Æthelbald, King of Wessex
Æthelbald was the second son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex. He reigned from 855 to 865, and then again from 871 to 899. In 850 he defeated the Vikings in the first recorded sea battle in English history. He married his stepmother Judith, but the union was denounced as being against God’s prohibition and Christian dignity.
About Æthelbald, King of Wessex in brief
Æthelbald was the second son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex. He was one of five sons of the first king of the kingdom, Ecgberht. In 850 he defeated the Vikings in the first recorded sea battle in English history, but he is not recorded afterwards and probably died in the early 850s. He married his stepmother Judith, but the union was denounced as being against God’s prohibition and Christian dignity, and also contrary to the practice of all pagans. He reigned from 855 to 865, and then again from 871 to 899. He is first recorded in a charter of his father in 840 as filius Suxius, and attested with the same designation in the same year as the duxius of the same name. He had an unrecorded earlier wife, but his three younger brothers were successively kings of Wessex and Kent. He died in 899, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Alfred the Great, who was born ten years before Alfred was born in 849, and took part in his battle against the Vikings at Aclea in 851. His youngest brother, Æthethelstan, died before Alfred, but some historians argue that it is more likely that the elder brother died before his father, but Æ thethelstan died before he was born. He also had three younger sons, Álfred I, Alfred the Great, and Alfred The Great, all of whom were later kings of the Wessex and Kent.
In 856 he refused to give up the crown, and when his father died he resumed his kingship of Kent. Most historians believe that he continued to be king of Wessex while his brother gave up Kent to his father. But some think that Wessex itself was divided, with ÆThelbald ruling the west and his father the east, while Æ Thelberht kept Kent. When þelberht died in 860 he became king of both Wessex and Kent, and they were never again divided. The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks. In the ninth and tenth centuries, all kings were sons of kings. For two hundred years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. In 802, it would have seemed very unlikely that he would establish a lasting dynasty, 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. In 835 the Isle of Sheppey in Kent was ravaged. In. 836 Ec gberht was defeated by Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, and in 836 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishman and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down.
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