Editing Æthelred I of Wessex (section)

=== Civilian rule ===
[[File:Charter S 338, dated 867 of King Æthelred I of Wessex.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Charter S 338 dated 867. Æthelred, King of the West Saxons and the Men of Kent, grants Wighelm, priest, a seat in [[St Martin's Church, Canterbury]], together with land.{{sfn|Brooks and Kelly|2013|p=772}} Most charters only survive as copies, and this is the only original of Æthelred to survive.{{sfn|Smyth|1995|p=386}}]]

Æthelred succeeded to the throne on Æthelberht's death in 865, and he married [[Wulfthryth of Wessex|Wulfthryth]] at an unknown date. West Saxon kings' wives had a low status in the ninth century and very little is known about them. They were not usually given the title of ''regina'' (queen), an omission which Alfred the Great justified on the ground of the misconduct of a queen at the beginning of the ninth century. The name of Æthelred's wife is only known because she was recorded as a witness to one charter, S 340 of 868, where she is shown as ''Wulfthryth regina'', suggesting that she had a higher status than other kings' wives. The only other ninth century king's wife known to have been given the title was [[Æthelwulf]]'s second wife, [[Judith of Flanders]], a great-granddaughter of [[Charlemagne]]. Wulfthryth and Æthelred had two known sons, Æthelhelm and [[Æthelwold ætheling|Æthelwold]].{{sfnm|1a1=Keynes and Lapidge|1y=1983|1pp=71, 235–36, n. 28|2a1=Yorke|2y=2001 |2p=31}}{{efn|Æthelred may have had a third son, Oswald or Osweald, who witnessed two charters in 868 as ''filius regis'', and one more during Alfred's reign in 875 with the same title. [[David Dumville]] suggests that he may have been a son of Æthelred;{{sfn|Dumville|1979|p=11}} however, this is dismissed by [[Janet Nelson]] on the ground that only Æthelhelm and Æthelwold are mentioned in the prologue to Alfred's will, where he describes disputes shortly after his succession in 871 over his treatment of Æthelred's sons.{{sfn|Nelson|1996|p=59}} }} She might have been Mercian{{sfn|Hollis|1992|p=215, n. 40}} or a daughter of [[Wulfhere, Ealdorman of Wiltshire]], who forfeited his lands after being charged with deserting King Alfred for the Danes in about 878, perhaps because he attempted to secure Viking support for his elder grandson Æthelhelm's claim to the throne against Alfred.{{sfn|Nelson|1986|pp=53–55}}

Alfred records in the preamble to his will that Æthelwulf had left property jointly to three of his sons, Æthelbald, Æthelred and Alfred, with the proviso that the brother who lived longest would succeed to all of it. When Æthelbald died in 860, Æthelred and Alfred, who were still young, agreed to entrust their share to the new king, Æthelberht, on a promise that he would return it to them intact. When Æthelred succeeded to the throne, Alfred asked him at a meeting of the [[witan]] (assembly of leading men) to give him his share of the property. However, Æthelred said that he had attempted many times to divide it but had found it too difficult, and he would instead leave the whole to Alfred on his death. Some historians see the bequest as including the whole of Æthelwulf's [[Bookland (law)|bookland]], his personal property which he could leave in his will (as opposed to the folkland which passed according to customary law and property earmarked for the support of the crown); it is further argued that it was considered desirable that the bookland would be kept by the king, so Æthelwulf's provision implies that the throne would pass to each brother in turn.{{sfnm|1a1=Abels|1y=2002|1pp=90–91|2a1=Keynes and Lapidge|2y=1983|2pp=174–75, 314–15, n. 3|3a1=Wormald|3y=2001|3pp=268–70}} However, other historians assert that the bequest had nothing to do with the kingship,{{sfn|Nelson|2004}} and [[Alfred P. Smyth |Alfred Smyth]] argues that the bequest was provision for Æthelwulf's young sons when they reached adulthood, with Æthelbald as trustee and residuary beneficiary if they died young.{{sfn|Smyth|1995 |pp=416–18}} When Alfred succeeded, the supporters of Æthelred's infant sons complained that Alfred should have shared the property with them, and Alfred had his father's will read to a meeting of the witan to prove his right to keep the whole of the property.{{sfn|Keynes and Lapidge|1983|pp=174–75}} Alfred rarely witnessed Æthelred's charters, and this together with the argument over their father's will suggests that they were not on good terms. The historian [[Pauline Stafford]] suggests that Æthelred chose to highlight his wife's status as queen in a charter to assert his own sons' claims to the succession.{{sfn|Stafford|2003|p=260}}

In 868, Æthelred issued a charter which was attested by a Mercian ætheling and himself attested a charter issued by his sister, Æthelswith, as queen of Mercia.{{sfn|Abels|1998|p=121}}  Æthelred used several different titles in his charters. He is called by his father's usual title, ''Rex Occidentalium Saxonum'' (King of the West Saxons) in the charter of Ealhswith which he witnessed, and in five of his own. He is "King of the West Saxons and the Men of Kent" in two, and "King" and "King of the Saxons" in one each.{{sfn|Smyth|1995|p=386}}{{efn|[[Alfred P. Smyth|Alfred Smyth]] translates Æthelred's titles as "King of Wessex" and "King of Wessex and Kent", but the translations here follow the usual (and literal) translations as "West Saxons" and "Men of Kent".{{sfnm|1a1=Smyth|1y=1995|1p=386|2a1=Brooks and Kelly|2y=2013|2p=775}} }} The West Saxon charters of Æthelred and his elder brothers followed a uniform style, suggesting that they were produced by a single agency which operated over a number of years.{{sfn|Keynes|1994|p=1126}}{{efn|Simon Keynes analysed Æthelred's West Saxon charters (not his Kentish ones) in his "The West Saxon Charters of King Æthelwulf and his Sons".{{sfn|Keynes|1994|pp=1123–30}} }}