Æthelwald Moll of Northumbria

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Map showing the major kingdoms of northern Great Britain in the 8th century. Northumbria was formed from the earlier kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira.

Æthelwald Moll was King of Northumbria, the historic petty kingdom of Angles in medieval England, from 759 to 765. He seized power after the murder of Oswulf son of Eadberht; his ancestry and connection to the royal family of Northumbria is unknown. Æthelwald faced at least one rebellion, led by Oswine, perhaps a brother of Oswulf. In 765 a Witenagemot of Northumbrian notables deposed Æthelwald and replaced him with Alhred, a kinsman of his predecessor. After his removal from the throne Æthelwald became a monk, perhaps involuntarily.

Æthelwald's marriage with one Æthelthryth is recorded in 762 at Catterick by Symeon of Durham. He is known to have had at least one son, Æthelred, who later became king.

1 Origins
2 Reign
3 Descendants
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Origins

The obverse of a sceat of Ecgberht, Archbishop of York and his brother King Eadberht, whose name appears on the reverse. Similar coins are known from Æthelwald Moll's reign.

Æthelwald is not recorded in the extant genealogies of Northumbrian kings, perhaps because he was not a descendant of Ida and the Bernician kings. Whether he was a descendant of the Deiran dynasty of Ælle, or simply a member of a powerful noble family, is unknown.^[1]

It is likely that he is to be idenfified with the patrician Moll, recorded in the reign of King Eadberht, to whom Eadberht and his brother Ecgbert, Archbishop of York granted the monasteries of Stonegrave, Coxwold, and Donaemuthe, all in modern Yorkshire. These had belonged to Moll's brother, Abbot Forthred.^[2]

[edit] Reign

On 24 July 759, King Oswulf was murdered by members of his own household. The regicide was "a crime in which Æthelwald may very well have been involved."^[3] Æthelwald was crowned King of Northumbria on 5 August 759. His reign was not unopposed. The continuator of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum reports a rising in Bernicia and, together with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, records that a certain Oswine, "a most noble ætheling", was killed in during the rising, on 6 August 761 in the Eildon Hills.^[4]

Æthelwald was deposed on 30 October 765, apparently by a council of noblemen and prelates held at Pincanheale, an important site used for two later Northumbrian church councils. According to the Irish Annals of Tigernach, Æthelwald was tonsured.^[5]

He was succeeded as king by Eadberht's son-in-law Alhred.

[edit] Descendants

Æthelwald's marriage with one Æthelthryth is recorded in 762 at Catterick by Symeon of Durham.^[6] He is known to have had at least one son, Æthelred, who later became king. It is presumed, on onomastic grounds, that the Moll "slain by the urgent command of King Eardwulf" circa 799 was a kinsman of Æthelwald Moll.^[7]

[edit] Notes

^ Kirby 150–151; Yorke 89.
^ Kirby, p. 150. The event is known from a letter of Pope Paul I, obtained by Abbot Forthred, which ordered Eadberht and Ecgberht to return the monasteries to Forthred. The location of Donaemuthe is uncertain.
^ Thus Williams 51; see also Kirby 98, 150, who states that he is "...very likely to have been associated with those who were responsible...".
^ See Kirby 151, stating that Oswine's origins are unknown; see also, e.g., Marsden 232–233; Marsden suggests he was a son of Eadberht. The description of Oswine comes from John of Worcester's chronicle.
^ Symeon of Durham, p. 448; Kirby, p. 151. AT, s.a. 764, reports: "Moll rí Saxan clericus eficitur" [Moll, king of the Saxons, was made a monk].
^ Symeon of Durham 448; Kirby 150.
^ Symeon of Durham, p. 461; Kirby, p.156.

[edit] References

Anonymous; Whitley Stokes editor (1895-1897). The Annals of Tigernach. Revue Celtique 16-18. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
D.P. Kirby, The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991. ISBN 0-04-445691-3
John Marsden, Northanhymbre Saga: The History of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of Northumbria. London: Cathie, 1992. ISBN 1-85626-055-0
Symeon of Durham; J. Stevenson translator (1855). The Historical Works of Simeon of Durham. Church Historians of England, volume III, part II. Seeley's. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
Ann Williams, Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500–1066. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. ISBN 0-333-56798-6
Barbara Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby, 1990. ISBN 1-85264-027-8