757. Sigeberht of Wessex deposed by Cynewulf and the counsellors of the
West Saxons
Cynewulf succeeds to WessexThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates
how Cynewulf and the counsellors of the West Saxons deprived Sigeberht of the
kingdom because of his unjust acts, all except for Hampshire. Sigeberht remained
in Hampshire until he killed Cumbra, the ealdorman who had been most loyal to
him, and then Cynewulf drove Sigeberht into the Weald, where he was slain by a
swineherd. Cynewulf then ruled for 29 years, until he was himself slain by Sigeberht's
brother Cyneheard (see entry under 786).
The Chronicle adds that Cynewulf
often fought great battles against the Britons. This keeps up the tradition of
his predecessor Cuthred (in 743 and 753), though Cynewulf's battles against the
Britons are not individually recorded.
Cynewulf's relations with the Mercians
are more difficult to follow. In the first couple of years of his reign, Cynewulf witnesses a charter of ?thelbald of Mercia in 757 (S 96), and his own earliest
charter is confirmed by Offa of Mercia in c.758 (S 265); this may imply some West
Saxon dependence on the Mercians. Another charter of Offa's of 772 (S 108) is
witnessed both by Cynewulf of the West Saxons and by Ecgberht of Kent. However,
Cynewulf's other five charters (S 260-4, from 758 to 778) make no mention of Mercian
overlordship, and Cynewulf fought Offa at Bensington in 779. Cynewulf attended
the meeting with the papal legates with Offa in 786, but the report of the legates
gives us no hint as to the relations between Offa and Cynewulf at that point.
It seems likely that Cynewulf maintained West Saxon independence after the first
couple of years of his reign, but his appearance in a charter of Offa of 772 suggests
how precarious and hard-fought that independence may have been.
757.
Athelbald of Mercia killed
Beornred succeeds to Mercia, briefly
Offa succeeds
to Mercia
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that ?thelbald was killed
at Seckington and that his body was buried at Repton. It adds that Beornred succeeded
to the kingdom but ruled only for a short time and unhappily, and that in the
same year Offa came to the throne. Offa's descent is given through Penda's brother
Eowa. Simeon of Durham in the 12th century adds the detail that ?thelbald was
killed by his own bodyguard.
While earlier kings of Mercia expanded beyond
the borders of Mercia proper (e.g. Penda, Wulfhere, ?thelbald), it was under Offa
that this expansion reached its greatest extent, involving not just overlordship
but direct control over many of the other English kingdoms and marriages with
daughters of Offa for the kings of the two kingdoms (Wessex and Northumbria) that
lay outside of Mercian rule.
Already in 757 Offa was confirming the charters
of the rulers of the neighbouring Hwicce, and by the 790s that ruling family seems
to have vanished altogether (see entry on c.670-c.790). Offa may also have had
some control of Wessex early on, but Cynewulf seems to have ruled freely for much
of his reign (see entry on Cynewulf's accession in 757); the two clashed at Bensington
in 779. Offa took control of Kent in 764, lost it again at the battle of Otford
in 776, and regained it in 784/5. It was probably shortly after Offa took Kent
that he introduced a reformed coinage based on the Frankish model (see entry on
c.765); a second coinage reform was made probably in 792. Offa took control of
Sussex in about 771, and his control of East Anglia, though it cannot be precisely
dated because it is recorded only in the coins, probably dates to the 760s or
early 770s (see entry on 749-74). When the East Anglian king ?thelberht tried
to declare independence in about 794, Offa had him beheaded.
Offa was married
to Cynethryth, who is the only Anglo-Saxon queen to have coins issued in her own
name, apparently following the model of the contemporary Byzantine empress Irene
(see Grierson and Blackburn, pp.279-80). They had at least three daughters: Eadburh,
who married Beorhtric of Wessex in 789, ?lffl?d, who married ?thelred of Northumbria
in 792, and ?thelburh, an abbess. The later legends of ?thelberht of East Anglia
note that he had hopes of marrying a fourth, ?lfthryth, and an uncertain charter
mentions three more daughters (S 127). Only one son is known, Ecgfrith: Offa worked
strenuously to ensure that Ecgfrith should succeed him, going so far as to have
Ecgfrith consecrated as king while he (Offa) was still alive, following the recent
Frankish precedent. It may have been the unwillingness of the archbishop of Canterbury
in occupied Kent to oblige Offa on this point which resulted in Offa's scheme
to create a third English archbishopric, at Lichfield within Mercia (see entry
on 787). Doubtless the papal legates who visited in 786 were involved in negotiations
on this point.
Offa enjoyed good relations with the great Frankish king
Charlemagne: gifts were exchanged, and in one letter Charlemagne calls Offa "brother"
(the only time he uses the term for another western king; see Wormald, p.101).
Relations were nearly broken off c.790, probably because Charlemagne was harbouring
Offa's political enemies, but were restored later.
Offa's best-known memorial
today, the Dyke, leaves no trace in the narrative records, but the continuing
battles with the Welsh that accompanied its creation are noted under 760, 778,
784, and 795.
P. Grierson and M. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage,
1: The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries) (Cambridge: 1986)
P. Wormald in J. Campbell (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons (London: 1982), pp.101-28
758.
Eadberht of Northumbria retires to a monastery
Oswulf, Eadberht's son, succeeds
to Northumbria
July 25, 759. Oswulf of Northumbria slain by his household
August
5, 759. Athelwold Moll succeeds to Northumbria
The 8th-century annals
appended to Bede note that Eadberht retired to a cloister in 758 and resigned
the throne to his son Oswulf, and that in 759 Oswulf was treacherously killed
by his thegns and ?thelwold was elected by the people and began to rule. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle adds that Oswulf was killed on July 24/25 (some manuscripts give "24",
some "25"). Simeon of Durham in his Historia Regum under 759 adds that
?thelwold Moll began to reign on August 5. (The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records
Eadberht's death on August 20, 769; Simeon of Durham adds that it was at York.)
