The Legacy of Eadmund: An East Anglian AAR

[Koweth]

I. ORIGINS​

​

---

Supposedly, the roots of the East Anglian Dynasty originate in the popular revolt against the Mercian King Beornwulf, led by the first of the dynasty - Æthelstan. Despite this claim, the heritage of later monarchs, such as King Eadmund is unknown, and can only be assumed to be descendants of Æthelstan. Little is recorded of this tumultuous time in the history of the East Angles, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides a scarce mention of an East Anglian King who sought an alliance with the victorious Ecgberht of Wessex, and within the year of 823, Beornwulf of Mercia was slain. The same fate befell that of Beornwulf’s successor, Ludeca – presumably by the very same Æthelstan in 825.

Map of the Mercian Supremacy, c. 716 – c. 825​

The Mercians could no longer contest Æthelstan’s rebellion, with Ludeca’s successor – Wiglaf – fleeing after being defeated by King Ecgberht, who then conquered the Mercian realm in 827. While Wiglaf had restored his throne the following year, there remains no mention of him pursuing a conquest of East Anglia. Upon Æthelstan’s death, his successor, Æthelweard – scarcely mentioned in documentation – ascended to the East Anglian throne. Due to the devastation wrought by the Great Heathen Army’s invasion of the Kingdom, much history is lost on East Anglian Kings prior to 870. It is known, however, that Æthelweard had passed away sometime in 854, which Eadmund had succeeded to the throne of in December of that year.

​

​

Coinage of King Æthelstan of the East Angles, c. 823 (?) – c. 845​

​

 

[Koweth]

II. KING EADMUND OF THE EAST ANGLES, PART ONE​

​

Eadmund, King of the East Angles
​

While scarce information is known about the invasion itself, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has this entry:

“A.D 867. This year the army rode over Mercia into East-Anglia, and there fixed their winter-quarters at Thetford. And in the spring King Eadmund fought with them, in which the East-Angles gained the victory; but at great cost, as the Danes had slew his brother. The name of his brother was Osweald…”

More light is shed on the ensuing conflict, with the Chronicle mentioning four battles of comparable importance occurring in East Anglia and the surrounding Fenlands as far as Mercia, with significant monarchs, notably Ælfred the Great of Wessex and Burghred of Mercia, both pledging fyrds to East Anglia’s defence.

Page of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle​

East Anglia, thanks to the efforts of Eadmund’s strategic prowess, and his powerful, but short-time West Saxon allies, was spared from the Great Heathen Army’s conquest. However, the land was ravaged. With monasteries burned and villages pillaged, much of East Anglia’s tumultuous 9th-century history was lost. While East Anglia may have been successful in the defence of their realm, the same cannot be said for those north of the River Nene. The East Angles had only defeated a contingent of the Pagan onslaught, notably the armies led by the mythical Ivar ‘the Boneless.’ Mercia, particularly, had borne the brunt of the Great Heathen Army, and in their defeat, lost much of their eastern lands to the Danes. This land came to be known as the ‘Five Boroughs,’ consisting of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford respectively. The Mercians would never see these lands returned as an independent kingdom.

The victories against the Great Heathen Army granted little but a short amount of reprieve from the Norse onslaught. Far outnumbered by the victorious northern army of the Danes, Eadmund had sent his firstborn son, the 1-month-old Æthelric to be a hostage of the Norse King of Northumbria, Halfdan Ragnarsson in late-September of 871.

While such unfortunate circumstances presented themselves to the King of the East Angles, progress was made in affirming a more long-term relationship with the West Saxons. Eadmund’s trusted diplomatic adviser, Beorhtric, had created a more amicable environment between the two monarchies, with both Ælfred and Eadmund convening in Winchester to forge a more unified front against repeated Northmen invasions. A little over a week later, Eadmund had pledged his nephew’s – the late Osweald’s son – future education in Ælfred’s hands. In the following nine months, a firm alliance was established between the West Saxons and the Angles, with the joint Anglo-Saxon (aha!) victory against the Norse raid of Colchester in September of 872, and the subsequent betrothal of Eadmund’s second son, Beorn, and Ælfred’s daughter, Osburh in November affirming the practicality of such an alliance.

While providing Æthelric as a hostage to the Northmen may have achieved short-term goals of peace, it proved more troublesome to Eadmund by 873. As long as King Ragnarsson held his son hostage, he had all the cards. Any declaration of war – even to support his West Saxon allies – would result in a swift execution for the young Ætheling. When a call to arms was given to Eadmund by Ælfred in early-January of 875, in defence of southern England against the Northmen, Eadmund chose to sacrifice his son in favour of the alliance with Wessex. Expectedly, Æthelric was executed by Ragnarsson’s men six months before his fourth birthday.

On the eve of August, 875, Halfdan’s armies had sailed from Grimsby and made landfall in Bracklesham Bay, southwest of Chichester with 4,300 men at his command. This outnumbered Ælfred’s army by little over 1,000. While Eadmund’s own force consisted of roughly 1,250 men – this did not tip the scales by a significant margin – as Ragnarsson had negotiated an alliance with his brother and Swedish King, Björn Ironside. Ironside had command of roughly 5,000 men – and his arrival into the war caused an enormous tipping of the scales. While record of the Battle of Southwark is scarcely found – largely due to the destruction of many monasteries and villages in Wessex – it is nonetheless, a significant turning point in the war for England. From what is understood, the West Saxons suffered a great defeat at the hands of a hodgepodge of Polish mercenaries and Swedish warbands – all led by Björn Ironside.

