Æthelwold or Æthelwald (died 962) was

ealdorman Ealdorman ( , )"ealdorman"
''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government ...

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

. He is mentioned in

Byrhtferth Byrhtferth (; ) was a priest and monk who lived at Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire) in England. He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of later Anglo-Saxon England and wrote many computistic, hagiographic, and ...

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

Oswald of Worcester Oswald of Worcester (died 29 February 992) was Archbishop of York from 972 to his death in 992. He was of Danish ancestry, but brought up by his uncle, Oda of Canterbury, who sent him to France to the abbey of Fleury to become a monk. After a ...

along with other members of his family. He was probably the oldest son of

Æthelstan Half-King Æthelstan Half-King (fl. 932 – 956) was an Ealdorman of East Anglia who served five kings of England, including Edgar, King of England, Edgar, who was brought up by Æthelstan's wife Ælfwynn, wife of Æthelstan Half-King, Ælfwynn, following ...

and succeeded to some of his father's offices in 956 when Æthelstan became a monk at

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

. He was a benefactor of

Ramsey Abbey Ramsey Abbey was a Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolved in 1539. The site ...

and a supporter of the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

reform movement which began in the reign of King

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of ''wikt:en:ead, ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''Gar (spear), gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Midd ...

. He was the first husband of Ælfthryth who married King Edgar in 964.

William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury (; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a gifted historical scholar and a ...

's ''

Gesta regum anglorum The (Latin for "Deeds of the Kings of the English"), originally titled ("On the Deeds of the Kings of the English") and also anglicized as or , is an early-12th-century history of the kings of England This list of kings and reigning q ...

'' has a late account of Æthelwold's marriage and death. According to William, the beauty of Ordgar's daughter Ælfthryth was reported to King Edgar. Edgar, looking for a Queen, sent Æthelwold to see Ælfthryth, ordering him "to offer her marriage o Edgarif her beauty were really equal to report." When she turned out to be just as beautiful as was said, Æthelwold married her himself and reported back to Edgar that she was quite unsuitable. Edgar was eventually told of this deception, and decided to repay Æthelwold's betrayal in like manner. He said that he would visit the poor woman, which alarmed Æthelwold. He asked Ælfthryth to make herself as unattractive as possible for the king's visit, but she did the opposite. Edgar, quite besotted with her, killed Æthelwold during a hunt. These stories are dismissed by the historian Anne Williams as "romantic tales of the twlefth century". She states that Æthelwold appears to have died of natural causes. Æthelwold was seemingly dead by 962 as he ceases to witness charters at that time. He was buried at

. His younger brother

Æthelwine Æthelwine, also Aethelwine or Ethelwine is an Anglo-Saxon given name meaning "noble friend". Its Old High German equivalent is Adalwin. *Æthelwine of Abingdon (died 1030), abbot of Abingdon *Æthelwine (Bishop of Durham) (died 1071), bishop of D ...

succeeded to his offices. A memorial to Æthelwold, known as the

Dead Man's Plack Dead Man's Plack is a Grade-II listed 19th-century monument to Æthelwold, Ealdorman of East Anglia, who, according to legend, was killed in 963 near the site where it stands by his rival in love, King Edgar I. The monument was erected in 18 ...

, was erected in

Longparish Longparish is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It is composed of the five hamlets of Middleton, East Aston, West Aston ,Forton and Longparish Station that over time have expanded and effectively joined up to become one village. ...

, Hampshire in 1825.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aethelwold, Ealdorman of East Anglia 10th-century births 962 deaths Earls and ealdormen of East Anglia

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