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Gaini
The Gaini were an Anglo-Saxon tribe which occupied part of the kingdom of Mercia. The Gaini are only recorded in Asser's life of King Alfred the Great, written in 893, which stated that in 868, before he became king, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of Æthelred, known as Mucel, ealdorman of the Gaini. Mucel witnessed Mercian charters between 814 and 866, with two subscribing in the 830s and 840s. They may be father and son, with the later one being Ealhswith's father. The older was probably "Mucel son of Esne" recorded in a Mercian charter of 836. Esne attested Mercian charters in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Ealhswith's father attested two West Saxon charters in 868, the year his daughter married Alfred. Ealhswith's brother, Æthelwulf, was a sub-ealdorman under Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians at the end of the ninth century, controlling western and possibly central Mercia. See also *Gainsborough, Lincolnshire Gainsborough () is a market town and civil p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æthelred Mucel
Æthelred Mucel was an Anglo-Saxon noble from Mercia who was the father of Ealhswith, the wife of Alfred the Great. Æthelred witnessed several charters between 867 and 895; he may be the same man as an ealdorman called 'Mucel' who witnessed Mercian charters between 836 and 866. It is possible he was the son of another Mucel who witnessed Mercian charters from 814 to the 840s. He is described by Asser as an ealdorman of the Gaini, a tribe after whom Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is believed to be named. In his biography of Alfred the Great, Asser says that in 868 Alfred "was betrothed to and married a wife from Mercia, of noble family, namely the daughter of Æthelred (who was known as Mucel), ealdorman of the Gaini. The woman's mother was called Eadburh, from the royal stock of the king of the Mercians. I often saw her myself with my very own eyes for several years before her death. She was a notable woman, who remained for many years after the death of her husband a chaste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred The Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, King of Wessex, Æthelbald, Æthelberht, King of Wessex, Æthelberht and Æthelred I of Wessex, Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon territory and the Viking-ruled Danelaw, composed of Scandinavian York, the north-east Midlands and East Anglia. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom again ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealhswith
Ealhswith or Ealswitha (died 5 December 902) was the wife of King Alfred the Great. She was the mother of King Edward the Elder who succeeded King Alfred to the Anglo-Saxon throne. Her father was a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini, which is thought to be an old Mercian tribal group. Her mother was Eadburh, a member of the Mercian royal family and her lineage was one of the primary reasons for Alfred taking Ealhswith as his wife. She founded the nunnery of Nunnaminster. Descent A charter of 897 (S 1442) discusses the responsibilities of Ealhswith's brother Æthelwulf towards the monastery of Winchcombe, and Barbara Yorke argues that as this monastery was claimed as a possession by the family of Ceolwulf and Coenwulf, brothers who were both kings of Mercia, Ealhswith was probably a member of this family. Richard Abels goes further, stating that she was descended from King Coenwulf. This descent from Mercian Kings was what drew Alfred to Ealhswith, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
Gainsborough () is a market town and civil parish in the West Lindsey Non-metropolitan district, district of Lincolnshire, England. The population was 20,842 at the 2011 census, and estimated at 23,243 in 2019. It lies on the east bank of the River Trent, north-west of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, south-west of Scunthorpe, 20 miles south-east of Doncaster and east of Sheffield. It is sometimes claimed to be England's furthest-inland port. History King Alfred, Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut the Great The place-name Gainsborough first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1013 as ''Gegnesburh'' and ''Gæignesburh''. In the Domesday Book of 1086, it appears as ''Gainesburg'': Gegn's fortified place. It was one of the capital cities of Mercia in the Anglo-Saxon period that preceded Kingdom of Denmark#History, Danish rule. Its choice by the Vikings as an administrative centre was influenced by its proximity to the Danish stronghold at Torksey. In 868 King Alfred married Ealh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercia
Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England. The royal court moved around the kingdom without a fixed capital city. Early in its existence Repton seems to have been the location of an important royal estate. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', it was from Repton in 873–874 that the Great Heathen Army deposed the King of Mercia. Slightly earlier, Offa of Mercia, King Offa seems to have favoured Tamworth, Staffordshire, Tamworth. It was there where he was crowned and spent many a Christmas. For the three centuries between 600 and 900, known as Mercian Supremacy or the "Golden Age of Mercia", having annexed or gained submissions from five of the other six kingdoms of the Heptarchy (Kingdom of East Anglia, East Anglia, Kingdom of Essex, Essex, Kingdom of Kent, K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy
The Heptarchy was the division of Anglo-Saxon England between the sixth and eighth centuries into petty kingdoms, conventionally the seven kingdoms of East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex. The term originated with the twelfth-century historian Henry of Huntingdon and has been widely used ever since, but it has been questioned by historians as the number of kingdoms fluctuated, and there was never a time when the territory of the Anglo-Saxons was divided into seven kingdoms each ruled by one king. The period of petty kingdoms came to an end in the eighth century, when England was divided into the four dominant kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex. History Although ''heptarchy'' suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of a clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. The number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly during this period as co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asser
Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh people, Welsh monk from St David's, Kingdom of Dyfed, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne (ancient), Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent because of illness, Asser accepted. In 893, Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the ''Life of King Alfred''. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser's work which was included by other early writers, have made it possible to reconstruct the work. The biography is the main source of information about Alfred's life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Grego ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealdorman
Ealdorman ( , ) ''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government in Anglo-Saxon England, government of Anglo-Saxon England. During the 11th century, it evolved into the title of earl. Early use The Old English word ''ealdorman'' was applied to high-ranking men. It was equated with several Latin titles, including , , , and . The title could be applied to kings of weaker territories who had submitted to a greater power. For example, a Anglo-Saxon charters, charter of King Offa of Mercia described Ealdred of Hwicce as "''Ecgberht, King of Wessex#Subregulus, subregulus''... ''et dux'' ()." In Wessex, the king appointed ealdormen to lead individual shires. Under Alfred the Great (), there were nine or ten ealdormen. Each West Saxon shire had one, and Kent had two (one for East Kent and o ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æthelred, Lord Of The Mercians
Æthelred (died 911) became Lord of the Mercians in England shortly after the death or disappearance of Mercia's last king, Ceolwulf II, in 879. He is also sometimes called the Ealdorman of Mercia. Æthelred's rule was confined to the western half, as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking-ruled Danelaw. His ancestry is unknown. He was probably the leader of an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of Wales in 881, and soon afterwards he acknowledged the lordship of King Alfred the Great of Wessex. This alliance was cemented by the marriage of Æthelred to Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd. In 886, Alfred took possession of London, which had suffered greatly from several Viking occupations. Alfred then handed London over to Æthelred, as it had traditionally been a Mercian town. In 892, the Vikings renewed their attacks, and the following year, Æthelred led an army of Mercians, West Saxons and Welsh to victory over a Viking army at the Battle of Buttington. He spent the next thre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
