Ethelwulf King Of Wessex ¹

   Ancestral File Number: 9GCX-J1.

  General Notes:

Ethelwolf,
king of England, succeeded his father, Egbert, in 837, and gave to his son, Athelstan, the sovereignty over Essex, Kent, and Sussex. In the year 851 the Danes invaded the kingdom in excessive numbers, and threatened its total subjugation; for though vigorously opposed by Athelstan and others, they fixed their winter quarters in Thanet, and the same year took Canterbury and London. During these troubles, Ethelwolf, accompanied by Alfred <kinga.html>, his youngest son, made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he remained a year, and, on his return, found Athelstan dead, and succeeded by his next son, Ethelbald, who had entered into a conspiracy with some of the nobles to prevent his father from again ascending the throne. To avoid a civil war, the king gave up the western division of the kingdom to his son, and soon after, summoning the great council of the kingdom, gave a tenth part of the land to the church. The meaning and effect of this grant has been much discussed, and still remains doubtful. That it formed the foundation of the claim of tithes, as once maintained, is no longer held. Died, 857.

Ethelwulf married Osburh Queen Of Wessex, daughter of Oslac, Chief Butler Of Wessex and Mrs-Oslac, Chief Butler Of Wessex, about 830. (Osburh Queen Of Wessex was born about 810 in Of, , Wessex, England and died in 846.)