Person:Ethelbert of Wessex (1)

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Æthelberht (; also spelled Ethelbert or Aethelberht) was the King of Wessex from 860 until his death in 865. He was the third son of King Æthelwulf by his first wife, Osburh. Æthelberht was first recorded as a witness to a charter in 854. The following year Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome and appointed his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex while Æthelberht became king of the recently conquered territory of Kent. Æthelberht may have surrendered his position to his father when he returned from pilgrimage, but resumed (or kept) the south-eastern kingship when his father died in 858.

When Æthelbald died in 860, Æthelberht united both their territories under his rule. He did not appoint a sub-king and Wessex and Kent were fully united for the first time. He appears to have been on good terms with his younger brothers, the future kings Æthelred I and Alfred the Great. The kingdom came under attack from Viking raids during his reign, but these were minor compared with the invasions after his death. Æthelberht died in the autumn of 865 and was buried next to his brother Æthelbald at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset. He was succeeded by Æthelred.

1. ↑ Ethelbert of Wessex, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   Æðelbeorht, 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.   Æthelberht 9 (Male), in The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 ÆTHELBERHT, in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.

   He identifies him as an illegitimate son and estimates the birth year as between 830 and 835.

5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Æthelwulf, in Baldwin, Stewart, and Todd Farmerie. The Henry Project (King Henry II ): Ancestors of King Henry II.
6. ↑ Earle, John (ed.), and Charles (ed.) Plummer. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892)
   pp 68 - 69.
7.   Thorpe, Benjamin. Diplomatarium anglicum aevi saxonici. (London: Macmillan & Co, 1865)
   p. 484.

   Ælfred refers in his will to Æthelbald, Æthered, and himself as being three brothers ("us þrim gebroðrum"), and yet refers to Æthelberht as "cincge. uncrum mæge" (a kinsman -- mistranslated in this source as "brother").

8.   Thorpe, Benjamin. Diplomatarium anglicum aevi saxonici. (London: Macmillan & Co, 1865)
   pp. 124-127.

   In this charter, Æthelberht refers to his father, Æthelwulf, and his brothers Æthelred, Ælfred, and Æthelbald.

9.   The wording of Ælfred's will seems to create some doubt about Æthelberht's placement with this family, although it seems supported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the charter cited in source 8. Baldwin and Cawley account for this apparent discrepancy by suggesting that perhaps he had a different mother from Ælfred, Æthelbald, and Æthered.