Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Little is recorded of his family, though his father is known to have been a nobleman.
About Eardwulf of Northumbria in brief
Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Little is recorded of his family, though his father is known to have been a nobleman. The title of patricius is translated as noble, but in the latter days of the Roman Empire represented a high-ranking position. The word dux is usually translated by the Old English word ealdorman, but it is unclear if this is the same as dux or dux-ealdorman. The king may have married an illegitimate daughter of Charlemagne. He was possibly buried at the Mercian royal monastery of Breedon on the Hill, which carries a dedication to Saint Mary and Saint Hardulph, with whom he is identified by several historians. The evidence for his reign is largely in Latin documents, which shed light on the institutions of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. While sufficient evidence survives for historians to reconstruct some aspects of the Northumbrian life, there is not enough to reconstruct the political institutions of this kingdom. The record of disputed succession was by no means unique to Northumbia, and the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex experienced similar troubles during the eighth and ninth centuries. Some Anglo- Saxon kings are known to be killed by their households or in open warfare against rivals, but overall the record is very sparse.
Only two eighth-century depositions offer any context, those of Sigeberht of Wessex and Æthelwald Moll in Northumbira. The name of the patrician is translated as noble but ultimately means “high-ranking” in the late Roman Empire, but only in the early days of its existence. The term duxius is only translated as “patricius” or “dux” in English, meaning “the second-ranking man” or “eldorman” in Latin, meaning the second in line to the throne, but not the first or second in the English word for “king” Eardwolf was married by the time he became king, but his wife’s name is not recorded. He fought a battle at Billington Moor against a noblemen named Wada, who had been one of those who killed King Æthelred. In 801 he led an army against Coenwulf of Mercian, perhaps because of his support for other claimants to theNorthumbrian throne. He died in 806 and according to a Frankish record, returned to his kingdom in 808. In Wessex, from the death of Centwine in 685 to Egbert’s seizure of power in 802, the relationships between successive kings are far from clear and few kings were close kinsmen of their predecessors or successors. In Mercia, the same may be true of Mercians until the disappearance of theMercian kingdom in late ninth century.
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