Such a defeat prevented King Ælfred from relieving the siege of Winchester, with the city and the surrounding shire ravaged by pillaging Northmen and Polish mercenaries. The outcome of the siege being that Eadmund’s second son, Beorn, was captured during the sacking of the city. After the defeat at Southwark, Ælfred was forced to move his seat of government to Wareham for the remainder of his reign. Eadmund, instead of reinforcing his ally’s efforts to retake Winchester, had instead opted to strike the heartland of the Danes’ rule, and marched his armies through Stamford and Lincoln – employing a highly successful strategy of Chevauchée – whereupon he besieged York in July of 875. The siege lasted the duration of the year-long war, with the city captured 2 days before peace was agreed upon by both Ælfred and the Loðbrók brothers.

The defeat in Hampshire represented the momentum that the Great Heathen Army still carried with them, with small respite granted to the remaining independent realms. Eadmund, in particular, in the immediate aftermath of the war, began to prepare his armies to rebuff any future incursions into his Kingdom. In 878, Eadmund had issued a royal charter granting funds to develop Ipswich’s ports. However, this was rescinded in 880 in order to expand and reorganise his fyrd.

In early-May of 878, Eadmund’s third son, Beornwulf, was born, with his sister, Æthelflæd, born two years later. In this time, logistical matters were delegated to Eadmund’s trusted adviser, Beorhtric, Reeve of Sudbury – with the King lacking the patience to learn logistical matters himself.

In 881, after four years of relative peace, the calm of England swiftly erupted once more into violence. However, in this instance, it was not the Northmen who were the aggressors. Instead, the East Angles had come for vengeance. On the 20th of May, the West Saxons had pledged their forces to rebuff the Viking invaders. On the 23rd of May, Duke Otto of Saxony had heeded Eadmund’s call to war. Combined, Eadmund’s coalition of Anglo-Saxons and Germans had 5,700 men under their command. While impressive, this was, regardless, still dwarfed by the 9,000 men under both Halfdan and Ironside. The silver lining of the war, being Ironside's armies – consisting of roughly 70% of the Northmen’s total strength – needed to travel from Scandinavia to aid in Halfdan’s defence. Additionally, while officially part of the war, the Swedish already had military commitments in Finland during the same period. In this time, the joint Anglo-German armies won five important battles against the Great Heathen Army.

The Battle of Hertford, the largest and most important engagement, ended in an Anglo-German victory. Being the most notable battle of the war, it is described in great detail by scholars. Outnumbered 2:1, Halfdan’s army was intercepted in their march to Wessex. Having no cavalry of his own, Saxon mounts barreled downhill into their bowmen, causing a rout behind Halfdan’s forces. While his own infantry was engaged in fighting the Anglo-Saxon spear front, Eadmund’s Huscarls flanked Halfdan’s forces, causing an encirclement and subsequent slaughter of the Northmen. Out of the 3,000 Viking warriors entering the Battle of Hertford, only 400 escaped.

The four other battles, being the battles of Walsingham, Northampton, Blything and Radfield, all ended in an Anglo-German victory. The success of Eadmund and his allies had been unheard of since the defence of East Anglia in 869. However, this success had come to an end as swiftly as it began. In 883, Björn Ironside’s armies landed near York, consisting of the 5,000 men he had promised his brother. Marching south with Halfdan, this colossal force of Northmen came to be known as the ‘Great Summer Army,’ reinforcing the existing presence of the Danes in England. In late-August of 883, the Battle of Lincoln commenced. Ælfred and Eadmund’s armies were alone, with the Saxons departing for Germany to aid their liege in a Polabian invasion.

3,000 Anglo-Saxons, primarily under the command of Eadmund, met 7,000 Norse warriors in the fields outside Lincoln. Recently taking command of the settlement three days earlier, the Anglo-Saxon armies were caught off-guard by the incoming Viking force. Bloody fighting ensued, with the two Kings refusing to capitulate their gains in Danish Mercia. After a week of intense, intermittent fighting, the four Kings met out on the fields to draft a peace treaty for the war, ending the conflict on the 23rd of August, 883. The gains the Great Heathen Army had made in the 870s remained unchanged, but the war had significantly hampered any progress they may have made into East Anglia and Wessex, with a truce agreed upon for the time being.

Aftermath of Eadmund's War (881–883)​

In 885, Ælfred of Wessex had negotiated an agreement with the Danes by the name of ‘the Treaty of Ælfred and Halfdan.’ This, among peaceful trade agreements and an establishment of an indiscriminate Weregild (‘Man-Price’) of both a Dane and Saxon, had determined the borders of Wessex and the ‘Danelaw,’ a catch-all term for the amalgamation of all Norse territories in England, and legitimising their claims to both Mercia and much land north of the Rivers Avon and Nene. Effectively, Ælfred had made himself King of all independent Anglo-Saxons. The following year, he had styled himself as such.

While this officialised Eadmund’s realm as de jure under the rule of Ælfred, Eadmund refused to acknowledge the existence of this treaty. While this had the foreseen consequence of the souring of relations between the West Saxons and East Angles, they had to – regardless of their feelings for one another – work together out of necessity. In November of 886, the King of Mercia, Burghred, had lost most of his realm to the famed Hæsteinn of Montaigu, his realm now officially only covering Bedfordshire – a far cry from what he inherited in 852.

In late-November of 886, there is evidence present that Eadmund had become the Overlord of the Mercian monarchy in Bedford, appointing a High Reeve of the shire in December of the same year. In February, King Burghred had disappeared, and Eadmund had officially become the Ealdorman of Bedford in February of 888. In June of that year, Hæsteinn of Montaigu declared himself King of Mercia, controlling the Northern and Western parts of the realm.

In July of 889, Halfdan of Northumbria raided and sacked Cambridge, taking gold and thralls from the King of the East Angles. This may have occurred as a result of the treaty officialising the Danelaw, as East Anglia was the last independent Anglo-Saxon monarchy, bowing to neither Wessex nor the Danelaw. Immortalised by the scribes of his court, Eadmund had vowed that this slight will not be left unavenged.

