Æthelhelm or ''Æþelhelm'' (fl. 880s) was the elder of two known sons of
Æthelred I, King of
Wessex
The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886.
The Anglo-Sa ...
from 865 to 871, and Queen
Wulfthryth.
Æthelred's sons were infants when their father died in 871, and the throne passed to their uncle,
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...
. The only certain record of Æthelhelm is as a beneficiary in Alfred's will in the mid 880s, and he probably died at some time in the next decade. Following Alfred's death in 899 Æthelhelm's younger brother
Æthelwold unsuccessfully contested the succession.
Pauline Stafford identifies him with the Æthelhelm who served as
Ealdorman
Ealdorman ( , )"ealdorman"
''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government ...
of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, the probable father of
Ælfflæd Ælfflæd is a name of Anglo-Saxon England meaning Ælf (Elf) and flæd (beauty). It may refer to:
* Saint Ælfflæd of Whitby (654–714)
* Ælfflæd of Mercia, daughter of Offa, wife of King Æthelred I of Northumbria
* Ælfflæd, wife of Edwa ...
, who became
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder (870s?17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousi ...
's second wife about 899. However,
Barbara Yorke rejects this idea, arguing that it does not appear to have been the practice for
æthelings (princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible to be king) to become ealdormen, that a grant from Alfred to Ealdorman Æthelhelm makes no reference to kinship between them, and that the hostile reception to King
Eadwig's marriage to
Ælfgifu Ælfgifu (also ''Ælfgyfu''; ''Elfgifa, Elfgiva, Elgiva'') is an Anglo-Saxon name, Anglo-Saxon feminine personal name, from ''ælf'' "elf" and ''gifu'' "gift".
When Emma of Normandy, the later mother of Edward the Confessor, became queen of Engla ...
, his
third cousin once removed, shows that a marriage between Edward and his first cousin once removed would have been forbidden as incestuous.
[
Yorke, op. cit., pp. 33–34. Keynes and Lapidge also treat the two Æthelhelms as different people, although they are more cautious in rejecting the identification, saying that they are "probably" not the same, p. 321, n. 66
]
The historian
Æthelweard (died c. 998) claimed descent from King Æthelred I and may therefore be a descendant of Æthelhelm. Some genealogists have suggested that
the Godwins descended from Æthelred I through Æthelhelm, but almost all historians dismiss this idea.
See also
*
House of Wessex family tree
This is a list of monarchs of the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) until 886 AD. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure.
The names are given in modern English f ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aethelhelm
860s births
Anglo-Saxon royalty
890s deaths
House of Wessex