Nothing
more is known of Oswulf's short reign. His successor ?thelwold seems to have been
the first member of his family to achieve power: no genealogy showing his descent
back to Ida or other early kings has survived. That this innovation was bitterly
contested is shown in a severe battle of 761, where ?thelwold kills one Oswine
(perhaps related to Oswulf?), in ?thelwold's own expulsion in 765, and in the
expulsion of his son in 778. Northumbrian politics were not notably peaceful earlier
in the 8th century -- Osred may have been murdered in 716, and Ceolwulf was captured
and tonsured in 731 -- but the killings and quick reverses of fortune do seem
to escalate out of all control in the second half of the 8th century. A similar
fluidity is seen in the mid-10th century, when York seems able to choose and expel
rulers -- King Eadred, Erik Bloodaxe, Olaf Cuaran -- with what to the rest of
the country probably looked like alarming ease and rapidity (see entry on 947-54).
Simeon
of Durham records that ?thelwold married an ?thelthryth on November 1, 762, at
Catterick. There are four ?thelthryths in the list of queens and abbesses in the
Durham Liber Vitae, and ?thelwold's queen is very likely one of them.
760.
Battle at Hereford between Britons and Saxons
The Annales Cambriae record
this battle (probably but not explicitly involving Offa of Mercia, given the location),
and note the death of Dyfnwal son of Tewdwr.
August 6, 761. Battle of
Eildon (or "Edwin's Cliff"): ?thelwold of Northumbria kills Oswine
The
8th-century annals appended to Bede note that Oswine died in 761, the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle notes that Moll (?thelwold) killed Oswine at "Edwin's cliff"
on August 6, and Simeon of Durham adds in his Historia Regum that a very severe
battle was fought at Eildon on 6 August, that after three days Oswine fell, and
that ?thelwold obtained the victory in battle.
We do not know who Oswine
was, but in light of the strong probability that ?thelwold was involved in the
killing of King Oswulf in 759, that Oswulf's kinsman Alhred would drive out ?thelwold
in 765, and that Oswulf's son ?lfwold would drive out ?thelwold's son ?thelred
in 779, it seems reasonably likely that the battle in 761 was part of this continuing
civil war, and from the similarity of names it may well be that Oswine was a kinsman
of the murdered Oswulf, seeking revenge.
764. Offa of Mercia takes direct
control over Kent
A charter of 764 (S 105) gives the earliest direct
evidence of Mercian control over Kent, in which Offa of Mercia grants an estate
to the bishop of Rochester which had previously been granted by an earlier Kentish
king. Kings of Kent were issuing charters without reference to Mercia earlier
in the 760s (S 25, 27, 32, 33), so the takeover can probably be dated fairly closely
to 764, though the circumstances are unclear. For the next twelve years, the only
charter issued by a Kentish king (S 34 of 765) is confirmed by Offa. It also seems
clear that Offa lost control of Kent after the battle of Otford in 776.
c.765.
Offa of Mercia introduces reformed silver coinage
October 30, 765.
Battle of Pincanheale: Athelwold driven from Northumbria
Alhred, descended
from Ida, succeeds to Northumbria
The 8th-century annals appended to
Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle note only that Alhred began to rule in 765;
Simeon of Durham's Historia Regum adds the details of the battle of Pincanheale
(unidentified) and the expulsion of ?thelwold Moll. A genealogy of Alhred survives
which traces descent back to Ida but none of the other names are known from earlier
sources so it is impossible to say how closely related Alhred was to ?thelwold's
predecessor Oswulf. Alhred was exiled in turn and replaced by ?thelwold's son
in 774.
Alhred is best known for his involvement in Continental affairs.
There is a surviving letter (EHD 197) from Alhred and his wife Osgifu requesting
the prayers of Lul, archbishop of Mainz (but English by birth and a kinsman of
Boniface), and asking him to forward their embassy to the Frankish king Charlemagne.
Simeon of Durham records the marriage of Alhred and Osgifu in 768. It was also
from an assembly summoned by Alhred that the mission of St Willehad set out, which
led to the foundation of the Continental archbishopric of Bremen. And it was in
Alhred's reign that the most famous Northumbrian scholar of them all, Alcuin,
took his place as master at the school in York (in 767); he would go on to join
Charlemagne's court in 781/2 (see Godman).
P. Godman (ed.), Alcuin:
The Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York (Oxford: 1982)
Stenton, Anglo-Saxon
England (Oxford: 1971), pp.92-3
769. Catterick burnt by the tyrant
Earnred
This reference appears only in Simeon of Durham, who adds that
Earnred himself perished miserably by fire in the same year. It is mentioned mainly
because an even more cryptic note in the annals appended to Bede says that in
741 Earnwine and Eadberht were killed. There may then have been a family of some
importance in mid-8th-century Northumbria which favoured names beginning Earn-,
at least one of whom (the "tyrant" Earnred) was in a position of authority,
which has now almost entirely vanished. Anglo-Saxon history is full of puzzles
like this: sometimes, as in the case of Offa, Aldfrith's son, being dragged from
sanctuary in 750, enough pieces remain that the picture can be recovered, but
sometimes, as with Earnred and his family, only fleeting glimpses remain.
771.
Offa of Mercia conquers the people of Hastings (Sussex)
This conquest
is first mentioned by Simeon of Durham in the 12th century. The "people of
Hastings" referred not merely to the town but to a district of eastern Sussex.
The fall of the South Saxons to Offa is also neatly demonstrated in the fact that
an Osmund, king of the South Saxons, issued his own charter in 770 (S 49) but
was reduced to witnessing a charter of Offa as ealdorman in 772 (S 108).
