Weohstan (died 802) was the

ealdorman Ealdorman (, ) was a term in Anglo-Saxon England which originally applied to a man of high status, including some of royal birth, whose authority was independent of the king. It evolved in meaning and in the eighth century was sometimes applied ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, part of the kingdom of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

, at the beginning of the ninth century. In 802 King Beorhtric died, and on the same day ealdorman

Æthelmund Æthelmund, an Anglo-Saxon noble, was Ealdorman of Hwicce in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. He was killed in 802 at the Battle of Kempsford by Ealdorman Weohstan and the levies of West Saxon Wiltshire.Williams, Smyth & Kirby, ''A Biograph ...

of the

Hwicce Hwicce () was a tribal kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of th ...

invaded Wiltshire. He was met by a Wiltshire army under Weohstan, which defeated the invasion and both ealdormen were killed in the battle. According to a poem in the fifteenth century ''Chronicon Vilodunense'', Weohstan founded

Wilton Abbey Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539. History Foundation Wilton Abbey is first reco ...

, and his wife Alburga, the sister of Beorhtric's successor, King Ecgberht, later became the abbess. This story is accepted by some historians, but rejected by

Sarah Foot Sarah Rosamund Irvine Foot (born 23 February 1961) is an English Anglican priest and early medieval historian, currently serving as Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford. Early life and education Foot was bor ...

and Elizabeth Crittall.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wulfstan, Ealdorman of Wiltshire 8th-century English people 8th-century rulers in Europe 8th-century births 802 deaths Year of birth unknown Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown People from Wiltshire Anglo-Saxon ealdormen