 

[Koweth]

III. KING EADMUND OF THE EAST ANGLES, PART TWO​

The Former Five Fortified Boroughs of Eastern Mercia, c. A.D 1005
​

This battle is notably recorded by Eadmund himself, dubbed, ‘The Battle of the Fens.’ Recorded in meticulous detail, the King describes the environment of the great marsh, commenting on the spread of disease, and how his army’s mounts sank into the fens, which at this moment was flooded with water.

Eadmund writes as such:

“...The Great Fens surrounding Ely proved treacherous, a seemingly boundless expanse of waterlogged terrain that swallowed the hooves of our mounts. The very earth beneath us yielded not, and the Fenlands became an unwitting ally to the invading Norsemen.

As I, King Eadmund, led my forces into the mire, the air was heavy with the stench of decay. The battles at Ely years prior had provided the surrounding fens with a rotting, foul smell, attacking the senses from all directions. The putrid waters harboured the spread of pestilence, casting a pall of affliction upon both friend and foe alike. Disease festered like a dark omen, claiming the lives of devout Christians and sowing discord within our ranks.”

– Eadmund’s ‘Battle of the Fens,’ written c. 895

The Fenlands, unable to support significant weight, had Saxon mounts sink and ultimately drown, with Eadmund referring to his army’s horses as “...hapless victims of the marsh's grasp…” The positive outcome being that the Norsemen could no longer use their cavalry, either. For much of the Great Heathen Army’s conquest, they had used speed to their advantage, with their armies’ mounts able to outrun any significant fyrd on the hunt for their very heads. In the Fens however, they had no such advantage.

Modern Depiction of the Ely Water Meadows
​

The battle quickly devolved into barbaric violence. While Eadmund’s joint army of Saxons and East Angles held the numbers advantage, outnumbering Hæsteinn’s 2,800 strong force by almost two thousand, it meant little, as much of his fyrd struggled to move in the difficult terrain. The battle was scarcely won by the Anglo-Saxons, with a desperate counterattack by Eadmund’s Household Retainers, led by his most trusted thegns routing the Norsemen, and wounding Hæsteinn himself.

The Battle of the Fens, while ultimately a defeat for Hæsteinn, was a pyrrhic victory for the Anglo-Saxons. Eadmund’s armies had suffered comparable casualties to the Northmen while outnumbering their army 2:1.

​

Regardless of the outcome, Eadmund sacked Huntingdon in 891, proceeding to Northampton in October of that year. The year-long siege of the settlement ended in its capture, and a sue for peace was called for by Hæsteinn. By the end of the war, Eadmund had successfully conquered Huntingdonshire. While successful, the war had plunged his realm into debt, with the King paying off unrelated Viking raiders on the 28th, preventing a sacking of Cambridge. In the aftermath of the war, Eadmund had appointed his son, Beorn, as the Ealdorman of Huntingdon.

On the 17th of May of 892, according to the 9th-century East Anglian Bishop Ceadda, Eadmund and Halfdan had decided to settle their rivalry in a duel. In the Wildmore Fens they had both met, with the fight being ‘til first blood.’ Ceadda, being the Bishop of the East Anglian King, claimed that Eadmund was the superior warrior, with the Bishop ludicrously exclaiming that Halfdan had begged for the fight to end in exchange for the entire old Kingdom of Lindsey. While the latter claim is of dubious accuracy, it may have been true, that by 892, Eadmund was the superior fighter. With the King being 12 years Halfdan’s junior. Halfdan’s subordinates, in early-April, had described him as infirm.

Less than 2 months after his duel with Eadmund, Halfdan ‘Whiteshirt’ had passed away – his physician describing the various battle wounds on his face and chest that were left untreated. It must be known, however, that his Physician, by the name of Hafriðr, found common goals in Eadmund’s desire for vengeance, writing letters to the King of the East Angles, calling Halfdan a “contemptible excuse for a man.” His successor, Haukr, was left to continue the Danelaw’s legacy.

​

Halfdan’s passing had serious consequences for the future of the Danelaw, chief among them being his sons’ inheritance. The Northumbrian King had five sons, all of which sought an equal division of their father's property. While issues regarding inheritance were peacefully resolved, this, regardless of any satisfactory division, contributed to the fracturing of one of the most powerful Norse kingdoms in England.

This splintering of Halfdan’s personal demesne had greatly reduced the economic and military significance of the Danelaw, as the King’s sub-tenants now possessed a greater portion of the realm’s wealth and levies (leiðangr?). The election of King Haukr – Halfdan’s fifth son – to the throne of York also caused issues. Haukr, unlike his father, had no significant political connections in Europe. With no powerful allies supporting his claim to the throne, the young monarch was quickly taken advantage of by vassal and brother alike.

Eadmund had returned from a tourney in Paris by April of 894. Motivated by the splintering of the Norse kingdoms, he had opted for war at some point in December of the same year. Joined by his West Saxon allies, Ælfred’s army would travel through Western Mercia to besiege Chester, Haukr’s personal demesne. Eadmund, on the other hand, would make his way through the eastern coast of England, raiding Deiran lands to deprive the Norsemen of precious manpower and food.

By January of 895, Haukr had raised an army of approximately 1,800 men to combat the joint Anglo-Saxon invasion. In late-January, Ælfred had met Haukr’s forces outside of Coventry, whereupon Haukr had suffered a great loss. Once more, little is recorded of the Battle of Coventry, with contemporary English sources only commenting on the great victory the West Saxons had gained over the opposing heathen army. What is known, however, is that the Battle of Coventry had allowed both Ælfred and Eadmund to invade Northumbria unopposed from that point onward, with the East Anglians capturing both Stamford and Lincoln by late-June.

Mercia & Northern England, 28th of June 895
​

A Viking raid of Cambridge had drawn the East Angles and West Saxons away from the war by June – but this had not diminished any gains they had made that year – with the Northumbrian King forced to fight his nephew, the Jarl of York with only his most trusted retinue.