Easter,
774. Alhred of Northumbria driven out
Athelred, son of Athelwold Moll, chosen
as king of Northumbria
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that at Easter
774 the Northumbrians drove their king Alhred from York and took as their king
?thelred, son of Athelwold Moll. Simeon of Durham adds that Alhred fled with a
few companions, first to Bamburgh, and then to the land of the Picts.
This
is the first of Athelred's two reigns. His father ?thelwold reigned from 759 until
765, when he was exiled. ?thelred reigned from 774 until 778/9, when he was exiled
in his turn; he was was reinstated in 790, and finally killed in 796. Nothing
is known of the earlier history of the family before ?thelwold, but it seems likely
that ?thelwold was involved in the killing of the previous king, Oswulf. The killing
of three Northumbrian high-reeves in 778 at Athelred's orders looks like ?thelred
pre-emptively removing threats to his reign, and reaction to this may have caused
his first expulsion. In his second reign he was much more thorough about removing
the opposition from the beginning.
776. Battle of Otford: Offa of Mercia
loses control of Kent until 784/5
Kings Ecgberht, then Ealhmund, rule Kent
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes only that the Mercians and the people of Kent fought
at Otford, without giving the outcome. It is from the four charters issued by
independent kings of Kent in the years after 776 (S 35-8) that we can deduce that
Otford was a Kentish victory. S 35 (dated 778), S 36 (dated 779) and S 37 (not
precisely dated) are in the name of King Ecgberht, while S 38 (dated 784) is in
the name of King Ealhmund. (For more on Ealhmund, see entry on 825.) The changeover
between Ecgberht and Ealhmund cannot be dated more precisely than 779?784.
778.
Offa of Mercia raids Dyfed in Wales
This raid is recorded only in the
Annales Cambriae, which note "The devastation of the Southern Britons [i.e.
Dyfed in South Wales] by Offa".
778/9. Athelbald and Heardberht
kill three Northumbrian high-reeves
Athelred of Northumbria driven out
Alfwold,
Oswulf's son, succeeds to Northumbria
December 25, 779. Northumbrian ealdorman
Beorn burnt alive
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that in 778 ?thelbald
and Heardberht killed three high-reeves, Ealdwulf, son of Bosa, at Coniscliffe
(Durham), and Cynewulf and Ecga at Helathirnum (unidentified), on 22 March. Simeon
of Durham dates these events to 29 September (perhaps the killings at Coniscliffe
were in March and those at Helathirnum in September, or vice versa), and adds
that it was done on the orders of ?thelred. Contemporary sources neither confirm
nor deny this, but the fact that Alfwold then succeeded to the kingdom and drove
?thelred from the country suggests that he was seen to be responsible. The Chronicle
reports Alfwold's accession under 778, while Simeon places it under 779, adding
the information that Alfwold was the son of Oswulf, who had been killed (probably
at the instigation of Athelred's father ?thelwold) in 758.
That Alfwold's
accession did not end the disputes is suggested from the fact that on December
25, 779, the ealdorman Beorn was burnt at Seletun (unidentified). This is all
the information reported by the Chronicle; Simeon adds that Beorn was one of Alfwold's
nobles, and burnt by the ealdormen Osbald and Athelheard, who led an army against
him as well. This Osbald may well be the same as the one who was king of Northumbria
for about a month in 796 after the death of ?thelred, and based on a letter from
Alcuin he might have been involved in ?thelred's death as well (see under 796).
The Ealdorman Athelheard noted here may be the one whose death on August 1, 794,
is reported in the Chronicle.
The Chronicle reports no more of the secular
events of Alfwold's reign, though we know from the report of the papal legates
in 786 that they met with Alfwold and his archbishop (see entry on 786), and the
emphasis in the legatine canons on loyalty to the king should have been a welcome
boost to Alfwold's safety. Unfortunately he was killed two years later (see entry
on 788).
779. Battle of Bensington: Offa of Mercia defeats Cynewulf of
Wessex
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that Cynewulf and Offa fought
over Bensington and Offa captured the town.
784. Offa of Mercia raids
Wales
This raid is recorded only in the Annales Cambriae, which note
"The devastation of the Britons by Offa in the summer".
784/5.
Offa of Mercia regains control of Kent
As with Offa's earlier conquest
of Kent in 764, there is no narrative account of how Offa took over, but the fact
is clear from the documentary sources. From a charter (S 38) and a late manuscript
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, we known that a King Ealhmund reigned in Kent in
784. In 785, however, Offa was granting land in Kent with no reference to a Kentish
king (S 123), and this continued into the 780s and 790s (e.g. S 125, 128, 134).
On Offa's death, Kent regained its independence for two years under Eadberht Pr?n
before returning to the Mercian yoke.
786. Papal legates visit England
In
786, Pope Hadrian sent his legates George, bishop of Ostia, and Theophylact, bishop
of Todi, to England, apparently to investigate the state of the English church
and root out any heresy that might be found there. A report of the legates survives
(EHD 191), and from it we can see that they first visited J?nberht, archbishop
of Canterbury, then the court of Offa, then on to a joint council with Offa of
Mercia and Cynewulf of Wessex, at which both English kings promised to make needful
reforms. Then Theophylact continued his visits in Mercia and Wales, while George
went up to Northumbria, where he was joined by Alcuin for his meeting with King
?lfwold and Archbishop Eanbald of York. In Northumbria George produced a set of
twenty canons, dealing with both religious and secular affairs. These were witnessed
by the Northumbrians, and then taken back to Offa's court and witnessed there
also. The following year saw synods both in southern England and in Northumbria.
From
a letter of Pope Leo to Offa's successor Coenwulf in 798 (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils,
III.523-5), we learn that Offa vowed before a synod including the papal envoys
and all the bishops and nobles of Britain that he would send each year 365 mancuses
(a mancus was a coin worth 30 pence) to Rome as a sign of thanksgiving to St Peter.
