• General Notes

  Children
  AEthelbald King of Wessex b: ABT. 834
  AEthelbert King of Wessex b: ABT. 836
  AEthelred I King of Wessex b: ABT. 840
  Alfred I "the Great" King of Wessex b: 849 in Wantage, Berkshire, England
  AEthelswyth
  
  Ruled Kent 825-839, 856-858; Wessex, July(?) 839-855. Born: France (probably the court of Charlemagne, Aachen), c795; Died: 13 January 858, aged about 62. Buried: Steyning (Sussex) but later moved to Winchester Cathedral.
  
  Married: (1) c830, Osburh (died c852), dau. Oslac of Hampshire: 5 children; (2) 1 October 856 at Verberie-sur-Oise, France, Judith (c843-post 879), dau. Charles the Bald, king of the Franks: no children.
  
  Athelwolf was the son of EGBERT, whose subjugation of most of England from 825 onward became the foundation of the future kingdom of England. Although usually listed amongst the kings of England, Athelwolf remained king of Wessex only. These territories incorporated Sussex, Kent and Essex, which Athelwolf had conquered on his father's behalf in 825 and of which Athelwolf was duly appointed sub-king. Athelwolf appointed his brother (or son) ATHELSTAN as sub-king of these territories when he became king of Wessex. However, Athelwolf did not directly rule East Anglia, Mercia or Northumbria, all of which had their own kings who acknowledged Athelwolf as their overlord. Athelwolf s direct ascent to the throne of Wessex was a rare event in the West Saxon kingdom. Over the past three centuries the kingdom had passed either to the next most appropriate local chieftain as confirmed by the council or witan or, in a few cases, by conquest. Wessex had been a fairly loose knit confederacy of smaller kingdoms, and succession did not pass directly from father to son. Egbert's rigorous readministration of the kingdom had ensured his eldest son would inherit and that there would not be the inter-dynastic squabbling that had weakened other kingdoms. The ability to appoint younger sons to sub-kingdoms helped this process. Elsewhere the leading chieftain of the shire became the ealdorman, a position of considerable privilege second only to the king. In Athelwolf s time we find that the ealdormen became of major importance in helping defend the kingdom from the Danes, whose raids increased considerably during the 840s. Atheiwolf or his ealdormen succeeded in defeating the Danes on almost every occasion. The raids reached a peak in the years 850/1 when there were three assaults spread across the south. The sequence may not be as the ASC records, but it suggests that first an army landed in Devon which was defeated by the local ealdorman. A further army arrived off the Kent coast near Sandwich, where Athelstan and his ealdormen fought a sea battle, defeating the Danes and capturing nine of their ships. The Danes spent that winter in Thanet. Then, early in 851, a major force arrived in over three hundred ships which sailed up the Thames and attacked inland. It first defeated BEORHTWULF of Mercia and then turned its attention south of the Thames, where it met Athelwolf and his son ATHELBALD at a place called Acleah, somewhere in Surrey (usually associated with Ockley, though not all authorities agree). If the number of ships is correct (and not miscopied as 350 instead of 35) then the Danish force must have numbered nearly 10, 000 men. The ASC notes that this was the greatest slaughter of the Danes that was known up to that time and was evidently a significant battle.
  
  A few years of peace followed, and we may imagine that after the battle of Acleah Athelwolf had agreed some form of peace arrangement with the Danes, or that they sought easier places of conquest. The following year (852) Beorhtwulf of Mercia died, and a new king, BURGRED, appeared. He was almost certainly a vassal of Athelwolf s, possibly even one of his ealdormen. At Easter 853, Burgred married Athelwolf s daughter Athelswith, and later that year Athelwolf aided Burgred in his battle against the Welsh where they subjected CYNGEN AP CADELL to a major defeat.
  
  Athelwolf's life was soon after tinged with sadness as his wife died, probably at the end of 853 or early 854. By all accounts Athelwolf loved her deeply. The character of this king is somewhat perplexing. Many of the chroniclers recorded his bravery in battle, and there is no reason to doubt that he was anything other than courageous; but he was a very religious man and from his youth had apparently been devoted to the church. He probably accepted his role as king as a consequence of his heritage and his role in battle as a necessary evil, but there is no reason to assume he relished fighting. In 855, even though it is recorded that the Danes had wintered in Sheppey in Kent, and thus still represented a threat, Athelwolf abdicated the throne. He first donated a tenth of his estate to the church, a measure that was bound to endear him to later chroniclers, and then set off on a pilgrimage to Rome with his youngest son ALFRED. He left the government of England to his two eldest sons, Athelbald and ATHELBERT, supported ably by his council of ealdormen. He must have been convinced that he had left England in safe hands. He was himself now approaching sixty and would have been too old to fight. The ASC records that he spent a year in Rome and on his return spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, whose daughter Judith he married. This was clearly a political alliance as Judith was no more than thirteen, but it had its repercussions. At the ceremony, the officiating archbishop, Hincmar of Rheims, placed a crown upon Judith's head, thereby making her a queen. This position had been outlawed by the West Saxons sixty years earlier because of the wickedness of BEORHTRIC'S wife Eadburh. It may have been this action that alienated the ealdormen of Wessex for when Athelwolf returned to England later that year (856) he was welcomed but they would not accept him as king. This has been described as a civil war, but it is unlikely to have been that destructive. Athelwolf almost certainly did not want the rigours of kingship, and was quite happy to retire to Sussex as the sub-king of the Kent, Sussex and Essex territories. He died there some eighteen months later.

Details of Aethelwulf's family with Osburh of Isle of Wight