General Notes

OCCU King of the Angles
OCCU King of Wessex
Egbert (775?-839), king of Wessex (802-39), and the first Saxonking recognized as sovereign of all England (828-39). He was theson of a Kentish noble but claimed descent fromCerdic (reigned519-34), founder of Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons insouthern England. During the late 8th century, when King Offa ofMercia (reigned 757-96) ruled most of England, Egbert lived inexile at the court of Charlemagne. Egbert regained his kingdomin 802. He conquered the neighboring kingdoms of Kent, Cornwall,and Mercia, and by 830 he was also acknowledged as sovereign of East Anglia, Sussex, Surrey, and Northumbria and was given thetitle of Bretwalda (Anglo-Saxon, ruler of the British). During succeeding years Egbert led expeditions against the Welsh and the Vikings. The year before his death he defeated a combinedforce of Danes and Welsh at Hingston Down in Cornwall. He wassucceeded by his son Ethelwulf (825-58), the father of Alfred.

Note: From BRITAIN'S KINGS AND QUEENS By SirGeorge Bellew Kcvo
Offa, King of Mercia, had been strong enoughto banish the young Egbert, whose cousin, Beorhtri, was jealous of his claims to th throne of Wessex, but after the death of Beorhtric, and after the extinction of the male line of the royal house of Mercia, Egbert returned and was acclaimed king of the West Saxons. For many years Egbert did not try to increase his poer, but when he did he arrived all before him.  The Mercians were defeated and had perforce to acknowledge him as lord; the Cornish, the Kentishmen and the East Anglians each inturn had to bow the knee to the conqueror; and when in 829 the somewhat moribund kingdom of Northumbria yeilded to him, his triumph was complete; he was Bretwalda.  [Overlord] Egbert'sconquest was
to be more or less permanent, for his descendants,though they often sufferred reverses, were in name and in fact generally kings of England.  The triumph of the house of Wessex was due less perhaps to
Egbert's military skill than to the fact that he was the last male member of a ruling family left in England.  So great was the veneration for royal blood, which in Saxon times was broadly defined as having descent from Cerdic,first king of the West Saxons, who died in 534, and so mystic was the conception of kingship, as the surviving Coronation order of Egbert, Archbishop of York (732-66),
illustrates,that lesser kings were very willing to acknowledge Egbert as Bretwalda, theirlord and protector. http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/cgi/bct/gedlkup/n=royal?royal0197,
Egbert III of Wessex, King of Wessex
Born: ABT 775
Acceded: 802
Died: 4 FEB 839
Interred: Winchester Cathedral, London, England
Notes:Reigned 802-839.In 800 at the decease of King Brithric, Egbert was called by thevoice of
hiscountrymen to assume the Government of Wessex, and hesubsequently succeededin reducing all the Kingdoms of the Heptarchy under his sway.His reign, along and glorious one, is memorable for the
great victories heachieved overthe Danes.See Europsch Stammtafeln Bund II tafel 58.
Father: , Ealhmund of Kent, Under-King of Kent
Mother: , Daughter of Kent
Married to , Redburga
Child 1: ,
AEthelwulf, King of England, b. ABT 800
Child 2: , Editha, Abbess of Polesworth
Child 3: , Athelstan, Sub King of KentVersion: 19 Aug 97
Author: Brian Tompsett Sources: seebibliography Copyright
1994,1995, 1996, 1997