Editing Æthelred I of Wessex (section)

== Background ==

Æthelred's grandfather, [[Ecgberht, King of Wessex|Ecgberht]], became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historian Richard Abels, it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For two hundred years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since [[Ceawlin]] in the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of [[Cerdic]], the founder of the West Saxon dynasty.{{efn|Historians have expressed doubt both whether the genealogy for Ecgberht going back to Cerdic was fabricated to legitimise his seizure of the West Saxon throne,{{sfn|Edwards|2004}} and broadly whether Cerdic was a real person or if the story of Cerdic is a "foundation myth".{{sfn|Yorke|2004}}  }} This made Ecgberht an [[ætheling]] – a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839 he was succeeded by his son [[Æthelwulf]]; all subsequent West Saxon kings were Ecgberht's descendants and were also sons of kings.{{sfnm|1a1=Abels|1y=2002|1pp=84–85|2a1=Dumville|2y=1979|2pp=17–18|3a1=Yorke|3y=1990|3pp=142–43, 148–49}} 

[[File:Southern British Isles 9th century.svg|upright=2.25|thumb|Southern Britain in the ninth century]]

At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of the [[Anglo-Saxon]]s. The Midland kingdom of [[Mercia]] dominated southern England, but its supremacy came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the [[Battle of Ellendun]].{{sfn|Keynes|1995|pp=28, 39–41}} The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to [[Viking]] attacks.{{sfn|Abels|1998|pp=28–29}} In 853, King [[Burgred of Mercia]] requested West Saxon help to suppress a [[Welsh people|Welsh]] rebellion, and Æthelwulf led a West Saxon contingent in a successful joint campaign. In the same year Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter, [[Æthelswith]].{{sfn|Kirby|2000|p=161}}

In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]], and its underking, [[Baldred of Kent|Baldred]], was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, [[Kingdom of Essex |Essex]], [[Surrey]] and [[Kingdom of Sussex|Sussex]] had also submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as King of Kent.{{sfnm |1a1=Keynes|1y=1993|1pp=120–21|2a1=Kirby|2y=2000|2pp=155–56}} The Vikings ravaged the [[Isle of Sheppey]] in 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht at [[Carhampton]] in [[Somerset]],{{sfnm|1a1=Edwards|1y=2004|2a1=Kirby|2y=2000|2p=171}} but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of [[Cornishmen]] and Vikings at the [[Battle of Hingston Down]], reducing Cornwall to the status of a [[client kingdom]].{{sfn|Charles-Edwards|2013|p=431}} When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son [[Æthelstan of Kent|Æthelstan]] (who died in the early 850s) as sub-king of Kent.{{sfn|Nelson|2004}} Ecgberht and Æthelwulf might not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent as they both appointed sons as underkings and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control and the underkings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.{{sfn|Abels|1998|p=31}}

Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the [[English Channel]], and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated at Carhampton.{{sfn|Nelson|2004}} In 850, Æthelstan defeated a [[Danes|Danish]] fleet off [[Sandwich, Kent|Sandwich]] in the first recorded naval battle in English history.{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=244}} In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son [[Æthelbald, King of Wessex|Æthelbald]] defeated the Vikings at the [[Battle of Aclea]] and, according to the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took the victory".{{sfn|Swanton|2000|p=64}} Æthelwulf died in 858 and was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex and by his next oldest son, [[Æthelberht, King of Wessex|Æthelberht]], as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his father by two years and Æthelberht then for the first time united Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom.{{sfn|Abels|1998|pp=89–94}}