Talk:Æthelbald of Wessex
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[edit] Forced his father to abdicate?
Does anyone have a concrete source stating that Ethelbald forced his father to abdicate? The sources I have looked at seem to contradict themselves. I have removed the statement for now. --Cameron (t|p|c) 21:10, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
- "In 855 Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome and divided Wessex between his sons Æthelbald and Æthelberht who ruled west and east Wessex respectively. It might have been expected, following the precedents of Caedwalla and Ine, that Æthelwulf would not return from his journey, but the trip seems if anything to have rejuvenated him. When he came back in 856 Æthelwulf brought with him a twelve-year-old bride, Judith, a daughter of the West Frankish king Charles the Bald. Æthelbald, with the support of the bishop of Sherborne and the ealdorman of Somerset, rebelled and tried to prevent his father's return, but a compromise was reached by which Æthelwulf ruled the eastern half of the main West Saxon kingdom of Æthelbald the western." [Barbara Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, p. 150]
- "What [Æthelwulf] found when he returned home is uncertain. According to Asser, during the time that Æthelwulf was away Æthelbald, with the support of Eahlstan, bishop of Sherborne, and Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, plotted that he would would not be received back into his kingdom (Life of King Alfred, ch. 12). This action has been seen as a rebellion against an unpopular king whose martial qualities were few and whose excessive piety took him to Rome at a time of Viking danger at home; pictured in this light, Æthelwulf's marriage to Judith was a response to rebellion at home. Æthelwulf, however, whose entry as a young man into minor orders is hagiographical legend, was a military leader who had distinguished himself against the Vikings in 851 ... and his journey to Rome and back was a prestige-enhancing success. It is also barely conceivable that Charles the Bald would have sent his daughter as an anointed queen, with all that implied, into an overseas kingdom already known to be in revolt against her new husband. What is more likely is that Æthelbald's rebellion occurred after the marriage." [D. P. Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 200–201]
- "[Æthelwulf's] eldest surviving son Æthelbald, who had been entrusted with control of Wessex in his absence, rebelled and Æthelwulf was obliged to end his reign ruling only part of his former kingdom." [Barbara Yorke, "Æthelwulf", in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England]
- So, no, not to abdicate, but to share power. Angus McLellan (Talk) 21:51, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
