Æthelwulf: King of Wessex & Father of Alfred the Great

This is the life and times of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex: son of Ecgberht and father of Alfred the Great.

Æthelwulf lived during a turbulent time with the native English kingdoms continuing to jockey for power in Britain and Viking raids becoming increasingly dangerous.

Æthelwulf was a man of firsts: having peacefully succeeded his father to the throne of Wessex (the first in nearly two centuries); he also personally made the pilgrimage to Rome and controversially married into the royal Carolingian dynasty, both the latter acts having potentially dire consequences both for his reign and for the later dream of a united England.

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Time Stamps:

1:04 – Egbert’s Exile
1:46 – Egbert Seizes Wessex
3:00 – Æthelwulf becomes King of Kent
4:51 – Marriage to Osburh
5:37 – Æthelwulf’s Possible First Marriage
7:06 – Æthelwulf’s Succession
8:58 – Relations with Mercia
11:42 – The Viking Threat
13:17 – Battle of Alcea (851 AD)
14:21 – Marriage of Burgred & Ethelswith (853 AD)
15:25 – Birth of Alfred
16:26 – Alfred’s Pilgrimage to Rome (853 AD)
18:19 – Alfred Returns
19:19 – The Decimation Charters
20:14 – Æthelwulf’s Pilgrimage to Rome (855-6 AD)
22:13 – Marriage to Judith (856 AD)
25:53 – Æthelbald Rebellion
28:24 – The Succession Settlement
30:48 - Æthelwulf’s Death & Aftermath

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