Æthelred Mucel was an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
noble from
Mercia
Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...
who was the father of
Ealhswith, the wife of
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 ...
.
Æthelred witnessed several charters between 867 and 895; he may be the same man as an
ealdorman
Ealdorman ( , )"ealdorman"
''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government ...
called 'Mucel' who witnessed Mercian charters between 836 and 866. It is possible he was the son of another Mucel who witnessed Mercian charters from 814 to the 840s. He is described by
Asser
Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh people, Welsh monk from St David's, Kingdom of Dyfed, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne (ancient), Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join ...
as an ealdorman of the
Gaini, a tribe after whom
Gainsborough in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
is believed to be named.
In his biography of
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 ...
, Asser says that in 868 Alfred "was betrothed to and married a wife from Mercia, of noble family, namely the daughter of Æthelred (who was known as Mucel), ealdorman of the Gaini. The woman's mother was called Eadburh, from the royal stock of the king of the Mercians. I often saw her myself with my very own eyes for several years before her death. She was a notable woman, who remained for many years after the death of her husband a chaste widow, until her death". The Gaini are otherwise unknown, but were probably one of the tribal divisions of the Mercians. According to the historian
Richard Abels, Eadburh was a descendant of King
Cenwulf of Mercia. The scholar, Ford Mommaerts-Browne, however, suggests that she was a grandchild of
Ceolwulf, through his daughter,
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 ...
, and her husband,
Wigmund.
Æthelred had at least two children with Eadburh. They were:
*Ealdorman Æthelwulf (died 903)
*Ealhswith (died 5 December 902), who in 868 married Alfred the Great, by whom she had five children who survived to adulthood.
References
External links
* ; see also
9th-century English nobility
{{England-bio-stub