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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1998-12 > 0912872813
From: Don Stone < >
Subject: Egbert of Wessex and the Saxon (Carolingian) Egbert
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 10:46:53 -0500
Here is a "research report" on Ecgberht or Egbert of Wessex, grandfather
of Alfred the Great. I would be interested in any additional relevant
information that people may have and in evaluations of the hypothesis of
the identity of the two Egberts.
DISCUSSION:
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ecgberht was forced into exile
among the Franks by King Offa of Mercia and Offa's son-in-law King
Beorhtric of Wessex, but he returned on Beorhtric's death in 800 [802]
and succeeded to the kingdom of Wessex. From his accession in 802 until
825, though, there is only one mention of Ecgberht in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle: in 813 [815] he harried in Cornwall from east to west. Kirby
(1991, p. 189) says, "So little is known of Ecgberht's activities
between 802 and 825 that it is easy to imagine him reigning
unobtrusively in Wessex across those years...." However, in an article
written about 100 years ago and not cited (so far as I know) by any
modern historian, Howorth (1900, p. 77) argues that during the first
quarter of the ninth century Ecgberht was largely abroad at
Charlemagne's court, and that when he was in England, he was there not
as the king of Wessex but as a dependant of the Mercian king. Howorth
believes that Ecgberht of Wessex is identical to the Saxon count Egbert,
for whom various activities in this period are documented; for example,
in 809 Egbert and other Saxon counts took possession of Esesfelth in the
Danish March for Charlemagne, and in 811 Egbert is one of twelve counts
who were nominated by Charlemagne to negotiate about the Danish frontier
with an equal number of Danes. This Egbert was the husband of St. Ida,
according to her biography. Banniza and Muller (1939, p. 27) state that
the Saxon duke Liudolf, grandfather of Henry the Fowler, was a son of
Egbert and Ida. They also propose that Mathilde (grandmother of Henry's
wife Mathilde), who was wife of the Saxon count Immed and abbess of
Herford (Hervorden) when she died ca. 915, might be a daughter of Egbert
and Ida, but, chronologically, she is more likely to be a granddaughter.
Howorth suggests that Wessex was subject to Mercia until the Battle of
Ellandune in 825, and offers as evidence some grants of land in
Berkshire to the abbey of Abingdon by the King of Mercia during this
period; no mention of Ecgberht or any other independent ruler of Wessex
occurs in these grants. However, Berkshire, later a focus of the Wessex
Kingdom, seems not to have been part of Wessex during Ecgberht's life;
Yorke (1995, p. 95) says that "Berkshire apparently remained a Mercian
province and was not united with the other shires of Wessex until the
reign of Aethelwulf (839-858)." It is the case, though, that no charter
or document granted or conferred by Ecgberht is known until 824 or so.
And if we consider Ecgberht's later spectacular military successes, they
do seem more likely to follow from Egbert's activities on the continent
than from an almost uneventful reign in Wessex from 802 to 825.
Howorth (1900, p. 77) mentions what he views as an enigmatic phrase in
three charters of Ecgberht from 826 and in some other documents. The
three charters are dated A.D. 826, in the 24th year of Ecgberht's reign
and the 14th year of his ducatus. Howorth speculates that Ecgberht may
have been a dux (ealdorman or perhaps reeve) under the Mercian king.
These charters are included in P. H. Sawyer's Anglo-Saxon Charters: An
Annotated Handlist and Bibliography, with the numbers 272, 275, and
276. They are classified by Edwards (1988, p. 315) as "charters
preserved only in later copies containing a mixture of authentic and
spurious material, with a preponderance of spurious elements." Note,
however, that Edwards postulates (pp. 160-1) that there was an authentic
charter of 826 in which Ecgberht granted land (probably at Alton Priors,
Wiltshire) to Burhheard, and she suggests that the dating clause in S272
and other extant charters probably was copied from this document. In
discussing S272, she says (p. 154) that the meaning of the phrase "14th
of his Ôducatus'" is obscure and "should probably be interpreted as an
elaboration added to a clause probably genuine in itself and originally
forming part of an authentic charter;" on the other hand, Kelley's
hypothesis below, makes this phrase less obscure and thus less
suspicious.
Prof. David H. Kelley believes that Ecgberht was created a dux by
Charlemagne, and that a Carolingian dux had a status at least as great
as an English kinglet. If Ecgberht considered himself a king in the
24th year of his reign, he would not be particularly likely to style
himself also as a dux (ealdorman) under, e.g., the Mercian king, but he
might proudly record his status as a dux (military leader) of the
Carolingian empire. Prof. Kelley is responsible for directing attention
to Howorth's article and the fact that its hypothesis implies that
Ecgberht's wife Raedburh might well be the same as St. Ida. There is a
brief mention of the Raedburh/St. Ida issue in Kelley (1977-78, p. 5).
SOURCES:
Banniza v. Bazan, Heinrich, and Richard Muller. 1939. Deutsche
Geschichte in Ahnentafeln. Berlin: Alfred Metzner Verlag.
Edwards, Heather. 1988. The Charters of the Early West Saxon Kingdom.
BAR British Series 198. Oxford: B.A.R.
Howorth, H. H. 1900. "Ecgberht, King of the West Saxons and the Kent
Men, and his Coins." The Numismatic Chronicle, and Journal of the
Numismatic Society, ser. 3, 20: 66-87.
Kelley, David H. 1977-78. "Who Descends from King David?" Toledot 1
(no. 3, Winter): 3-5.
Kirby, D. P. 1991. The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman.
Taylor, Nathaniel L. 1997. "Saint William, King David, and Makhir: A
Controversial Medieval Descent." The American Genealogist 72: 205-223.
Yorke, Barbara. 1995. Wessex in the Early Middle Ages. London and New
York: Leicester University Press.
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