One suspects that Offa was giving thanks not merely for the legates' efforts in
suppressing heresy, but also for the papal approval he had secured for his moves
in the following year, when he would establish a third English archbishopric at
Lichfield, and have his son Ecgfrith anointed (see entries for 787). There is
no direct evidence that the legates concerned themselves with this, but it seems
a reasonable assumption given that papal approval would certainly be necessary
for the creation of a new archbishopric. The several references in the twelfth
canon to the king as the lord's anointed would be interpreted by Offa's circle
as referring to Ecgfrith's anointing the following year, whether that was the
original intention or not.
Catherine Cubitt has recently argued that the
canons were partly the work of Alcuin of Northumbria, and so more closely related
to Northumbrian affairs: certainly the emphasis on loyalty to the king in canons
eleven to fourteen addresses a severe shortcoming in contemporary northern affairs,
as the entries on 758/9, 765, 774, 778/9, 788, make quite clear. One might also
remember Alhred of Northumbria's mission to Charlemagne as a point of contact
between Northumbria and the Continent (see entry on 765).
A letter from
Pope Hadrian to Charlemagne written probably a year or two before the visit of
the legates mentions a rumour that Offa had proposed to dethrone the Pope (Haddan
and Stubbs, Councils, III.440-3), and although Charlemagne reassured the Pope
that the rumour was completely untrue, curiosity as to how it came about may have
been another reason for sending Roman envoys to Britain, the first since the mission
of Augustine back in 597. (For a possible explanation of the rumour, see entry
on 787.)
786. Cynewulf of Wessex killed by Cyneheard
Beorhtric succeeds
to Wessex
The story of the fight of Cyneheard and Cynewulf in 786, recorded
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is a set-piece of Anglo-Saxon loyalty and courage.
This is the way of it.
After Cynewulf had ruled for nearly 30 years, he
wanted to drive out the ?theling Cyneheard, who was the brother of the deposed
Sigeberht (see entry on 757). Cyneheard discovered that King Cynewulf was at Merton
visiting a woman with only a small following, and overtook him there and surrounded
him before Cynewulf's guards were aware of him. The king discovered this, and
went to the doorway and defended himself there until he saw Cyneheard the ?theling,
whereupon he rushed out and wounded him severely, but the others were able to
surround him and kill him. The king's men were alerted by the woman's cries and
armed themselves for battle and ran to the spot. The ?theling told them that he
would give them money and spare their lives if they backed down, but all refused,
and they continued to fight until all (the king's men) were killed except for
one British hostage, and he was sorely wounded.
The next morning the rest
of the king's men, who had not accompanied him to Merton, including his ealdorman
Osric and his thegn Wigfrith, rode thither and discovered that the ?theling held
the fort and had barred the doors against them. The ?theling offered them money
and land on their own terms, if they would accept him as king, and pointed out
that kinsmen of theirs (the king's men) were with him (the ?theling). The king's
men replied that no kinsman was dearer to them than their lord, and they would
never follow his slayer. And then the king's men told their kinsmen within that
they might leave unharmed. But the kinsmen who were with the ?theling said that
the same offer had been made to the men who had been with the king, and that they
would not accept the bargain, any more than the men who had been slain with the
king had. Then there was fighting at the gates until the king's men broke in,
and killed the ?theling and all who were with him, save one, who was Ealdorman
Osric's godson, and saved by Osric, though he was often wounded.
It has
long been assumed that tales of loyalty to the point of refusing to outlive one's
slain lord were dear to the hearts of the Anglo-Saxons, from their appearance
both here and (much more explicitly) in the poem celebrating the battle of Maldon
in 991. Rosemary Woolf has pointed out, however, that these are the only two surviving
examples, and even in the poem Beowulf characters take a more pragmatic view (Hengest
saw the death of his lord as something which required vengeance, not a heroic
death); she also noted that Cynewulf's men are not refusing to live on after the
death of their lord so much as refusing to help their lord's killer become the
next king. This does not make it any the less a tale of loyalty and courage, and
as Woolf remarks, "any king would wish to have followers such as Cynewulf
had" (p.71), but it does change the emphasis.
Another possible point
of confusion is the word here translated as "visiting a woman", which
appears only this once in Old English and which ?thelweard in the 10th century
translated into Latin as "residing with a certain whore". Don Scragg
has recently pointed out that ?thelweard misunderstood other parts of the annal
and there is no reason to assume sexual misdemeanors, nor for that matter any
reason why the "woman" should not be Cynewulf's wife: elsewhere in the
Chronicle, Cynewulf is always portrayed in a good light (witness the way he deposes
Sigeberht in 757 with the assent of the council rather than on his own), and the
brothers Cyneheard and Sigeberht are only seen engaging in "unjust acts"
(be it killing loyal ealdormen or trying to buy the kingship).
After both
Cynewulf and Cyneheard were dead, Beorhtric succeeded to the kingdom. Nothing
is known of his lineage, save the claim that it goes back to Cerdic. In 789 he
married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and it was perhaps with Offa's assistance that
he was able to exile his rival Ecgberht. It was also early in Beorhtric's reign
that the first Vikings ships came to the land of the English (see entry on c.790).
Beorhtric died in 802.
D. Scragg, "Wifcy??e and the Morality of
the Cynewulf and Cyneheard Episode in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", Alfred
the Wise: Studies in honour of Janet Bately (Cambridge: 1997), pp.179-85
R. Woolf, "The ideal of men dying with their lord in the Germania and in
The Battle of Maldon", Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), pp.63-81
787.
Synod of Chelsea: Lichfield established as third archbishopric
Ecgfrith, son
of Offa of Mercia, consecrated king
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports
that there was a contentious synod at Chelsea, and Archbishop J?nberht lost part
of his province, and Hygeberht was chosen by King Offa, and Ecgfrith was consecrated
king.
The third archbishopric at Lichfield existed from the Synod of Chelsea
in 787 until it was demoted back to a bishopric at the Synod of Clofesho in 803.
