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Bible Encyclopedias
Aethelbald
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or king of Mercia, succeeded Ceolred A.D. 716. According to Felix, Life of St Guthlac, he visited the saint at Crowland, when exiled by Ceolred and pursued by his emissaries before his accession, and was cheered by predictions of his future greatness. According to Bede, the whole of Britain as far north as the Humber was included within the sphere of his authority. His energy in preserving his influence is shown by several entries in the Chronicle. He made an expedition against Wessex in 733, in which year he took the royal vill of Somerton. In 740 he took advantage of the absence of Eadberht of Northumbria in a campaign against the Picts to invade his kingdom. In 743 he fought with Cuthred, king of Wessex, against the Welsh, but the alliance did not last long, as in 752 Cuthred took up arms against him. In 757 Æthelbald was slain by his guards at Seckington (Warwickshire) and buried at Repton. He seems to have been the most powerful and energetic king of Mercia between Penda and Offa. A letter of St Boniface is preserved, in which he rebukes this king for his immoralities and encroachments on church property, while recognizing his merits as a monarch. By a charter of 749 he freed ecclesiastical lands from all obligations except the trinoda necessitas. See Bede, Hist. Ecc. (ed. Plummer), v. 23 and Continuatio s.a. 740, 75 o, 757; Saxon Chronicle (Earle and Plummer), s.a. 716, 733, 737, 74 0, 74 1, 743, 755; Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum, ii. pp. 264, 275, 276, 279, 283-284; P. Jaffe, Monumenta Moguntiaca, iii. pp. 168-177; W. de G. Birch, Cartul. Saxon. 178 (1885-1893). (F. G. M. B.) Iethelbald, king of Wessex, was the son of Æthelwulf, with whom he led the West Saxons to victory against the Danes at Aclea, 851. According to Asser he rebelled against his father on the latter's return from Rome in 856, and deprived him of Wessex, which he ruled until his death in 860. On his father's death in 858 he married his widow, Judith.
See Asser, Life of Alfred (W. H. Stevenson, 1904), 12; Saxon Chronicle, s.a. 851, 855, 860.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Aethelbald'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/aethelbald.html. 1910.
