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This descent from Mercian Kings was what drew Alfred to Ealhswith, making her an attractive candidate for marriage. During the time of King Alfred’s reign, he inherited Wessex through his late father, King Æthelwulf, and the genealogies of both Aethelwulf, and Alfred’s mother, Osburh, were used to justify his rule over England. [3]
Wife of Æthelred II and daughter of Alfred of Wessex. Possibly descended from earlier Mercian kings via her mother. ... Became King of Mercia on Edward's death (Jul ...
King Offa had at least five children, and it is thought that they were all Cynethryth's as well; they were: Ecgfrith (died 796) - King of Mercia, died after a reign of only 141 days. Eadburh - Queen of Wessex, wife of Beorhtric of Wessex. Ælfflæd - Queen of Northumbria, wife of Æthelred I of Northumbria. Æthelburh - An abbess.
In Wessex, royal women were not allowed to play any political role; Alfred's wife was not granted the title of queen and was never a witness to charters. In Mercia, Alfred's sister Æthelswith had been the wife of King Burgred of Mercia; she had witnessed charters as queen and had made grants jointly with her husband and in her own name ...
Æthelswith (c. 838–888) was the only known daughter of King Æthelwulf of Wessex. She married King Burgred of Mercia in 853. The couple had no known children. Her marriage probably signaled the subordination of Burgred to his father-in-law and the Saxon kingdom at a time when both Wessex and Mercia were suffering
Osburh's existence is known only from Asser's Life of King Alfred.She is not named as witness to any charters, nor is her death reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.So far as is known, she was the mother of all Æthelwulf's children, his five sons Æthelstan, Æthelbald, Æthelberht, Æthelred and Alfred, and his daughter Æthelswith, wife of King Burgred of Mercia.
Offa, king of Mercia from 757 to 796, was the dominant figure of the second half of the 8th century. King Beorhtric of Wessex (786–802), married Offa's daughter in 789. Beorhtric and Offa drove Æthelwulf's father Ecgberht into exile, and he spent several years at the court of Charlemagne in Francia.
Alfred was the youngest son of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, and his wife Osburh. [5] According to his biographer, Asser, writing in 893, "In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 849 Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons", was born at the royal estate called Wantage, in the district known as Berkshire [a] ("which is so called from Berroc Wood, where the box tree grows very abundantly").