Hygeberht was the first and only archbishop. Most of what we know about the see
comes from letters written in the five years before it is abolished. Alcuin writes
to ?thelheard, archbishop of Canterbury, in 798 (EHD 203), suggesting that it
would be good if the unity of the (southern English) church could be restored,
given that it was apparently torn asunder not out of reasonable motives but out
of a desire for power. In the same year Offa's successor Coenwulf wrote to Pope
Leo III (EHD 204), noting that Offa had divided the southern archdiocese in two
because of his enmity against Archbishop J?nberht and the people of Kent. Pope
Leo replied (EHD 205) that Offa had told the previous pope that it was the united
wish of all the English people that there should be a new southern archbishopric,
both because of the vast size of the country and of the expansion of the Mercian
kingdom. (Pope Leo incidentally quashed Coenwulf's suggestion that the southern
archdiocese be placed in London rather than restored to Canterbury; this had been
a clever ploy of Coenwulf's, because while he claimed that he was trying to restore
Pope Gregory's original choice for the southern see, his more pragmatic reason
would be that London was much more under Mercian control than Canterbury had been.)
The Pope wrote to ?thelheard of Canterbury on January 18, 802 (EHD 209), confirming
the ancient privileges of the see of Canterbury, and this ruling was confirmed
by the 803 Synod of Clofesho.
It seems clear then that Offa convinced Pope
Hadrian that the division of the see was because Southumbrian England was too
large for a single archbishopric, but that he misrepresented this as a unanimous
view, and that his underlying reasons included enmity with J?nberht and the people
of Kent. The fact that the Chronicle notes that Ecgfrith was consecrated king
immediately after it notes the new archbishopric may suggest that the Kentish
archbishop, J?nberht, refused to consecrate Ecgfrith. J?nberht might well have
feared that the anointing of a Mercian prince by the archbishop of Canterbury
might be seen as conferring hereditary rule over all of southern England, including
Kent which had been independent until Offa re-occupied it two years previously
(see Brooks, pp.119-20).
The enmity between Offa and J?nberht raises the
possibility that it was J?nberht who started the rumour that surfaced in about
784 that Offa planned to dethrone the pope, as part of a plan to discredit Offa
in the Papal Curia and ensure that any suggestion from the Mercian king about
changing the arrangement of bishoprics should fall on deaf (or enraged) ears.
(See entry on 786 for the background to this rumour, which may have helped prompt
the dispatch of the papal legates to England.)
Ecgfrith was the first Anglo-Saxon
whom we know to have been anointed as king (Eardwulf of Northumbria in 796 is
the next known case). This anointing of the son of a reigning king during the
king's lifetime follows the example of Charlemagne, who in 781 sent his two sons
to be anointed by the pope (see Brooks, p.117). Offa's own example shows that
the Mercian kingship was not always handed down in the immediate family (the closest
common ancestor of Offa and his predecessor ?thelbald was Eowa, Penda's brother
and Offa's great-great-grandfather), and he may well have felt that his son needed
as much support as he could give him. After his anointing, Ecgfrith often witnesses
at least two of Offa's charters as "Ecgfrith king" or even "Ecgfrith
king of the Mercians" (S 129, 131) after his father's attestation, another
clear sign that Offa associated his son with the royal power and intended to pass
the kingship to his son. Alcuin implied in a letter written after Offa and Ecgfrith
were both dead that Offa also killed many other claimants to ensure his son's
succession (EHD 202), and it is clear that Alcuin regarded Ecgfrith's short reign
as divine vengeance for the deaths compassed by his father.
N. Brooks,
The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (Leicester: 1984)
September
2, 787. Northumbrian synod at Pincanheale
This synod is noted in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; nothing is known of the proceedings, but they very probably
centred on the twenty canons drawn up by the papal legate the previous year.
September
23, 788. Alfwold of Northumbria killed by Sicga
Osred, Alhred's son and Alfwold's
nephew, succeeds to Northumbria
The Chronicle notes that on September
23 ?lfwold of Northumbria was killed by Sicga, and a heavenly light was seen where
he was killed, and he was buried at Hexham, and that Osred, Alhred's son and ?lfwold's
nephew, succeeded to the kingdom. Simeon of Durham adds that Sicga had formed
a conspiracy to kill ?lfwold, that the death took place at Scythlescester (probably
Chesters, a station by Hadrian's Wall), and that because of the light from heaven
seen in that place a church was built there by the local faithful, in honour of
God, St Cuthbert and St Oswald (another murdered Northumbrian king).
Sicga
was probably the most important secular Northumbrian nobleman after the king:
he is the first lay witness after the king to the legatine canons of 786, somewhat
ironically since these emphasize loyalty to one's lord so strongly. The Chronicle
notes that he died on February 23, 793, while Simeon adds that he died by his
own hand and was conveyed to Lindisfarne on April 23. One has to wonder if any
thoughtful Northumbrians saw a message in the sacking of Lindisfarne by Vikings
a little over a month after they took in the body of a man who killed his king
in defiance of the legatine canons he had sworn to uphold. A letter of Alcuin
written after the sack suggests that the connection might have been drawn, though
Alcuin was writing in very general terms (EHD 194: Alcuin suggests the sins of
the community at Lindisfarne may have called the disaster upon them; but see further
the entry on ?thelred's accession in 790).
Almost nothing is known of Osred's
reign. He was supplanted and forced into exile by the returning ?thelred in 790,
and killed when he attempted to reclaim the kingdom in 792.
789. Beorhtric
of Wessex marries Eadburh, daughter of Offa of Mercia
Ecgberht of Wessex into
exile in France
From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (839) we learn that Beorhtric
and Offa had driven Ecgberht of Wessex into exile in France for three years after
Beorhtric married Offa's daughter (so presumably in 789).
c.790. Conflict
between Offa of Mercia and Charlemagne
From a letter of Alcuin to Colcu
(EHD 192), we learn that dissension had lately arisen between Offa of Mercia and
Charlemagne, such that each ruler refused landfall to the ships and merchants
of the other. Alcuin had heard rumours that he would be sent back to England to
help negotiate a peace.
