Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (2 page)

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Authors: Alison Weir

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Royalty, #History, #General, #Historical, #Reference, #Genealogy & Heraldry, #Non Fiction

BOOK: Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy
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Egbert married
(although no record exists of the date or the place):
Redburga
She is said to have been the sister of the King of the Franks (who, at that time, was Charlemagne), but her identity is uncertain, and hardly anything is known about her.
Issue of marriage:
1  
King Ethelwulf
(
see here
).
2  
Athelstan
He became ‘Subregulus’ of Kent, Essex, Sussex and Surrey in 839,
and also reigned as King of East Anglia. He died in
c
.851.
Athelstan married a lady about whom no information exists, and had issue:
(i)
  Ethelweard
He was ‘Subregulus’ of Kent. He died, probably unmarried, in 850.
3  
Edith
She became a nun at Polesworth Abbey, Co. Warwick, where she later became Abbess. She died and was buried there, but the year is not recorded.
EGBERT
He died on 4 February (or after
c.
June), 839, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. His bones are now in one of the mortuary chests there.
He was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf.
King Ethelwulf
F
ATHER
:
Egbert, King of Wessex
(
see here
).
M
OTHER
:
Redburga
(
see here
).
S
IBLINGS
: (
see here
).
ETHELWULF
He was born around 795/810. He became ‘Subregulus’ of Kent, Essex, Sussex and Surrey in 825 or 828, and succeeded his father as King of Wessex on 4 February, 839. He was crowned, probably that same year, at Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. In 855/6, he resigned Wessex to his son Ethelbald, and confined his own authority to Kent, Sussex and Essex as ‘Subregulus’.
Ethelwulf married firstly
, in
c
.830 (although no record exists as to where):
Osburga
She was the daughter of Oslac of Hampshire or the Isle of Wight. She died in 846 or 852/5. (Osburga has sometimes been confused by historians with St Osburga, foundress of Coventry Abbey, who died
c.
1018).
Issue of marriage:
1  
Athelstan
(?)
Although some sources cite Athelstan as Ethelwulf’s eldest son, he has almost certainly been confused with Athelstan, son of King Egbert, as the details of his life are identical. It is therefore improbable that Ethelwulf actually had a son called Athelstan.
2  
King Ethelbald
(
see here
).
3  
King Ethelbert
(
see here
).
4  
King Ethelbert I
(
see here
).
5  
King Alfred
(
see here
).
6  
Ethelswitha
She married, after 2 April, 853 (or 854/5), Burgred, King of Mercia (
d
.874) at the Palace of Chippenham, Wiltshire. Shortly after her widowhood in 874, she became a nun. She went on a pilgrimage to Rome in 888/9, but died in Paris on the way there. She was buried at either Pavia or Ticino in Italy.
Ethelwulf married secondly
, on 1 or 15 October, 856, at Verberie sur Oise, France:
Judith
She was the daughter of Charles II, King of the Franks, by Ermentrude, daughter of Odo, Count of Orléans. She was born in
c
.843/4, and was crowned Queen of Wessex on her wedding day.
In 860, she married secondly her stepson, King Ethelbald (
see here
), at Chester, but the marriage was annulled that same year on grounds of consanguinity. She had no issue from either of these marriages.

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