By early-March of 896, the West Saxons had reached Leeds. As civil war tore the Danelaw apart, the Anglo-Saxons had seized much of their realm, with considerable destruction following in their wake. Four days later, Haukr had pleaded for peace. In the following treaty, Eadmund had gained two of the Five Boroughs conquered by the Danes in their invasion of Mercia almost thirty years prior. The repossession of Lindsey by the Anglo-Saxons had significantly weakened the position of the Norse in England, with only the Humber separating the East Angles from capturing vital settlements in Deira – York being chief among them.

​

The Anglo-Saxons did not wish to give the Norsemen a moment of reprieve. By May of 897, Eadmund had declared war on Norse Mercia, with the intent of capturing Northampton and reclaiming the shire which surrounded the borough. The war was swift – with only two recorded battles occurring in England – with one of them left unnamed. The battle of Northampton, occurring on the 22nd of September, saw an entire Frisian army – allies of Hæsteinn – destroyed, with its commander captured and much of the army destroyed. The war had ended soon after on the 29th, with the ensuing treaty granting the East Angles control of Northamptonshire.

The British Isles, 29th of September 897
​

While this was a resounding victory for the Anglo-Saxons, the East Angles, particularly, had lost much of their nobility in the preceding conflicts. Personal friends of Eadmund, including trusted members of the Witan had lost their lives in notable battles such as Northampton. Most importantly, the preferred heir to the throne, Beorn, succumbed to his wounds on the 2nd of February, 898. Following his passing, Eadmund’s second son, Beornwulf, was chosen by the Witenagemot to be his successor.

​

Southern England had finally known peace, after near-constant conflict for almost three decades – three fifths of Eadmund’s reign. During this time, only two raids occurred in lands under the occupation of the East Angles; one, occurring in May of 898 by a collection of disorganised warbands, with a battle won against them under the command of Eadmund, and the second occurring between January and April of 901. The second period of raids in 901 were much more organised, and had more men than the fyrds of the East Angles. They had sacked Cambridge with 2,600 men in late-January, proceeding to Ely in March and raiding the Abbey which stood there.

During the same time, a second force of Vikings had landed in Norwich, with the East Angles – under the command of Ulf of Huntingdon – winning the battle, driving them to the sea. Ulf, Ealdorman of Huntingdon (title granted posthumously in 902) was a significant name cited by scholars of the period, being a notable military commander under Eadmund, then his successor between 899 and 908. Ulf had been captured at the Battle of Northampton, soon Christianised and Anglicised, who proceeded to fight faithfully in defence of the realm.

Eadmund’s health had been deteriorating during this time. Being 61 years of age, his health was understandably sub-par. After collapsing multiple times at a feast held in Dunwich, Eadmund had been consigned to his bedchambers by the 16th of November, slowly losing control of his faculties.

​

Little over a month later, Eadmund had suffered a heart attack in his sleep and passed away, leaving the realm to his son, Beornwulf, Ealdorman of Bedford to inherit. While not groomed to rule, Beornwulf had a duty to serve his realm, taking on the mantle of King of the East Angles.

Europe One Year after the End of King Eadmund's Reign, c. 902​

 

[Koweth]

IV. BEORNWULF, HAMMER OF THE DANES
Beornwulf, King of the East Angles
​

Beornwulf was a devout Christian. Being tutored in the court of Wessex, It is claimed by West Saxon Bishop and Historian Æthelhard that the boy, in his youth, had taken a particular interest into the sermons and teachings of the Church, and had aimed to guide the young Ætheling into God’s embrace.

Upon Eadmund’s passing in the Winter of 901, Beornwulf was crowned King of the East Angles on the 25th of December. While the young monarch had the support of his vassals, the same cannot be said for his clergymen. Bishop Swithelm of Dommoc vehemently opposed Beornwulf’s ascension to the throne, taking personal offence to his coronation on Christmas Day. It is scarcely understood why these two men detested one another, with little knowledge of Swithelm himself being the biggest hurdle in the struggle for the pursuit of knowledge. What is known, however, is that the Bishop had taken to referring to the King as an agent of Satan in his sermons, determined to destroy the realm and gift it to the godless pagans of the North.​

On the 22nd of November, 902, Swithelm was executed by Beornwulf on the grounds of treason. This was controversial among many in the realm, as the verdict was handled and issued by the Witan, and not a religious court. While this had stirred much debate regarding the rights and privileges of the clergy – and many expressed agreement in Swithelm’s claims about the young King – there were little repercussions for the execution of the Bishop, with there being no official response from Pope Adrian II about such a decision.

There remains little surviving evidence of Swithelm’s execution. During this period, a series of Viking raids occurred in East Anglia, being the most likely culprit for the destruction of key documentation regarding Swithelm’s existence. However, it is not unlikely that Beornwulf and his Witan had taken this opportunity to destroy any documentation the Church had on such a controversial event. In chronicles, Swithelm’s execution is undermined by Ulf and Beornwulf’s victory at the Battle of the Shrieking Pits in July of 902, with the Viking’s defeat assumed to have restored the common folk’s trust in the King.

During this same period, the political landscape in England was changing. The Norse King of Mercia, Hæsteinn, had passed away in July of 901, with the future of the realm mirroring that of their northern brethren. Hæsteinn’s first son, Ragnarr, had managed to convince Mercia’s Thing to declare him King on the 31st of August, 901, outplaying his brothers Húnþjófr and Starkaðr. His marriage with Iliana of Frisia had granted the grizzled monarch a loose alliance with King Högni.​

King Ragnarr 'One-Eye' of Mercia​

Anglo-Saxon historian and monk Hildræd writes as such:

“This alliance, sealed by the marriage of Ragnar to Iliana, Hogni's daughter, emerged as the very fulcrum that cradled the Heathens of Mercia amidst the swirling tempest of chaos. Far beyond a mere dalliance of hearts, this union transcended romantic entanglement, standing as a meticulously calculated stratagem to fortify the realm against the spectres of internal and external adversaries, a shield forged in the crucible of shrewd diplomacy...”

