Eadberht (Northumbria)

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Eadberht's coin

Eadberht (also Eadbert, Edbert, Eadbyrht, Eadberht Eating ; † 19 or 20 August 768 ) was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . He ascended the throne in 737 and abdicated in 758 in favor of his son Oswulf .

Life

family

Eadberht was a son of Eata; his mother is unknown. His brother Ecgberht (732-766) was a bishop and since 735 Archbishop of York . Ceolwulf , Eadberht's predecessor as king, was a paternal cousin. His son and successor was Oswulf (758-759). It is debatable among historians whether Osgifu, the wife of King Ealchred (765–774), was his daughter or granddaughter.

Early years

Around 731 Ceolwulf was taken into monastery custody by his opponents, without the background being clear. A little later he was released and came back to power. Since shortly afterwards the bishops Acca of Hexham and Wilfrid II of York resigned their office or were deposed by Ceolwulf, it can be assumed that they were involved in the conspiracy against the king. In York, Ceolwulf's cousin Ecgberht was installed as the new bishop in 732 and raised to archbishop in 735. Presumably Ecgberht and his brother Eadberht, who was to become Ceolwulf's successor, played a major role in his return to power.

Domination

Northumbria at the time of Eadberht

In 737 Ceolwulf decided to renounce his royal rule and enter the Lindisfarne monastery as a monk . He appointed his cousin Eadberht to succeed him as king. With Eadberht, Northumbria had apparently received a "strong" ruler again. He resumed expansion to the north, repelled Mercia's advance in the south and reformed the coinage. Together with his brother Archbishop Ecgberht, he solved some of the church problems in Northumbria. The cooperation between the two brothers was so good that Alcuin wrote in a poem: "[It] were happy times for the people, when king and bishop ruled in just unity, one over the church, the king over the affairs of government." In 740 Earnwine, a close relative of Eadberht, was murdered in connection with an old family feud. Also in 740 Eadberht undertook a campaign against the Picts . Aethelbald of Mercia took advantage of his absence and sacked the southern part of Northumbria. In this connection York, one of Eadberht's main towns, burned down in April 741.

Northumbria experienced an economic boom during Eadberht's reign. Since the early 740s he had new sceattas (silver coins) minted in large numbers with a fineness of 50–75%. Some contemporary coins from the south of England barely reached 20%. Some coins were jointly issued by Eadberht and his brother Ecgberht. Eadberht was the first Anglo-Saxon ruler to have his name stamped on coins. Over 150 of these coins have survived to this day. His foreign policy contacts reached as far as the Franconian Empire, with whose King Pippin the Younger (714–768) he exchanged gifts.

In 750 the Ætheling ("Prince") Offa, a son of the former King Aldfrith (686–705), fled to church asylum in front of Eadberht in Lindisfarne Cathedral. He was besieged, seized and murdered in the church. Bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne , who had granted him asylum, was declared deposed by Eadberht and temporarily detained in Bamburgh . The diocese was co-administered by Bishop Frithuberht of Hexham until Eadberht was reconciled with Cynewulf and reinstated him. 750 more Eadberht led a campaign against the Kingdom of Strathclyde and was able to conquer large parts of Ayrshire . Eadberht attacked 756 in alliance with the Pict king Óengus I. Strathclyde again. They besieged the capital Dumbarton and forced the submission of King Dumnagual III. on August 1, 756. On the march back, however, Eadberht's army was almost wiped out on August 10 between “Ouania” ( Govan ) and “Niwanbirig” (presumably Newburgh-on-Tyne near Hexham). Around 757 Eadberht expropriated three monasteries (Stonegrave, Coxwold and Donæmuthe ) of the abbot Forthred and handed them over to his brother Moll, who is presumably identical to the later king Æthelwald Moll (759-765). Forthred turned to Pope Paul I , who requested the return in a letter. Eadberht abdicated in 758 in favor of his son Oswulf and became a monk in York.

monastery

There are no records of Eadberht's years in the monastery. He died on August 19 or 20, 768. He was buried next to his brother in the portico of St. Peter.

swell

literature

  • 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)
  • DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings , Routledge, London-New York 2000, ISBN 978-0-415-24211-0 .
  • David W. Rollason: Northumbria, 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom . Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-81335-8 .
  • Nicholas J. Higham: The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350-1100. Stroud: Sutton, 1993. ISBN 978-0-86299-730-4 .
  • J. Marsden: Northanhymbre Saga: The History of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of Northumbria . London, 1992.

Web links

Commons : Eadberht of Northumbria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Simon Keynes: Kings of Northumbria . In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1 , pp. 502-505.
  2. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 738
  3. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 738
  4. ↑ see: Alex Woolf : From Pictland to Alba: 789-1070 Volume 2. Edinburgh University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5 , p. 42; DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings , Routledge, London-New York 2000, ISBN 978-0-415-24211-0 , p. 125
  5. ^ Beda: HE Continuatio
  6. ↑ Michael Lapidge: Ecgberht . In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1 , p. 157.
  7. ↑ Nicholas J. Higham: (Re-) reading Bede: the ecclesiastical history in context , Routledge, 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-35368-7 , p. 200.
  8. ↑ David W. Rollason: Ceolwulf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.oxforddnb.com   (paid registration required). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2011
  9. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 88.
  10. ↑ Franz-Reiner Erkens (ed.): The early medieval monarchy: ideal and religious foundations ( Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde - supplementary volumes Volume 49), de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 978-3-11-018886-8 , p. 194.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f D. P. Kirby: The Earliest English Kings , Routledge, London-New York 2000, ISBN 978-0-415-24211-0 , pp. 125-126.
  12. ^ A b Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 95.
  13. ↑ Symeon of Durham: De Gestis Regum Anglorum for the year 741
  14. ^ Philip Grierson , Mark Blackburn : Medieval European Coinage 1. The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries) , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007 (Taschenbuch), ISBN 978-0-521-03177-6 , p. 189.
  15. ^ Philip Grierson, Mark Blackburn : Medieval European Coinage 1. The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries) , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007 (Taschenbuch), ISBN 978-0-521-03177-6 , p. 271.
  16. ^ Philip Grierson, Mark Blackburn : Medieval European Coinage 1. The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries) , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-521-03177-6 , p. 277.
  17. ↑ Christopher Edgar Challis (Ed.): A New history of the Royal Mint , Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 978-0-521-24026-0 , p. 5.
  18. ↑ Website ( Memento of the original dated August 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Fitzwilliam Museum  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
  19. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 93.
  20. ^ Symeon of Durham: Historia ecclesiae Dunelmensis , Kap XVII, XIX
  21. ↑ Rosamond McKitterick (Ed.): The New Cambridge medieval history, Volume 4, Part 2 , Cambridge University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-521-36292-4 , p. 55.
  22. ^ A b Symeon of Durham: De Gestis Regum Anglorum for the year 756
  23. ^ Joanna Story: Carolingian connections: Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c. 750-870 , Ashgate, 2003, ISBN 978-0-7546-0124-1 , p. 23.
predecessor Office successor
Ceolwulf King of Northumbria
737–758 		Oswulf
personal data
SURNAME Eadberht
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eadbert; Edbert; Eadbyrht; Eadberht Eating (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century or 8th century
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 768 or August 20, 768