As King of
Wessex, Egbert inherited the mantle of 'bretwalda' - an
Anglo-Saxon term meaning a ruler with overall superiority to
other rulers - after the decline of Mercian power under Offa.
Egbert was King of Wessex from 802 until 839. His father was
Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Egbert was forced into exile
by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802
Egbert returned and took the throne.
Little is known of the first twenty years of Egbert's
reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain
Wessex's independence against the kingdom of Mercia, which
at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms.
In 825 Egbert defeated Beornwulf of Mercia at the battle of
Ellendun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian
dependencies in southeastern England. In 829 Egbert defeated
Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom,
temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Egbert
received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore,
near Sheffield. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Egbert as a
"bretwalda",
or "Ruler of Britain".
Egbert was unable to maintain this dominant position, and
within a year Wiglaf regained the throne of Mercia. However,
Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex and Surrey; these
territories were given to Egbert's son
Ęthelwulf to rule as a subking under Egbert. When Egbert
died in 839, Ęthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern
kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex
after Ęthelwulf's death in 858.
Political context and early life
Offa of Mercia, who reigned from 757 to 796, was the
dominant force in Anglo-Saxon England in the second half of
the eighth century. The relationship between Offa and
Cynewulf, who was king of Wessex from 757 to 786, is not
well-documented, but it seems likely that Cynewulf
maintained some independence from Mercian overlordship.
Charters, which were documents which granted land to
followers or to churchmen, and which were witnessed by the
kings who had power to grant the land, can provide evidence
of overlordship if, for example, a king's appearance on a
charter is as a subregulus, or "subking". Cynewulf appears
as "King of the West Saxons" on a charter of Offa's in 772;
and he was defeated by Offa in battle in 779 at Bensington,
but there is nothing else to suggest Cynewulf was not his
own master, and he is not known to have acknowledged Offa as
overlord] Offa did have influence in the southeast of the
country: a charter of 764 shows him in the company of
Heahberht of Kent, suggesting that Offa's influence
helped place Heahberht on the throne.
The extent of Offa's control of Kent between 765 and 776 is
a matter of debate amongst historians, but from 776 until
about 784 it appears that the Kentish kings had substantial
independence from Mercia.
Another Egbert, Egbert of Kent, ruled in that kingdom
throughout the 770s; he is last mentioned in 779, in a
charter granting land at Rochester. In 784 a new king of
Kent appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ealhmund,
who according to a marginal note is the father
of Egbert of Wessex: "This king Ealhmund was Egbert's
father, Egbert was Ęthelwulf's father". This is supported by
the genealogical preface from the A text of the Chronicle,
which gives Egbert's father's name as Ealhmund without
further details. The preface probably dates from the late
ninth century; the marginal note is on the F manuscript of
the Chronicle, which is a Kentish version dating from about
1100.
Ealhmund does not appear to have long survived in power:
after the Chronicle's record of him in 784, and a charter of
the same year in which he grants land at Reculver, there is
no further record of his activities. There is, however,
extensive evidence of Offa's domination of Kent during the
late 780s, with his goals apparently going beyond
overlordship to outright annexation of the kingdom, and he
has been described as "the rival, not the overlord, of the
Kentish kings". It is possible that the young Egbert fled to
Wessex in 785 or so; it is suggestive that the Chronicle
mentions in a later entry that
Beorhtric, Cynewulf's successor, helped Offa to exile
Egbert.
Cynewulf was murdered in 786. Egbert may have contested
the succession, but Offa successfully intervened in the
ensuing power struggle on the side of Beorhtric.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Egbert spent three
years in
Francia before he was king, exiled by Beorhtric and
Offa. This may have been an error for thirteen years: the
error would have been "iii" for "xiii" in the original.
Beorhrtic's reign lasted sixteen years, and not thirteen;
and all extant texts of the chronicle agree on "iii", but
many modern accounts assume that Egbert did indeed spend
thirteen years in Francia. This requires assuming that the
error in transcription is common to every manuscript of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; many historians make this assumption
but others have rejected it as unlikely, given the
consistency of the sources.
In either case Egbert was probably exiled in 789, when
Beorhtric, his rival, married the daughter of Offa of
Mercia.
At the time Egbert was in exile, Francia was ruled by
Charlemagne, who maintained Frankish influence in
Northumbria and is known to have supported Offa's enemies in
the south. Another exile in Gaul at this time was Odberht, a
priest, who is almost certainly the same person asEadberht,
who later became king of Kent. According to a later
chronicler, William of Malmesbury, Egbert learned the arts of
government during his time in Gaul.