– Hildræd’s ‘A History of Mercia and its People,’ written c. 1045

Ælfred of Wessex had also passed in November of 903, slain by bandits while travelling through Normandy. His first son and successor, Ælfred the Younger, had a different approach to foreign relations. While he shared the same desire as his father – uniting the Heptarchy under one crown – Ælfred, in contrast to his father, openly declared his ambitions. While the West Saxon King supposedly preferred to unite the crowns of the south peacefully, and even offered generous tax and fyrd exemptions, he was still invariably denied by Beornwulf.​

King Ælfred ‘the Younger’ of Wessex​

It is unknown what Ælfred’s plans were for the incorporation of East Anglia, but it is not impossible that he would invade the realm of the East Angles to realise his ambitions. This openness of his desire, much unlike his father, had strained the two Kingdom’s relations. For much of the early 9th-century, There was a distinct lack of cooperation between East Anglia and Wessex, possibly due to the intentions of the West Saxons.

As a result, East Anglia marched to war against the Danes alone in early-January of 905, with designs on the borough of Leicester. Following the successful capture of the settlement, Beornwulf fought at Kettering against a weakened Northumbrian army. Years of civil war and indecision on who would lead the Norse kingdoms had shattered the once-powerful image of the Danes, the Battle at Kettering a glaring example of their decline. While this was an effortless victory for the East Angles, it is said that this was the battle which cost Beornwulf his left leg.

Myths describe a Dane by the name of Þorfinn who severed Beornwulf’s leg clean off his body, slicing through his horse’s flanks. It is told that the East Anglian King was only saved from death by three of his Thegns – the amount of warriors required to bring down a man of such legendary strength.​

Following the Battle of Kettering, the East Angles were able to capture much of the eastern coast uninterrupted, with a small skirmish fought between Beornwulf’s force of 1,000 men, and the Jarl of York’s force of eight hundred. A decisive factor in the war was a third party – Norse Mercia, under the leadership of Ragnarr – had decided to take advantage of Northumbria’s dire situation. Under the command of the Jarl of Derby, Húnþjófr, Mercian leiðangr had taken to ravaging the western coast of Northumbria, successfully capturing Haukr’s residence in Kendal, stripping the land’s surroundings of its wealth.

Perhaps understanding the futility of his situation, Haukr had sued for peace in October of 906, with Beornwulf reclaiming Leicester for the Anglo-Saxons. By the winter of 907, Ragnarr had become Overlord of the Northumbrian realm, with Haukr serving as a mere puppet of the Mercian King’s will. It must not be mistaken, however, that this had restored the influence of the Danes in England. East Anglia, with their Saxon allies, outnumbered both Mercia and Northumbria’s levies by a ratio of almost 2:1, and it can be argued that Mercia’s overlordship of Northumbria had further diminished the strength of the Norse realms through conflict.​

The British Isles in the Winter of A.D 907​

 

[Koweth]

V. BEORNWULF, LORD OF THE EAST ANGLES​

Arnd, Duke of Saxony
​

The East Angles, by 908, had common interests with the Saxons of Germany. Not only were the two dynasties blood-related – with the Duke of Saxony being Beornwulf’s cousin – the two realms both sought external security. As the Carolingians’ dynastic feud engulfed central and western Europe, East Francia, particularly, had lost much in the wars which had consumed the Carolingian successor states.​

Central Europe, c. 914​

What the East Franks had been left with, by the early-10th century, were remnants of the Duchy of Saxony. This was, for the Saxons, undesirable, as the East Frankish King had to consistently rely on the Liudolfings’ support for the defence of the realm.

While the Saxons’ support for the East Angles became less official following Eadmund’s passing, this had changed in late-907 with Beornwulf and his wife, Glismod’s familial visit to Minden in October. There, the embers of alliance were reignited as a result of both common interest and a duty to one’s kin. In the spring of 908, the strength of the bonds holding this alliance together were tested as the Saxons waged war on the Wends for lands east of the Elbe.

Little is understood of the East Angles’ contribution in the first of many wars the Saxons waged against the Wends during the 10th century, but it is known that Beornwulf had committed a sizable force in support of this conflict – with knowledge of the first, and supposedly, only battle fought by the East Angles in eastern Germany recorded in a tome written by Beornwulf himself. The book, much like his father’s recording of the Battle of the Fens, describes the strategy involved, and the composition of Beornwulf and his opponent, a King Patryk of the Wends’ army at his defeat sometime in the winter months.​

Unfortunately, much of the knowledge the book held was lost in 942, as an invading force of Northmen sacked Dunwich. While a great deal of the book’s contents were burned, the little that remains comments on Beornwulf’s own overconfidence, and the amount of Wends which befell his own forces outside of Halberstadt in the Winter months. The King, Beornwulf, was wounded in this battle, whereupon he made his return to East Anglia in June of 909.

Upon his return, he had arranged a marriage between his only child, Wulfgyth, and Aimery of Poitiers, the half-brother of Duke Ramnulf of Aquitaine, and a subsequent negotiation of mutual military support between the two realms.

This diplomatic victory for the realm was short-lived, as tragedy struck the royal household the following year. Beornwulf’s wife – Glismod – had died in childbirth, and the babe a stillborn.​

An air of melancholy surrounded the palace in the following months, only interrupted by the King’s hastily organised marriage to Æthelthryth of Kent in April of the same year. Beornwulf’s second marriage was, according to Bishop and friend of the King, Stawell, “...loveless, and out of convenience.” As quickly as the embers of Beornwulf’s Saxon alliance had been rekindled, it was snuffed out in an instant. The death of Glismod – the Saxon Duke’s sister – had created a distance between the two realms which neither wanted to cross.

Despite the tragedy, the East Angles had defeated a Viking raid on Elmham in September, recovering much of their plunder from the Cathedral. While the affiliation of the Viking warband is unknown, this had encouraged Beornwulf to wage war on the Northmen of Mercia and Northumbria.