The Acts of the Abbots of Fontenelle (EHD 20), written
some forty years later, explain that the cause of the conflict was that Charlemagne
had sought Offa's daughter as a wife for his son, and that Offa had replied that
this might only be if Offa's son might wed Charlemagne's daughter Bertha. Charlemagne
apparently grew furious, and ordered that no English ships be allowed to land
on the coast of Gaul, but was restrained by the wise counsel of the abbot of Fontenelle.
Another
possible cause of the conflict might be that Charlemagne was harbouring enemies
of Offa who had been driven from England. That this did happen we know from letters
Charlemagne wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury and to Offa himself (EHD 196
and 197). Ecgberht of Wessex, who was exiled to France in about 789 (see entry),
might have sheltered at Charlemagne's court. With the hindsight that comes from
our knowledge that Ecgberht conquered all of southern England including Mercia
in the 820s, we can see that Ecgberht was potentially Offa's most dangerous foe.
If this was at all apparent in the young Ecgberht of 789, Offa might well have
hoped that Charlemagne would kill Ecgberht instead of succouring him, and this
would be a further reason for the cooling of relations in about 790.
Whatever
the reasons behind the breach, it had healed by 796 at the latest, when Charlemagne
wrote a very cordial letter to Offa (EHD 197), making provisions that English
merchants should be protected by the laws while in Frankish territory, and enjoining
that Offa similarly protect Frankish merchants in English territory.
c.790.
Earliest Viking raid on England (Portland, Dorset)
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
notes that some time in the reign of Beorhtric of Wessex (786-802) three ships
of Northmen arrived (at Portland in Dorset), and when the local reeve (Beaduheard
of Dorchester) came and tried to lead them to the royal estate, thinking that
they were traders, they killed him. And "those were the first ships of Danish
men which came to the land of the English": they were by no means the last,
as the spectacular raid on Lindisfarne in 793 was to demonstrate. Raids may have
been sporadic for the first forty years or so, but they intensified in the 830s
(as we can see from more frequent references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle): great
armies landed in the 860s and proceeded to carve up whole Anglo-Saxon kingdoms,
until the 870s and 880s when Alfred of Wessex was the last English king and the
only one to successfully see off the invaders. Alfred's defensive workings meant
the country was better-prepared when the Vikings returned in the 890s, and over
the first half of the 10th century Alfred's descendents won back the rest of the
country from Viking lords. Viking raiders would return in the 980s, however, to
trouble the kingdom of ?thelred, and finally conquer it in the person of the Cnut
the Dane, who became king of England in 1016.
S. Keynes, "The Vikings
in England", The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (Oxford: 1997),
pp.48-82
790. Osred of Northumbria exiled (flees to Isle of Man)
Athelred,
Athelwold Moll's son, again succeeds to Northumbria
The Chronicle notes
only that Osred was betrayed and driven out of the kingdom and that ?thelred succeeded.
Simeon of Durham adds that Osred was deceived by his nobles, taken prisoner and
deprived of the kingdom, tonsured at York, and forced into exile. (That from his
Historia Regum; in his History of the Church of Durham he adds that Osred fled
to the Isle of Man.) The nobles are not named, but it would be interesting to
know whether Sicga was still among them (we know nothing of him between his killing
of ?lfwold in 788 and his own death in 793).
The first couple of years of
?thelred's second reign (his first reign was 774-778/9) show him moving quickly
to eliminate opposition, killing the sons of King ?lfwold in 791 (?lfwold himself
had been killed in 788), and killing King Osred on his return in 792. His attempt
to kill Ealdorman Eardwulf was unsuccessful, and it might have been seen as poetic
justice that it was this same Eardwulf who eventually succeeded him in 796. His
marriage to a daughter of Offa of Mercia in 792 gained him a strong southern ally,
who incidentally favoured the same approach to getting rid of superfluous rivals,
as his beheading of ?thelberht of East Anglia in 794 makes clear. Almost nothing
is known of ?thelred's domestic affairs after 792: it is the Viking onslaughts
of 793 and 794 which attract the attention of the chroniclers.
That at least
one contemporary observer thought things were pretty dire in the state of Northumbria
can be seen from a letter Alcuin wrote to ?thelred and his nobles after the sack
of Lindisfarne (EHD 193), suggesting that the Vikings might be divine punishment
for the manifold sins of the English. Alcuin is politic enough not to limit his
criticism to ?thelred's reign, saying things had been bad since King ?lfwold's
day (778/9-788). Since his visit in 786 for the council with ?lfwold and the papal
legate was the last occasion before this letter that we know Alcuin was in Northumbria,
it would be unwise to use the letter as an indication that things were worse in
?thelred's reign. It is also clear that Alcuin was well aware of scriptural explanations
of foreign invasions allowed as divine vengeance for the sins of a chosen people:
in following this model he stands four-square in a literary tradition that in
Britain goes back to Gildas in the 6th century and forward to King Alfred in the
9th and Wulfstan in the 11th. This is not necessarily to deny the truth of Alcuin's
observations, but to point out that he was collecting facts to back a particular
thesis, and like Wulfstan's long catalogue of the sins of the English in the reign
of another King ?thelred troubled by Viking invasions (see entry on 978), he was
looking with a dark-adapted eye.
791. Athelred of Northumbria kills the
sons of King Alfwold
Alfwold was an earlier king of Northumbria (778/9-788).
Simeon of Durham reports that his sons, Alf and Alfwine, were in the principal
church in York (presumably in sanctuary), but were brought from it by false promises,
taken by force and miserably killed.
