Beorhtwulf of Mercia - Background and Sources

Background and Sources

For most of the 8th century, Mercia was the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Mercian influence in the south-eastern kingdoms of Kent, East Anglia and Essex continued into the early 820s under Coenwulf of Mercia. However, Coenwulf's death in 821 marked the beginning of a period in which Mercia suffered from dynastic conflicts and military defeats that redrew the political map of England. Four (possibly five) kings, from what appear to be four different kin-groups, ruled Mercia throughout the next six years. Little genealogical information about these kings has survived, but since Anglo-Saxon names often included initial elements common to most or all members of a family, historians have suggested that kin-groups in this period can be reconstructed on the basis of the similarity of their names. Three competing kin-groups are recognizable in the charters and regnal lists of the time: the C, Wig and B groups. The C group, which included the brothers Coenwulf, Cuthred of Kent, and Ceolwulf I, was dominant in the period following the deaths of Offa of Mercia and his son Ecgfrith in 796. Ceolwulf was deposed in 823 by Beornwulf, perhaps the first of the B group, who was killed fighting against the East Anglians in 826. He was followed by Ludeca, not obviously linked to any of the three groups, who was killed in battle the following year. After Ludeca's death, the first of the Wig family came to power: Wiglaf, who died in 839 or 840. Beorhtwulf, who succeeded to the throne that year, is likely to have come from the B group, which may also have included the ill-fated Beornred who "held a little while and unhappily" after the murder of King Æthelbald in 757.

An alternative model of Mercian succession is that a number of kin-groups with local power-bases may have competed for the succession. The sub-kingdoms of the Hwicce, the Tomsæte, and the unidentified Gaini are examples of such power-bases. Marriage alliances could also have played a part. Competing magnates—those called in charters "dux" or "princeps" (that is, leaders)—may have brought the kings to power. In this model, the Mercian kings are little more than leading noblemen.

An important source for the period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle was a West Saxon production, however, and is sometimes thought to be biased in favour of Wessex. Charters dating from Beorhtwulf's reign have survived; these were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land. A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere of the Hwicce, is described as a "subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald of Mercia.