Burgred of Mercia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Burgred.

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Burgred or Burhred or Burghred was the king of Mercia (852 - 874). He succeeded to the throne in 852, and in 852 or 853 called upon Ethelwulf of Wessex to aid him in subduing northern Wales. The request was granted and the campaign proved successful, the alliance being sealed by the marriage of Burgred to Aelthelswith, daughter of Ethelwulf. In 868 the Mercian king appealed to Ethelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred the Great for assistance against the Danes, who were in possession of Nottingham. The armies of Wessex and Mercia did no serious fighting, and the Danes were allowed to remain through the winter. In 874 the march of the Danes from Lindsey to Repton drove Burgred from his kingdom.^[1] They appointed a Mercian ealdorman Ceolwulf to replace him, demanding oaths of loyalty to the Danes.^[2] Burgred retired to Rome and died there. He was buried, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "in the church of Sancta Maria, in the school of the English nation" in Rome.

Burgred is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the years 852, 853, 868, and 874.

Coins from the reign of Burgred — all bearing the spelling Burgred — have been found in several hoards. In December, 2003, silver coins from the reign of King Burgred were found at a site in Yorkshire, which may be the first actual Viking ship burial in England proper.