Ethelswith ( -thelswith ) is the daughter of King Ethelwulf and Osburg . In 853, she married King of Mercia Burgred .
| Etelsvita | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| other English Æthelswith | |||||||
| |||||||
| Birth | |||||||
| Death | |||||||
| Burial place | |||||||
| Kind | Wessex dynasty | ||||||
| Father | Ethelwulf | ||||||
| Mother | Osburg | ||||||
| Spouse | Burgred | ||||||
| Children | not | ||||||
Her marriage probably meant Burgred's submission to his father-in-law, since at that time Wessex and Mercia were suffering from Viking raids. Burgred also had ongoing problems with the Kingdom of Powis on its western border, and in 853 Ethelwulf subordinated the Welsh state on behalf of Burgred. Repeated Danish invasions over the years gradually weakened Mercia militarily, and in 868 Burgred was forced to turn to his wife's brother, King of Wessex ельthelred , to help him confront the entrenched Danish army in Nottingham. This was the last time the Saxons came to the aid of the Mercians, and this event is also noteworthy in that Alfred the Great , another brother of Ethelvita, married Mercian Elsvita .
Burgred's power lasted until 874, when the Vikings drove him out of the kingdom, and he fled to Rome with Etelsvita. He died shortly afterwards. Etelsvita lived in Italy in recent years and was buried in Pavia in 888 [1] .
Notes
- ↑ Simon Keynes & Michael Lapidge eds, Alfred the Great, Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin, 1983, pp. 69, 113, 232, 281.
Literature
- Webster, Leslie. The Age of Alfred: Metalwork, wood and bone // The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900. - London, UK: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1991 .-- ISBN 0-7141-0555-4 .
- Wilson, David M. Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700-1100 in the British Museum. - London, UK: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1964.