ISBN 0-1771-1044-9 .
• DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings . Unwin Hyman, London 1991, ISBN 0-0444-5691-3 .
• Frank M. Stenton: Anglo-Saxon England . 3. Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1971, ISBN 0-1928-0139-2 .
• Ian W. Walker: Mercia and the Making of England . Sutton, Stroud 2000, ISBN 0-7509-2131-5 .
• Barbara Yorke : Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 .

Remarks

1. ↑ CS 340
2. ↑ CS 373
3. ^ FM Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England , p. 231
4. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ( Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ) 823
5. ↑ DP Kirby, The Earliest English Kings , pp. 154f.
6. ↑ J. Campbell (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons , p. 128.
7. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ( Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ) 825

predecessor	Office	successor
Ceolwulf I.	King of Mercien 823-825	Ludeca