Æthelswith (c. 838–888) was the only known daughter of King
Æthelwulf of Wessex. She married King
Burgred of Mercia
Burgred (also Burhred or Burghred) was an Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from 852 to 874.
Family
Burgred became king of Mercia in 852, and may have been related to his predecessor Beorhtwulf. After Easter in 853, Burgred married Æthelswith, daug ...
in 853. The couple had no known issue.
Her marriage probably signaled the subordination of Burgred to his father-in-law and the Saxon kingdom at a time when both Wessex and
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era= Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ...
were suffering Danish (Viking) raids. Burgred also had ongoing problems with the
Kingdom of Powys
The Kingdom of Powys ( cy, Teyrnas Powys; la, Regnum Poysiae) was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern t ...
on his western border and in 853 Æthelwulf subjugated the Welsh state on Burgred's behalf.
Although it is unclear to what extent, Æthelswith wielded some power as a queen in her own right. In 868 she witnessed a West Saxon charter and made a grant of fifteen
hides of land in her own name in
Berkshire, rare for a queen of the period to do so. One item that is believed to have been hers, a gold ring inlaid with
niello
Niello is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is pushed ...
, inscribed with the words ''Æthelswith Regina,'' survives in the British Museum. Given the large size of the ring, it is more likely that she was the giver of the ring, rather than the wearer.
Repeated Danish incursions over the years gradually weakened Mercia militarily and in 868 Burgred was forced to call upon Æthelswith's brother King
Æthelred of Wessex
Æthelred (; ang, Æþelræd ) or Ethelred () is an Old English personal name (a compound of '' æþele'' and '' ræd'', meaning "noble counsel" or "well-advised") and may refer to:
Anglo-Saxon England
* Æthelred and Æthelberht, legendary prin ...
to assist him in confronting an entrenched Danish army at Nottingham. This was the last time the Saxons came to the aid of the Mercians and is also notable as the occasion on which
Alfred the Great, another brother of Æthelswith's, married his Mercian wife
Ealhswith
Ealhswith or Ealswitha (died 5 December 902) was the wife of King Alfred the Great. Her father was a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini, which is thought to be an old Mercian tribal group. Her mother was Eadburh, a member o ...
.
Burgred's reign lasted till 874 when the
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...
drove him from the kingdom and he fled to Rome with Æthelswith. He died shortly after. Æthelswith lived on in Italy for another decade, before dying while on a pilgrimage in
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...
in 888 and was buried in the
monastery of San Felice.
References
Further reading
On Æthelswith's ring see:
*
*
External links
*
9th-century English women
9th-century births
Year of death missing
9th-century English people
Anglo-Saxon royal consorts
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