Person:Æthelred of Wessex (1)

Æthelred I of Wessex
b.Est 845
d.Bet 15 Apr 871 and 22 Apr 871
m. Est 832
  1. Æthelbald of WessexEst 835 - 860
  2. Æthelswith of WessexEst 840 - 888
  3. Æthelred I of WessexEst 845 - 871
  4. Ælfred "the Great" of Wessex, King of the West Saxons849 - 899
m. 868
  1. Æthelhelm _____Abt 869 - 898
  2. Æthelwold of WessexAbt 869 to 871 - 902
  3. Oswald _____
Facts and Events
Name Æthelred I of Wessex
Alt Name Ethelred _____
Gender Male
Birth[3] Est 845 House of Wessex
Marriage 868 to Wulfrida _____
Death[3][4] Bet 15 Apr 871 and 22 Apr 871
Burial[3][4] Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England
Reference Number[1] Q272233?


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Æthelred I (alt. Aethelred, Ethelred; ; 845/848 to 871) was King of Wessex from 865 until his death in 871. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king. Æthelred succeeded his elder brother Æthelberht and was followed by his youngest brother, Alfred the Great. Æthelred had two sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold, who were passed over for the kingship on their father's death because they were still infants. Alfred was succeeded by his son, Edward the Elder, and Æthelwold unsuccessfully disputed the throne with him.

Æthelred's accession coincided with the arrival of the Viking Great Heathen Army in England. Over the next five years the Vikings conquered Northumbria and East Anglia, and at the end of 870 they launched a full-scale attack on Wessex. In early January 871, Æthelred was defeated at the Battle of Reading. Four days later, he scored a victory in the Battle of Ashdown, but this was followed by two defeats at Basing and Meretun. He died shortly after Easter. Alfred was forced to pay off the Vikings, but he scored a decisive victory over them seven years later at the Battle of Edington.

Æthelred's reign was important numismatically. Wessex and Mercia were close allies when he became king, and he carried the alliance further by adopting the Mercian Lunettes design, thus creating a unified coinage design for southern England for the first time. The common design foreshadowed the unification of England over the next sixty years and the reform coinage of King Edgar a century later.

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References
  1. Ethelred of Wessex, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
  2.   Æthelred I, King of Wessex, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 ÆTHELRED ([844/47]-[15/22] Apr 871, bur Wimborne Minster, Dorset), in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Earle, John (ed.), and Charles (ed.) Plummer. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892)
    pp. 72-73.

    MSS A and E state that he died after Easter, having reigned 5 years, and that his body lies at Wimborne.

  5.   Æthelred 15 (Male), in The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.