While the Viking raid on Elmham Cathedral may have been a scapegoat for a reclamation of the borough of Nottingham, it was a strategic move to fight the Danes at this very moment. With the West Saxons’ capture of Worcester and Hereford sometime during the Saxons’ war with the Wends, the Danes were in complete disarray, as Haukr attempted to unshackle himself from Mercian overlordship. This had begun a conflict which had shattered the organisation of the two realms, as banditry and lawlessness ran rampant in Northumbria and western Mercia – spurring on more ambitious vassals to declare outright independence from the two crowns.​

England in the Summer of 912​

Beornwulf, alongside his Aquitanian allies, had captured Nottingham in late-April, with the momentum carrying the two armies to capture Warwick and Stafford in the Winter of 913 with little resistance. There, they made their winter quarters, besieging Chester, the residence of Haukr in the Summer – with Haukr suing for peace in October of the same year. The following month, Beornwulf had appointed a High Reeve of Nottingham to manage his new conquests.

While this was a resounding victory for the East Angles, the West Saxons’ jealousy grew by each year’s passing. Ælfred was desperate for more glory – to live up to his father’s name – and while his conquests in western Mercia had proven himself as an effective leader, the East Angles had made significantly more progress in reconquering the lost kingdoms of the heptarchy. Even with Aquitaine as Beornwulf’s ally, Wessex alone could field more men, and fight in sustained conflict much longer than any army fielded by the East Angles.

By the Spring of 914, West Saxon sources had begun describing Beornwulf not as ‘King of the East Angles,’ but as ‘Lord of the East Angles.’ This shift in recognition from independent ruler to vassal marks the loss of East Anglia’s independence, either under the domination of Wessex, or becoming a vassal of Wessex outright. It is mentioned, however, that Beornwulf was exempt from contributing much to the fyrd and was given many tax breaks from Ælfred, attested by numerous sources in the early-to-mid 10th century.​

 

[Koweth]

VI. THE LORD OF THE NORTH, PART ONE​

​

Beornwulf, King/Lord of the East Angles (depends on who you ask, really)


​

The following month, similar events transpired, as Beornwulf accepted a pledge of fealty from an independent Ealdorman named Ælfmær – who had come to rule a third, or þriðing of York, alongside southern Cumbria. The young Ealdorman had come to possess these lands as a result of a popular uprising against Húnþjófr, brother of King Ragnarr of Mercia. Ælfmær, much like his new liege, had managed to receive a more than favourable outcome in his submission, with charters describing his special privileges regarding tax collection, receiving a third more of the income collected than what was typical of the time.

During this period, Beornwulf became responsible for the handling of funds from the royal treasury in Winchester. It seems that his role as a proto-treasurer was merely ceremonial in practice, as his duties were informally delegated to a number of more skilled individuals under the watchful eye of Ælfred.​

Two months following the calm of Spring, Beornwulf had begun to dedicate more resources towards the conquest of Northumbria. Derby, once a possession of the very same Húnþjófr, had lost the borough in a wave of revolts against his rule during Northumbria’s wars against Mercia – with a prominent merchant by the name of Guret installed as the town’s new High-Reeve. Beornwulf had taken the opportunity to muster a force of 1,300 men to seize the borough. Under the command of the promising Ælfmær, the army had slaughtered a group of 150 peasants who attempted to resist the settlement’s seizure with farming equipment. Among these numbers, the Reeve Guret was apprehended, fragmenting any organised resistance to Derby’s capture – incorporating the town into the realm of the East Angles. A new High-Reeve of the settlement was appointed by Ælfred in mid-July.

A similar situation occurred in York, as the populist revolt, installing a new ruler in the town was quickly captured and the settlement incorporated into the burgeoning realm. Northern England, at this point in time, was considered ungovernable, with the only semblance of order being within the boroughs themselves. This was a result of two decades of uninterrupted conflict between the Danes, the Northumbrians and the native Britons of the far north.​

Level of Control in England, c. 915. Purple = No Control, Yellow = Middling Control, Grey = Total Control, White = Absolute Control​

As the Anglo-Saxons were celebrating their victories in their generational struggle between themselves and the Danes, tragedy had once more struck the ailing Norse kingdoms of England. Upon King Haukr’s death in 915, he was succeeded by his nephew, Refill ‘Foul-Fart’ of York. While the new monarch was young – less than 31 years of age – his life had been plagued by health complications. Not only was Refill obese, but he had been diagnosed with Tuberculosis two years prior. He had died two months into his reign, leaving his 2-year-old nephew – Skjöldur – as the new Northumbrian monarch.

Many were left dissatisfied with the boy’s ascension to the throne – the fact Skjöldur was a toddler was the main issue many had with his ascension, believing that a child was unable to protect their land from Anglo-Saxon invasion. Their worst fears were realised in September of 916, as Beornwulf had opted to capture a vital Mercian settlement in retaliation for a Norse raid on Derby’s outskirts. Warwick had become an important centre of control for the Northmen since 901, as the late King Ragnarr had fortified the settlement to compensate for Eadmund’s capture of Lincoln and Stamford in the 890s. The boy’s regent – whose name has disappeared from the historical record – was supposedly the Jarl of Warwick during Skjöldur’s brief reign, and the king was kept within the borough’s walls until the town’s capture in September.