791/2. Athelred of Northumbria orders
Ealdorman Eardwulf killed, but he survives
Ealdorman Eardwulf would
emerge in 796 as king of Northumbria. These earlier events come down to us only
in the account of Simeon of Durham, who notes that in Athelred's second year Eardwulf
was captured and brought to Ripon, and ordered to be killed outside the gate of
the monastery. The brethren carried his body to the church, and placed it outside
in a tent, and after midnight he was found in the church, alive. The details are
not clear, but it seems that Eardwulf survived an attempted execution, in circumstances
which were seen as miraculous. These are probably "the perils from which
the divine mercy freed you" which Alcuin notes in a letter written to Eardwulf
after 796 (EHD 199).
September 14, 792. Osred, former king of Northumbria,
killed on his return from exile
The Chronicle notes that Osred was captured
on his return from exile, and killed on 14 September, and buried at Tynemouth.
Simeon adds that he returned in secret, relying on the oaths and good faith of
certain nobles (Sicga again, perhaps?), who deserted him in the event so that
he might be killed on ?thelred's orders.
September 29, 792. ?thelred
of Northumbria marries ?lffl?d, daughter of Offa of Mercia (at Catterick)
This
marriage, mentioned in the Chronicle and located at Catterick by Simeon of Durham,
can be seen from ?thelred's point of view as part of his efforts to ensure his
security on the throne. He was already killing potential rivals at home, and a
marriage with the Mercian king's daughter would make raids from the south less
likely (such as plagued Eadberht in 740, when he raided the Picts and Offa's predecessor
?thelbald raided Northumbria). It would also give him a strong ally to call on
if he were threatened.
c.792. Offa of Mercia's second coinage reform
June
8, 793. "Fiery dragons over Northumbria": Vikings sack Lindisfarne
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle includes under 793 its famous reference to dire portents
appearing over Northumbria, taking the form of immense whirlwinds and flashes
of lightning, and "fiery dragons were seen flying in the air". These
portents were followed by a great famine, and then the sack of Lindisfarne on
June 8.
794. Vikings sack Donemutha (Jarrow?)
The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle notes that the Vikings plundered Ecgfrith's monastery at Donemutha,
which is unidentified though Simeon of Durham in the twelfth century identified
it as Bede's house of Jarrow.
794. Offa of Mercia has Athelberht of East
Anglia killed
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes, without explanation,
that Offa had Athelberht beheaded. This was probably Offa's response to a renewed
bid for East Anglian independence (see entry on 749-94). Athelberht came to be
revered as a saint, and Hereford Cathedral was dedicated to him by the 11th century
(see Rollason, p.9). According to post-Conquest lives of St Athelberht, Offa had
him killed at Sutton, near Hereford, where he had come to ask for the hand of
Offa's daughter in marriage. It would be interesting to know whether such a match
had been seriously considered: the marriages of other daughters of Offa to Beorhtric
of Wessex in 789 and Athelred of Northumbria in 792 suggest the possibility.
S. Ridyard, The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon
and East Anglian Cults (Cambridge: 1988) [see p.224 n.20 and references there]
D. Rollason, "The cults of murdered royal saints in Anglo-Saxon England",
Anglo-Saxon England 11 (1982), pp.1-22
C. Wright, The Cultivation
of Saga in Anglo-Saxon England (London: 1939)
795. Offa of Mercia
raids Wales (Brycheinioga)
This raid is noted only in the Annales Cambriae,
which record "The devastation of Reinuch by Offa". For the identification
of Reinuch with Brycheiniog in this somewhat ambiguous annal, see Sims-Williams,
p.53. The date given in the annal corresponds to 796, but since the death of Offa
is recorded under the following annal, the raid should probably be dated to 795.
P. Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600-800 (Cambridge:
1990)
April 18, 796. ?thelred of Northumbria killed by Ealdred
April
19 - May 13, 796. Osbald succeeds to Northumbria
May 14, 796. Eardwulf succeeds
to Northumbria
May 26, 796. Eardwulf consecrated king of Northumbria at York
The
Chronicle notes that there was an eclipse of the moon on 28 March, that Eardwulf
succeeded to Northumbria on 14 May, and that he was afterwards consecrated and
enthroned on 26 May at York by Archbishop Eanbald and the bishops ?thelberht,
Higbald and Badwulf. This is the second recorded consecration of a king in Anglo-Saxon
England, after that of Ecgfrith of Mercia in 787. The violence that had attended
the Northumbrian succession over the previous forty years showed that it needed
all the additional sanctification it could get.
Simeon of Durham adds that
?thelred was killed near the Cover (a river in Yorkshire) on 18 April, and that
the nobleman Osbald (perhaps the same as the one involved in the burning of Beorn
in 779) was appointed by some nobles of the nation and after 27 days was deserted
and banished, fleeing to Lindisfarne and then to the Pictish court. Alcuin wrote
a letter to Osbald (EHD 200) which shows that he was suspected of being a party
to ?thelred's death, and urged him to turn from secular to religious affairs.
This he seems to have done, for Simeon notes that he was an abbot when he died
in 799, and was buried at York.
While Osbald may have helped to plan the
deed, it was one Ealdred who actually killed King ?thelred, and one of ?thelred's
followers, Torhtmund, killed Ealdred in vengeance for his slain lord. We learn
this from a letter of Alcuin to Charlemagne of 801 (EHD 206), in which Alcuin
provides introductions for several Englishmen who wished to visit Charlemagne's
court, Torhtmund among them. Simeon records Torhtmund's killing of Ealdred in
his annal for 799.
Eardwulf had been an ealdorman in ?thelred's reign, and
narrowly escaped execution in 791/2. In his own reign (796-806), Eardwulf faced
a battle with some of his nobles in 798, ordered the deaths of what might have
been rival claimants in 799 and 800, went to war with Coenwulf of Mercia in 801,
and was driven into exile in 806.
