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Ealhmund of Kent

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Ealhmund was King of Kent in 784. He is reputed to be the father of King Egbert who was King of Wessex and, later, King of Kent. Asser's The Life of King Alfred identifies him as the son of Eafa.[1]

Biography

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He is not known to have struck any coins,[2] and the only contemporary evidence of him is an abstract of a charter dated 784, in which Ealhmund granted land to the Abbot of Reculver. In this charter he is identified as Ealmundus rex Canciæ.[3] By the following year Offa of Mercia seems to have been ruling directly, as he issued a charter[4] without any mention of a local king.

General consensus among historians is this is the same Ealhmund found in two pedigrees in the Winchester (Parker) Chronicle, compiled during the reign of Alfred the Great.[5] The genealogical preface to this manuscript, as well as the annual entry (covering years 855–859) describing the death of Æthelwulf, both make King Egbert of Wessex the son of an Ealhmund, who was son of Eafa, grandson of Eoppa, and great-grandson of Ingild, the brother of King Ine of Wessex, and descendant of founder Cerdic,[6] and therefore a member of the House of Wessex (see House of Wessex family tree). A further entry has been added in a later hand to the 784 annal, reporting Ealhmund's reign in Kent.

Finally, in the Canterbury Bilingual Epitome, originally compiled after the Norman conquest of England, a later scribe has likewise added to the 784 annal not only Ealhmund's reign in Kent, but his explicit identification with the father of Egbert.[7]

David H. Kelley proposed a maternal Kentish royal ancestry for him through a daughter of King Æthelberht, while maintaining the paternity from Eafa attributed to him by Asser,[8] though this has been greatly disputed by other scholars. Historian Heather Edwards has suggested that Ealhmund was probably a Kentish royal scion, whose pedigree was forged to give his son Egbert the descent from Cerdic requisite to reigning in Wessex.[9] This opinion is shared by the Austrian medievalist Anton Scharer, who agrees with a Kentish origin for Ealhmund and argues that his "kinship" with the House of Wessex only arose at a later time.[10] Ealhmund appears to have been a co-ruler of Ecgberht II, who may have been his brother, perhaps ruling as early as the 770's.[11][12][13] Another possible relative is Eadbeorht III Præn, who became king of Kent in 796.[14][15][16]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Asser, John (893). The Life of King Alfred. Boston, New York: Ginn & company (published 1906). p. 1.
  2. ^ Grierson and Blackburn, p. 269
  3. ^ "S 38". Anglo-Saxons.net. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  4. ^ "S 123". Anglo-Saxons.net. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  5. ^ Bierbrier, p. 382
  6. ^ Garmonsway, pp. xxxii, 2, 4
  7. ^ Garmonsway, pp. xxxix-xxxx, 52
  8. ^ Kelley, David H (1989). The House of Aethelred. In: Brook, Lindsay L (editor), Studies in Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans. Salt Lake City: The Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, Occasional Publication No.2, pp. 63-93.
  9. ^ Edwards, "Ecgberht"
  10. ^ Anton Scharer: Herrschaft und Repräsentation: Studien zur Hofkultur König Alfreds des Grossen, Oldenbourg, München 2000, ISBN 978-3-486-64842-3, S. 59–60.
  11. ^ Julia Barrow, Andrew Wareham (Hrsg.): Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Brooks, Ashgate, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7546-5120-8, p. 79.
  12. ^ After his last charter from 779, Ecgberht II disappears from the historical record. In 784, Ealhmund is documented as his successor.
  13. ^ Simon Keynes: Kings of Kent. In: Lapidge et al. (Hrsg.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford u. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1, p. 501–502.
  14. ^ Thomas Arnold, ed., Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum. The History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon (Rolls Series 74, London, 1879), p. 132.
  15. ^ John of Worcester makes Eadbeorht III Præn a son of king Wihtred of Kent (d. 725) and brother of Æthelbeorht II (d. 762) [John Worc., 1: 248, 260], but this connection seems chronologically improbable. Henry of Huntingdon calls "Pren" (evidently Eadbeorht) the "cognatus" (relative) of Ecgbeorht of Wessex ["Tunc ergo populos Cantiæ, et Sudriæ, et Sudsexe, et Estsexe rex Egbricht in dominium suscepit, quos prius cognatus suus Pren injuste amiserat." Hen. Hunt. iv, 29 (p. 132).
  16. ^ Benjamin Thorpe, ed., Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis, 2 vols., (London, 1848-9). (The work formerly attributed to Florence of Worcester is now generally attributed to John of Worcester.)

References

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Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Kent
784
Succeeded by