Political context and early life Ecgberht's name, spelled Ecgbriht, from the 827 entry in the C manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle She was married to Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire, and on his death in 802 she became a nun, Abbess of Wilton Abbey. He is reputed to have had a half-sister Alburga, later to be recognised as a saint for her founding of Wilton Abbey. A fifteenth-century chronicle now held by Oxford University names her as Redburga, supposedly a relative of Charlemagne whom he married when he was banished to Francia, but this is dismissed by academic historians in view of its late date. Heather Edwards in her Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article on Ecgberht argues that he was of Kentish origin, and that the West Saxon descent may have been manufactured during his reign to give him legitimacy, whereas Rory Naismith considered a Kentish origin unlikely, and that it is more probable that "Ecgberht was born of good West Saxon royal stock". Ecgberht's descent from Ingild was accepted by Frank Stenton, but not the earlier genealogy back to Cerdic. It continues back to Cerdic, founder of the House of Wessex.
The earliest version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Parker Chronicle, begins with a genealogical preface tracing the ancestry of Ecgberht's son Æthelwulf back through Ecgberht, Ealhmund (thought to be king Ealhmund of Kent), and the otherwise unknown Eafa and Eoppa to Ingild, brother of King Ine of Wessex, who abdicated the throne in 726.
Historians do not agree on Ecgberht's ancestry. Ecgbert's descendants ruled Wessex and, later, all of England continuously until 1013. When Ecgberht died in 839, Æthelwulf succeeded him the southeastern kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after the death of Æthelwulf's son Æthelbald in 860. However, Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey these territories were given to Ecgberht's son Æthelwulf to rule as a subking under Ecgberht. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Ecgberht as a bretwalda or 'wide-ruler' of Anglo-Saxon lands.Įcgberht was unable to maintain this dominant position, and within a year Wiglaf regained the throne of Mercia. Later that year Ecgberht received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore.
In 829, he defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. In 825, Ecgberht defeated Beornwulf of Mercia, ended Mercia's supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. Little is known of the first 20 years of Ecgberht's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain the independence of Wessex against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne. Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839.
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