Æthelwold of Wessex

Æthelwold or Alwaldus (died 13 December 902) was the younger of two known sons of Æthelred, the king of Wessex from 865 to 871. Æthelred ended his reign fighting a Viking invasion, and he suffered several defeats shortly before his death. His sons were too young to carry on the resistance against the Vikings, and he was succeeded by his younger brother, Alfred the Great.

After Alfred's death in 899, Æthelwold disputed the throne with Alfred's son, Edward the Elder. Æthelwold attempted to raise an army to support his claim, but he was unable to get sufficient support to meet Edward in battle, and he fled to Viking controlled Northumbria, where he was accepted as king. In 901 he sailed with a fleet to East Anglia, which was also then part of the Danelaw. The following year he persuaded the East Anglian Danes to launch an attack on Edward's territory in Wessex and Mercia. Edward retaliated by a raid on East Anglia, but when he retreated the men of Kent lingered and met the Danes at the Battle of the Holme on 13 December 902. The Danes were victorious, but suffered heavy losses, including the death of Æthelwold, ending the challenge to Edward's rule.

Background
In the eighth century Mercia was the most powerful kingdom in southern England, but in the early ninth Wessex under King Egbert became dominant. His reign saw the beginning of Viking attacks, but Egbert and his son Æthelwulf, who succeeded in 839, were successful in resisting them. Æthelwulf died in 858, and he was succeeded by four sons in succession. Æthelwold's father, Æthelred, succeeded after brief reigns by two elder brothers in 865, the year that the Viking Great Heathen Army invaded England. Within five years they had conquered Northumbria and East Anglia and forced Mercia to buy them off. In late 870 the Vikings invaded Wessex, and in early 871 they fought Æthelred and Alfred in four battles in quick succession, the last two of which Wessex lost. Æthelred then died shortly after Easter.

By 878 the Vikings had nearly conquered Wessex and Alfred was reduced to being a fugitive in the Somerset marshes, but he then fought back and won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington. This was followed by a period of peace, and in the late 880s he concluded a treaty with Guthrum, king of the East Anglian Vikings, setting the boundary between Wessex and English Mercia on the one hand, and the Danelaw on the other. A further Viking assault in the mid 990s was unsuccessful.

Early life
Very little is known of Æthelwold's family. His mother was probably the Wulfthryth who witnessed a charter in 868. She is described there as regina, whereas Edward's mother was only the king's wife, and Æthelwold's status as the son of a queen may have given him an advange over Edward. In the only surviving charter which recorded Æthelwold, he is listed above Alfred's eldest son, Edward, implying that he ranked above him. The only record of Æthelwold's older brother Æthelhelm is as a beneficiary of Alfred's will in the mid-880s, and he probably died soon afterwards.

Æthelred and Alfred had agreed that the bulk of their property should go the the survivor, an arrangement which left Æthelhelm and Æthelwold at a disadvantage when Æthelred died first, and Alfred's will makes clear that they complained that he had denied them their property. He left the bulk of his estate to Edward, while Æthelhelm was left eight estates, and Æthelwold only three at Godalming and Guildford in Surrey, and Steyning in Sussex. Alfred also favoured his own son by giving him opportunities for command in battle once he was old enough. Æthelwold's revolt was probably partly motivated by a belief that he had been denied his rights in his uncle's will.

Revolt against Edward
After Alfred's death in 899, Æthelwold, as the senior ætheling (prince of the royal dynasty eligible for kingship), had a strong claim to succeed him, and made a bid for the throne. According to the 'A' version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Æthelwold seized a nun from her convent and married her without the permission of King Edward and against the command of the bishop. Her identity is not known, but it must have been intended to strengthen his claim, and in the view of historian Pauline Stafford, the Chronicle's account is biased in favour of Edward and may have been intended to delegitimize a politically important marriage. Æthelwold took her to the royal manors of Twynham (now Christchurch) and then to Wimborne Minster, symbolically important as his father's burial place, where he declared that "he would live or die".

However, when Edward's army approached and camped nearby at Badbury Rings, he was unable to gain sufficient support to meet them in battle. Leaving behind his wife, he fled to the Danes of Northumbria. According to one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Northumbrians accepted him as king, but within a year he had been driven out. Northumbrian coins were issued at this time in the name of a king called 'Alwaldus', who is thought to have been Æthelwold.

In 901, he sailed with a fleet to Essex. In 902 he persuaded the Danes in East Anglia to wage war against Edward and joined them in a raid on Mercia and Wessex. Edward retaliated by ravaging the southern Danelaw, but when he withdrew, the men of Kent refused to obey the order to retreat. They met the Danes in East Anglia on 13 December at the Battle of the Holme. Its location is unknown but may be Holme in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire). The Danes were victorious but suffered the heavier losses, Æthelwold was amongst the leaders on the Danish side who were killed.

Legacy
In the view of the historian James Campbell, had Æthelwold not been killed at the Holme, he might have united England with much less warfare than ultimately proved to be necessary: "Had it not been for the chances of battle and war Æthelwold might very well have been regarded as one of the greatest figures in our island's story". Ryan Lavelle has argued that "it is important to acknowledge the audacity of Æthelwold's actions" and that he "well deserves to be ranked amongst the 'Nearly Men' of early Medieval Europe". It is not known whether he had any descendants, but the chronicler Æthelweard claimed descent from King Æthelred, and this may have been through Æthelwold.