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Æthelred I of Northumbria

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Æthelred was king of Northumbria from 774 to 779 and again from 788 or 789 until his murder in 796. He became king after Alhred was deposed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to him as "Æthelwald Moll's son", rather by his own name, which has led Higham to suppose that he was a child.

If he was indeed no more than a straw man for his father, then Æthelwald Moll's second attempt at ruling Northumbria lasted no longer than his first. Æthelred was deposed in 779 and the throne passed back to the Eatingas in the person of Ælfwald I, probably a grandson of Eadberht Eating.

Æthelred lived in exile during the reign of Ælfwald and his successor Osred II. Osred was deposed, forcibly tonsured and exiled in 788 or 789, and Æthelred was restored to the throne. His second reign saw considerable trouble. The ealdorman Eardwulf was ordered killed by Æthelred in 790, but survived and later became king. Ælfwald's sons Ælf and Ælfwine were killed, probably on Æthelred's orders, in 791. The next year Osred attempted to regain the throne, but was defeated, captured and killed on 14 September 792. A year after, Lindisfarne was sacked, and Alcuin's letters to Æthelred blame the sack on the sins of Æthelred and his nobility. Also in 792, he married Ælfflæd, daughter of Offa of Mercia, at Catterick.

Æthelred is thought to have had strong backing in Deira, and received assistance from Charlemagne, but this did not prevent his murder on 18 April 796 by a group of conspirators led by the earldormen Ealdred and Wada. In the resulting confusion, Osbald, probably a veteran ealdorman, became king.

Further reading

  • Higham, N.J., The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350-1100. Stroud: Sutton, 1993. ISBN 0862997305
  • Kirby, D.P., The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin, 1991. ISBN 0-04-445692-1
  • Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby, 1990. ISBN 1-85264-027-8


See also


Preceded by:
Alhred 		King of Northumbria Succeeded by:
Ælfwald I
Preceded by:
Osred II 		King of Northumbria Succeeded by:
Osbald
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