While Skjöldur’s ransom has been left unspecified, it was undoubtedly considerable, as the terms of the toddler-king’s safe return had caused much of the nobility to instead favour the boy’s cousin – the 23-year-old Sigriðr of Chester. In opposition to the toddler-king in Warwick, Sigriðr had been crowned Queen of Northumbria in Chester during the Spring of 917. This was unacceptable for many of Skjöldur’s supporters in Western Mercia, triggering a conflict between the Mercian and Northumbrian Danes.​

Southern England and the Midlands, A.D 917​

The politics of the West Saxons seemed to have taken a similar route. An intense rivalry had formed between King Ælfred and his younger brother, Ealdorman Petre of Kent. While the reason for this brotherly hatred is not fully understood, a more accepted theory for their mutual detestation is jealousy – as Petre desired the throne more than any other son of Ælfred the Great. While Petre had little support from of his peers, with the King’s gathering of the Witan presenting such a notion to the Ealdorman, he had declared Ælfred unfit to rule the kingdom in August of 916, raising an army of 2,000 men to capture the monarch and install himself on the throne. Similarly, Ælfred had raised an army of roughly 3-4,000 men in preparation for the conflict ahead. While the King had more bodies to throw at his brother, Petre had quality. In addition to his fyrd, the Ealdorman had bought the support of Norse mercenaries from nearby Calais – recently conquered by Hákon Fairhair in 915.

As the two brothers’ forces met in Ashdown in late-October of 916, Beornwulf – with his recently raised fyrd – sat a mere 4 days’ march in Warwick from the battlefield. As brutal fighting ensued between West Saxon and Kentish armies for close to a fortnight, the Lord of the East Angles had come to decide the fate of the battle. As fighting continued in the morning, 1,300 men of East Anglia pierced through the forests of Berkshire – which had caught Petre’s army off-guard – decisively winning the battle for his over-king.​

Ælfgar of Mercia, maimed after a battle in 932​

A further two battles occurred during Petre’s Revolt, both victories for Ælfred with the assistance of Beornwulf. The King’s brother was captured outside of Lewes on the 22nd of February, 918, with the revolt officially ending on the 27th. For his assistance, Ælfred had awarded the Ealdormanry of Mercia to Beornwulf in early-March. This was unexpected by much of the King’s nobility, as the son of Burghred – the last Mercian King – was alive, and had relinquished his title as King of the Mercians to Ælfred for protection. For Ælfgar, the late Burghred’s son, this was an affront to his ancestors’ prestige. Not only had Eadmund and his children forced his family’s exile from Bedford, but had lost Ælfgar his chance to restore the Mercian kingdom from his seat in Hereford.​

Eormenred ‘the Just’ of the Anglo-Saxons​

On the 11th of March, 918, King Ælfred had passed away at the age of 50. The Witenagemot had chosen to elect Ælfred’s oldest living son – Eormenred – as the new monarch. In late-June, Beornwulf had met the new King in Bath to reaffirm his submission to the West Saxons, and throughout the year, had assumed more military responsibilities in Eormenred’s stead. It’s quite possible that Eormenred’s delegation of his own duties had played into his sub-king’s advantage, as Beornwulf’s grasp on England’s military apparatus had allowed him to effectively wage war on a recovering Norse kingdom in October.

The toddler-king of Northumbria had been deposed after a swift internal conflict amongst the Danes in 917, and Sigriðr, granddaughter of Halfdan Ragnarsson, had become monarch of both Northumbria and Mercia. Militarily, the young Queen’s realm had recovered at an alarming rate, and while wholly unable to oppose the West Saxons – in terms of able-bodied men, had comparable strength to that of the East Angles. Beornwulf had gathered an army of 1,400 men to acquire the eastern riding of York, which was under the control of a Jarl in Pocklington. Sigríðr had possibly felt that a burden was placed on her to protect those to whom Beornwulf would provide no mercy. Under the leadership of a group of Jarls, her army of 1,300 marched in defence of Pocklington on the 27th of October.​

CORRECTION! Alfred, in this letter, is now known as Cerdic. Further explanation at the end of this chapter.​

During Beornwulf’s northern campaigning, he had scored a number of political victories in the home front – chief among them being his second daughter, Æthelræda’s marriage to Eormenred’s eldest son, Cerdic. Less significantly, in mid-April, the East Anglian Lord had been entrusted with the education of the King’s sister, Wulfhild. While for much of his reign, relations between East Anglia and Wessex had been quite chilled, this heralds a significant change in the relationship between the two families, restoring the cordiality the two realms once had prior to 885.

Alongside Beornwulf’s political moves in England, he had won two victories against a resurgent Northumbria in April and July of 919, with the Battle of Oakham being the most decisive. This victory caused the Northmen to cave and sue for peace. In August, to recognise the triumphs the Anglo-Saxons had achieved in northern England, Beornwulf hosted a feast in Luton, notably in his hegemon’s honour. While Ælfred the Younger had taken a hands-off approach regarding the governance of his sub-king, Eormenred’s reign heralded a period of understanding and cooperation with the East Angles.

Stawell, close friend and Bishop of Beornwulf, had begun to describe the West Saxon King with reverence and respect, maintaining a stance in his writings that the two Anglo-Saxon monarchs had formed an “...unbreakable bond…”

After securing victory in a tournament within the Norwegian kingdoms, Beornwulf returned with a desire to reclaim Bernicia and northern Cumbria from the Northmen. In the Spring of 922, the East Anglian Lord had opted for war against King Ketill of Sweden. This war was not without any support, as Eormenred had provided Beornwulf with the capital necessary to wage war against an opposing kingdom.

Following Beornwulf’s capture of Dunholme at some point in early-923, Ketill had met the Lord at Bretherdale Head, outside of Kendal, in March, engaging the East Angles in battle. While the Swedish had ultimately lost, it was not without great loss for Beornwulf, with comparable casualties on both sides. A second battle at Durham – alongside the wounding of the Swedish King in the fighting – had caused Ketill to sue for peace in October of 923. The series of victories Beornwulf had accrued against the Northmen during his lifetime were representative of the decline of the Scandinavian kingdoms in the 10th century, and the Battle of Durham was yet another example of the steady end of the Viking Age.​

 

[Koweth]

VII. THE LORD OF THE NORTH, PART TWO​

Beornwulf, King/Lord of the East Angles (it's complicated). Ealdorman of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia
​

An intense rivalry had formed between Ælfgar – son of the last Mercian King – and Beornwulf, who had become the most influential man in England both through his acquisition of Mercia and Northumbria, alongside his close personal relationship with the King of the Anglo-Saxons. Their mutual resentment of one another had resulted in the two duelling outside of Hereford on the 28th of September, 924.

