Editing Æthelred of Mercia (section)

==Ancestry and early reign==
[[File:Aethelred family tree.svg|thumb|300px|left|Æthelred's immediate relations]]

Æthelred was the son of Penda of Mercia.  Penda's queen, Cynewise, is named by Bede, who does not mention her children; no other wives of Penda are known and so it is likely but not certain that she was Æthelred's mother.<ref name=BF_Women_36>[[Pauline Stafford|Stafford, Pauline]], "Political Women in Mercia" in Brown & Farr, ''Mercia'', p.&nbsp;36</ref><ref>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', III, 24, pp.&nbsp;183–185.</ref>  The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives Penda's age as fifty in 626, and credits him with a thirty-year reign, but this would put Penda at eighty years old at the time of his death, which is generally thought unlikely as two of his sons (Wulfhere and Æthelred) were young when he was killed.  At least as likely is that Penda was fifty years old at his death, rather than at his accession.<ref name=Yorke_103/><ref name=Kirby_82>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;82.</ref>  Æthelred's date of birth is unknown, but Bede describes Wulfhere as a youth at the time of his accession in 658, so it is likely he and Æthelred were in their middle teens at that time.<ref name=Kirby_113>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;113.</ref>  The early sources do not say whether Æthelred was older or younger than Wulfhere.

Nothing is known of Æthelred's childhood.  He had another brother, Peada, and two sisters, [[Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba|Cyneburh and Cyneswith]];<ref name=Kirby_93>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;93.</ref><ref name=Swanton_29>Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', ''sub anno'' 656, p.&nbsp;29</ref> it is also possible that [[Merewalh]], king of the [[Magonsæte]], was Æthelred's brother.<ref>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p.&nbsp;107, accepts the account in the ''Life of St [[Mildburh]]'', which makes Merewalh and Æthelred brothers, as genuine. Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;93, expresses doubts.</ref>

In 674, according to [[Stephen of Ripon]], Wulfhere "stirred up all the southern nations against [Northumbria]",<ref name=AoB126>Eddius Stephanus, ''Life of Wilfrid'', 20, in ''Age of Bede'', pp.&nbsp;126–127.</ref> but he was defeated by Oswiu's son [[Ecgfrith of Northumbria|Ecgfrith]] who forced him to surrender Lindsey, and to pay tribute.<ref>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;116; Williams, ''Kingship and Government'', p.&nbsp;23.</ref>  Wulfhere survived the defeat, but died in 675, possibly of disease,<ref>Henry of Huntingdon, sub anno 670.</ref> and Æthelred became king.<ref name = Yorke_105/><ref>A detailed discussion of Æthelred's likely accession date can be found in Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;113.</ref>

The first recorded act of Æthelred's reign is in 676, when his armies ravaged Kent, destroying Rochester, the seat of the bishops of West Kent.<ref name=Bede_IV_12_223>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', IV, 12, p.&nbsp;223.</ref>  The reason for his attack is not recorded, but he may have wished to prevent King [[Hlothhere of Kent]] from regaining control of Surrey, which had been recently brought into the Mercian orbit by Wulfhere.<ref name=Kirby_117>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;117.</ref>  It may also be that Æthelred sought revenge for the murder of the sons of [[Eormenred of Kent]]; the murders had been instigated by [[Ecgberht of Kent]], Hlothhere's brother, and it is possible that Æthelred was the uncle of the murdered princes.<ref>The suggestion is due to D.W. Rollason, and is described by Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;137, n.&nbsp;14.</ref>  A third suggestion is that the kings of [[Kingdom of Essex|Essex]] solicited the invasion, in response to recent Kentish attempts to gain dominance over the East Saxons.<ref name=Zaluckyj_130>Zaluckyj, ''Mercia'', p.&nbsp;130, quoting Leonard Dutton's ''Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms''.</ref>  Regardless of the reason, Hlothhere was likely then forced to accept Æthelred's overlordship.<ref name=Zaluckyj_130/>  The damage to the see of Rochester was so great that the incumbent bishop, [[Putta (bishop of Hereford)|Putta]], retired from his diocese; his appointed successor, [[Cwichhelm (bishop)|Cwichhelm]], also gave up the see "because of its poverty".<ref name=Bede_IV_12_223/><ref>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p.&nbsp;106.</ref>

Early in Æthelred's reign, [[Theodore of Tarsus|Theodore]], the Archbishop of Canterbury, began a substantial reorganization of the church in Mercia.  In 675 he removed [[Winfred (bishop)|Winfred]] from his position as [[Bishop of Lichfield]], and over the next four years he divided the vast Mercian see into the five dioceses of [[Diocese of Leicester|Leicester]], [[Diocese of Lichfield|Lichfield]], [[Anglican Diocese of Worcester|Worcester]], [[Mercian Diocese of Dorchester|Dorchester]] and [[Diocese of Hereford|Hereford]].<ref name=Kirby_MEE_49>Kirby, ''Making of Early England'', p.&nbsp;49.</ref>  Æthelred was a devout king, "more famed for his pious disposition than his skill in war",<ref name=Zaluckyj_129>Quoted in Sarah & John Zaluckyj, "The Age of Mercian Supremacy", in Zaluckyj et al., ''Mercia'', p.&nbsp;129.</ref> and he made several gifts of land to the expanding church, including grants at [[Tetbury]], [[Long Newnton]], and [[Somerford Keynes]].  There is also a tradition that Æthelred was associated with the founding of [[Abingdon Abbey]], in southern [[Oxfordshire]].<ref name=Zaluckyj_131>Sarah & John Zaluckyj, "The Age of Mercian Supremacy", in Zaluckyj et al., ''Mercia'', p.&nbsp;131.</ref>