Alcuin seems initially optimistic about
Eardwulf's reign, or at least hopeful that Eardwulf will avoid making the mistakes
of his predecessors (see Alcuin's letter to Eardwulf, EHD 199), but he soon returns
to the gloom he showed in earlier reigns (see entry on 790). In a letter of 797
(EHD 202) Alcuin notes that Eardwulf dismissed his wife and took a concubine and
that he might expect to lose his kingdom soon as a result; in a letter of 801
(EHD 207) Alcuin sympathises with the archbishop of York about his tribulations
and makes dark hints about the death of kings who opposed the church.
July
29, 796. Offa of Mercia dies
Offa's son Ecgfrith is king for only 141 days
Coenwulf
(Centwine's great-great-grandson) succeeds to Mercia
The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle notes Offa's death and the fact that Ecgfrith died in the same year.
The precise figure of 141 days comes from the Mercian regnal list, which would
put Coenwulf's accession in mid-December at the earliest. Almost nothing is known
of Ecgfrith's reign: four charters appear to survive (S 148-51), but at least
two of these are later fabrications, which may be based on genuine documents but
cannot themselves be trusted.
Coenwulf does not appear in charters of Offa,
which may be because he was in exile in Offa's reign, much as ?thelbald had been
in the reign of Ceolred (see entry on 716). Given the amount of blood which Offa
is said to have shed to secure the succession of his son (see Alcuin's letter,
EHD 202), it is likely that being out of the country was the only safe option
for someone other than Offa's son who hoped one day to be king of the Mercians.
Coenwulf was the great-great-grandson of King Centwine (676-85), and traced his
descent farther back through Penda; somewhat ironically, given Offa's efforts
to ensure the kingship descended in direct family lines, the nearest common ancestor
of Coenwulf and Offa is Penda's father Pybba.
After Offa's death, Kent (q.v.),
East Anglia (q.v.), and the East Saxons (q.v.) became independent, but Kent was
recaptured by 798, East Anglia probably within another few years after that, and
the East Saxons definitely by 814. Coenwulf faced an invasion from Eardwulf of
Northumbria c.801, cancelled the controversial archbishopric of Lichfield in 803,
and famously quarelled with the archbishop of Canterbury, Wulfred, in 816. He
raided into Dyfed in 818, and may have been planning another raid when he died
at Basingwerk in 821.
D. Dumville, "The Anglian collection of royal
genealogies and regnal lists", Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), pp.23-50 [p.31
for genealogies of Offa and Coenwulf; p.33 for Mercian regnal list]
796.
On Offa's death, Kent becomes independent
Eadberht Pran succeeds to Kent
Athelheard,
Archbishop of Canterbury, flees Kent
Eadberht Pr?n's accession to Kent
in 796 is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and also by the coins bearing
Eadberht's name struck at Canterbury in this period (see Grierson and Blackburn,
p.283). It is probable that Eadberht of Kent, like Ecgberht of Wessex was another
of the exiles sheltered at Charlemagne's court: in a letter to Offa written in
796 (EHD 197), Charlemagne mentions an Eadberht (using the Frankish form Odberht)
who had taken refuge with him.
Archbishop ?thelheard's flight is mentioned
in a surviving letter of Alcuin (EHD 203), which refers to an earlier letter of
?thelheard in which he said that the clerics of Canterbury asked him to leave.
Alcuin nonetheless chastises ?thelheard for deserting his post, reminding him
that Archbishop Laurence, faced with the hostile King Eadbald back in 616, stayed
put. It may be though that ?thelheard, as the archbishop who helped diminish the
primacy of Canterbury by collaborating in the elevation of Lichfield, was concerned
to draw Kentish anger away from the cathedral. Nicholas Brooks has suggested that
the absence of Christ Church documents before 798, compared with the profusion
afterwards, might be attributed to an attack on ?thelheard in newly-independent
Canterbury (Brooks, p.121). In any event, another letter of Alcuin (Allott, no.
50), written in 797, imploring the people of Kent to take back their archbishop,
makes it clear that they did not want him back.
S. Allott, Alcuin of
York, c. A.D. 732 to 804 -- His Life and Letters (York: 1974)
N.
Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (Leicester: 1984)
796.
On Offa's death, East Anglia becomes independent
Eadwald succeeds to East Anglia
The
independence of East Anglia can be deduced from the fact that East Anglian moneyers
start minting coins in the name of Eadwald after Offa's death (see Grierson and
Blackburn, p.293). This coinage is the only evidence of East Anglia's independence,
and since the coin types cannot be precisely dated it is impossible to say when
Eadwald's reign ended and Coenwulf's reign in Mercia began (two East Anglian moneyers
struck coins for Offa, Eadwald, and Coenwulf in turn). Grierson and Blackburn
note that the first East Anglian type of Coenwulf features a bust of Coenwulf
which probably makes it later than c.805 (when the portrait type was introduced
at Canterbury), but caution that since late 8th-century East Anglian coins are
so rare, there may have been an earlier East Anglian issue of Coenwulf which has
not survived.
P. Grierson and M. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage,
1: The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries) (Cambridge: 1986)
796.
On Offa's death, East Saxons becomes independent
Sigeric, son of Selered, succeeds
to East Saxons
The independence of the East Saxons after Offa's death
is assumed from a reference in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Sigeric, king of the
East Saxons, going to Rome in 798. This King Sigeric may be the Sigeric who witnessed
one of Ecgfrith's charters of 796 (S 151) as an ealdorman, in which case he presumably
ruled independently from late 796 until 798. It may be that Coenwulf resumed control
over the East Saxons in 798, as he did over the people of Kent and shortly after
that over the East Angles, but from charters we learn of another East Saxon king,
Sigered, in 811. Sigered may have succeeded his father in 798, or he may have
rebelled from Coenwulf's overlordship at some point in the first decade of the
9th century. Unfortunately there was no royal mint in Essex, so East Saxon independence
is much more difficult to track than that of Kent and East Anglia, which produced
coins of the local rulers who arose after Offa's death.