Eadburh, the daughter of Offa of Mercia…

802 CE

Eadburh, the daughter of Offa of Mercia and Cynethryth, had in 789 married Beorhtric, king of Wessex from 787 to 802.

Offa was then the most powerful king in England, and Beorhtric had gained his support as a result of the marriage.

Eadburh, according to Asser in his biography of Alfred the Great, became all powerful, and often demanded the executions or exile of her enemies.

She was also alleged to have assassinated those men whom she couldn't compel Beorhtric to kill through poisoning their food or drink.

Eadburh in 802 according to the Asser biography attempts to poison a young favorite of the king but instead kills both of them.

The young man may have been called Worr, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the death of both men shortly before the succession of Egbert, the grandfather of Alfred the Great, as king of Wessex.

It is possible that the young Egbert had fled to Wessex in 785 or so; it is suggestive that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions in a later entry that Beorhtric, Cynewulf's successor, helped Offa to exile Egbert.

After Cynewulf was murdered in 786, Egbert may have contested the succession, but Offa had successfully intervened in the ensuing power struggle on the side of Beorhtric.

The Chronicle records that Egbert spent three years in Francia before he was king, exiled by Beorhtric and Offa.

The text says "iii" for three, but this may have been a scribal error, with the correct reading being "xiii", that is, thirteen years.

Beorhtric's reign lasted sixteen years, and not thirteen; and all extant texts of the chronicle agree on "iii", but many modern accounts assume that Egbert did indeed spend thirteen years in Francia.

This requires assuming that the error in transcription is common to every manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; many historians make this assumption but others have rejected it as unlikely, given the consistency of the sources.

In either case, Egbert was probably exiled in 789, when Beorhtric, his rival, married Eadburh.

At the time Egbert was in exile, Francia was ruled by Charlemagne, who maintained Frankish influence in Northumbria and is known to have supported Offa's enemies in the south.

Another exile in Gaul at this time was Odberht, a priest, who is almost certainly the same person as Eadberht, who later became king of Kent.

According to a later chronicler, William of Malmesbury, Egbert learned the arts of government during his time in Gaul.

Beorhtric's dependency on Mercia had continued into the reign of Cenwulf, who became king of Mercia a few months after Offa's death.

When Beorhtric dies in 802, Egbert comes to the throne of Wessex, probably with the support of Charlemagne and perhaps also the papacy.

The Mercians continue to oppose Egbert: the day of his accession, the Hwicce (who had originally formed a separate kingdom, but by this time are part of Mercia) attack, under the leadership of their ealdorman, Æthelmund.

Weohstan, a Wessex ealdorman, meets him with men from Wiltshire: according to a fifteenth-century source, Weohstan had married Alburga, Egbert's sister, and so was Egbert's brother-in-law.

The Hwicce are defeated, though Weohstan is killed as well as Æthelmund.

Nothing more is recorded of Egbert's relations with Mercia for more than twenty years after this battle.

It seems likely that Egbert had no influence outside his own borders, but on the other hand there is no evidence that he ever submitted to the overlordship of Cenwulf.

Cenwulf did have overlordship of the rest of southern England, but in Cenwulf's charters the title of "overlord of the southern English" never appears, presumably in consequence of the independence of the kingdom of Wessex.