Person Page - 231

     She married William Coleman.¹

     She married Dr. Joseph Strong, son of Benajah Strong and Lucy Bishop.¹

     She married Jacob Leonard, son of Solomon Leonard and Sarah Chandler.

     He was born circa 834.¹ He was the son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex and Osburh. He married Judith of Flanders, daughter of Charles II, The Bald and Ermintrude, in 858; Because Judith had been previously married to Æthelbald's father and was, therefore, his teen-age stepmother, the marriage was deemed by the church to be incestuous and it was annulled, with no issue.¹ He died on 20 December 860.¹

     He was born circa 835.¹ He was the son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex and Osburh. He married an unknown person ; had two children.¹ He died in 865.¹
     Æthelbert was also known as Ethelbert.²

Ruled 860–865.¹

     He married Eadburh.

     He was born circa 837.¹ He was the son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex and Osburh. He died on 23 April 871.¹
     King Æthelred I was also known as Aethelred or Ethelred of Wessex.¹

King of Wessex (England), 865-871.¹

     She is the daughter of King Æthelwulf of Wessex and Osburh.¹ She married Burgred of Mercia; No issue.¹

     He was born in 795 at Aachen, Germany.³ He was the son of (?) Egbert of Wessex and Raedburh (Redburga) (?). He married Osburh, daughter of Oslac (?), in 830.⁴ He married Judith of Flanders, daughter of Charles II, The Bald and Ermintrude, in 856 at Verberie, France, at the palace of Charles the Bald. He died on 13 January 857/58.
     King Æthelwulf of Wessex was also known as Ethelwulf or Aethelwulf.³ [CR][CR]Æthelwulf was the elder son of King Egbert of Wessex. He conquered Kent on behalf of his father in 825. Thereafter he was styled King of Kent until he succeeded his father as King of Wessex in 839, whereupon he became King of Wessex, Kent, Cornwall, the West Saxons and the East Saxons. He was crowned at Kingston upon Thames.

In the year 840 AD, he fought at Carhampton against thirty-five ship companies of Danes, whose raids had increased considerably. His most notable victory came in 851 at "Acleah", possibly Ockley in Surrey or Oakley in Berkshire. Here, Æthelwulf and his son Æthelbald fought against the heathen, and according to the chronicle it was "the greatest slaughter of heathen host ever made." Around the year 853, Æthelwulf, and his son-in-law, Burgred, King of Mercia defeated Cyngen ap Cadell of Wales and made the Welsh subject to him. The chronicle depicts more battles throughout the years, mostly against invading pirates and Danes. This was an era in European history where nations were being invaded from many different groups; there were Saracens in the south, Magyars in the east, Moors in the west, and Vikings in the north. Before Æthelwulf's death, raiders had wintered over on the Isle of Sheppey, and pillaged at will in East Anglia. Over the course of the next twenty years the struggles of his sons were to be "ceaseless, heroic, and largely futile."

In 839, Æthelwulf succeeded his father Egbert as King. Egbert had been a grizzled veteran who had fought for survival since his youth. Æthelwulf had a worrying style of Kingship. He had come to the throne of Wessex by inheritance. He proved to be intensely religious, cursed with little political sense, and with too many able and ambitious sons. One of the first of Æthelwulf's acts as King was to split the kingdom. He gave the eastern half, that of Kent, Essex, Surrey and Sussex to his eldest son Athelstan (not to be confused with the later Athelstan the Glorious). Æthelwulf kept the ancient, western side of Wessex (Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon) for himself. Æthelwulf and his first wife, Osburga, had five sons and a daughter. After Athelstan came Æthelbald, Æthelbert, Æthelred, and Alfred. Each of his sons succeeded to the throne. Alfred, the youngest son, has been praised as one of the greatest kings to ever reign in Britain. Æthelwulf's only daughter, Æthelswith, was married as a child to king Burgred of Mercia.

Religion was always an important area in Æthelwulf's life. As early as the first year of his reign he had planned a pilgrimage to Rome. Due to the ongoing and increasing raids he felt the need to appeal to the Christian God for help against an enemy "so agile, and numerous, and profane."

In 853, Æthelwulf sent his son Alfred, a child of about four years, to Rome. In 855, about a year after his wife Osburh's death, Æthelwulf followed Alfred to Rome. In Rome, he was generous with his wealth. He distributed gold to the clergy of St. Peter's, and offered them chalices of the purest gold and silver-gilt candelabra of Saxon work. During the return journey in 856 he married Judith a Frankish princess and a great-granddaughter of Charlemagne. She was about twelve years old, the daughter of Charles the Bald, King of the West Franks.

Upon their return to England in 856 Æthelwulf met with an acute crisis. His eldest surviving son Æthelbald (Athelstan had since died) had devised a conspiracy with the Ealdorman of Somerset and the Bishop of Sherborne to oppose Æthelwulf's resumption of the kingship once he returned. Æthelwulf mustered enough support to fight a civil war, or to banish Æthelbald and his fellow conspirators. Instead Æthelwulf yielded western Wessex to his son while he himself retained central and eastern Wessex. The absence of coins in Æthelbald's name may also suggest that West Saxon coinage was in Æthelwulf's name until his death. He ruled there until his death on 13 January 858. The family quarrel, had it been allowed to continue, could have ruined the House of Egbert. Æthelwulf and his advisors deserved the adoration bestowed upon them for their restraint and tolerance.

Æthelwulf's restoration included a special concession on behalf of Saxon queens. The West Saxons previously did not allow the queen to sit next to the king. In fact they were not referred to as a queen, but merely the "wife of the king." This restriction was lifted for Queen Judith, probably because she was a high ranking European princess.³