Much like his father’s duel with the Norse king Halfdan, Beornwulf had significant advantages – notably in both age and ability. While the East Anglian lord lacked much of his left leg, the 46-year-old Beornwulf, according to the mythos surrounding the Ealdorman, showed remarkable prowess for a man deprived of his left knee joint. Ælfgar, too, had significant disabilities. While many sources do not describe in great detail as to what they were, it is said that the grizzled noble was hideous in appearance, but not from birth – as a battle forgotten by time had maimed his ageing body, and had taken both his nose and beauty. Beornwulf had defeated Ælfgar in single combat. While, assumedly, this would absolve any hatred the two shared for each other, this had only fuelled the rage bellowing beneath the two lords, triggering a blood-feud under the claim that the late-Mercian King Burghred had been murdered by Beornwulf’s father, Eadmund.

There is little evidence to substantiate Ælfgar’s claim that Eadmund had murdered his father, as the East Anglian King’s acquisition of Bedford – Eadmund’s second and last recorded encounter with Burghred – resulted in minimal violence, and a subsequent banishment from the town. It is unknown where the Mercian monarch was buried, but it is more likely the King died of natural causes than murder. Following Ælfgar’s announcement of a blood-feud, the ageing noble had fallen out of favour with King Eormenred, losing his position and was reduced to the far less prestigious status of Thegn. The reasoning behind Ælfgar’s demotion was likely two-fold; for the King to appease his influential northern friend, and reorganise the chaotic patchwork of nominally autonomous states which Eormenred had inherited in 918. While the implementation of more centralised forms of governance had occurred during the two Ælfred’s reigns between 885 and 918, this was in limited capacity as the West Saxon kings struggled to consolidate their power.

By 924, the Danelaw was crumbling under the weight of Anglo-Saxon reconquest. The Angles of Eastern and Northern England had granted little respite to Sigriðr’s rump-state in Chester, and Beornwulf sought to maintain the pressure. In late-December – with the support of his Hegemon in Bath – the Lord had managed to procure 2,300 men to conquer the Danes’ final stronghold in England. While the Norsemen had fortified much of present-day Lancashire – with significant settlement occurring in the sparsely-populated landscape of the shire – the prize was Chester. Somewhere between 925 and 926, Beornwulf had slaughtered a one-thousand strong Norse host at Stafford, wintering in the town during this time. The Lord besieged Chester in April, failing to overcome the town’s fortifications for four months until he was forced to abandon his siege.

Between September of 926 and the Spring of 932, a series of Norse invasions occurred throughout Central and Northern England. Ælfmær of Leeds – representative of Beornwulf – alongside King Eormenred, had marched north to Bernicia, where the Norse host of 8,000 under the leadership of Ubbe Egilsson – grandson of Ubbe Ragnarrson, first Jarl of Bamburgh – had occupied. While the Anglo-Saxons were gathering their strength, a Northman by the name of Kolbjörn had taken to raiding the Welsh countryside, and had even passed through Offa’s Dyke to ransack Mercia at some point between 927 and 932.

Ubbe had been narrowly defeated by Ælfmær with an army half the size of the Norse host in March of 928, however, Kolbjörn would only be dealt with by a coalition of Welsh and Anglo-Saxon armies at Small Heath in 932, with Beornwulf, Eormenred and Cydrych of Gwynedd defeating the Northmen in a remarkable event of solidarity between the Welsh and English.

Chester had once more become the primary target of the Anglo-Saxons, and in August of 932, the borough was once more besieged by Beornwulf. While the garrison of Danes had managed to construct additional fortifications during the Anglo-Saxons’ short period of woes, little prevented the East Angles from capturing the city in the Winter of 933. By this time, Sigriðr had already fled the city for Dublin, leaving any Heathens inside the city to be at the mercy of the infamously ruthless Beornwulf.

England, c. 934. Northumbria is Beornwulf’s primary in-game title for the remainder of his reign. He will still be referred to as an East Anglian Lord, same as his successor.​

By 933, the West Saxons had managed to use Beornwulf as a tool to realise their ambitions. With the subjugation of the East Angles, and their conquest of both Mercia and Northumbria, there was little opposition in southern England for Eormenred to declare himself King of the English on the 16th of October, 933. While there was little resistance to the West Saxons’ southern supremacy, the existing Northumbrian aristocracy – which survived the kingdom’s conquest in 867 – struggled with the fact that a southern King ruled the north. In an attempt to reconcile with the Northumbrians, Eormenred appointed Beornwulf as Ealdorman of the former kingdom. Among the West Saxon nobility, and attested to in various chronicles, there was an unwavering belief that the East Anglian Lord had gathered immense popularity as a saviour of Christians in the north, and was an ideal choice to be a middle-man between southern and northern lords.

While Beornwulf was certainly popular among Northumbria’s nobility, the modern belief is that the Lord’s northern adoration was wildly exaggerated.

Northumbrian Monk Leofric writes:

“[Eormenred’s decision], although purportedly an act of royal favour, was met with scepticism and apprehension by those in the North. Beornwulf's reputation as a ruler who rewards blind loyalty, while mercilessly crushing any hint of dissent precedes him.”

Despite the history between the Anglo-Saxons and Welsh, Eormenred had more success in subjugating these Western Britons than the more culturally similar Northumbrians. Following the Battle of Small Heath, Eormenred and Cydrych of Gwynedd had formed a budding relationship, one which the Anglo-Saxon King had exploited to formally procure fealty from the pre-eminent Welsh kingdom in 932. At Hereford, Eormenred had set the boundaries of the Welsh kingdoms at the Rivers Wye and Dee, with present-day Shropshire granted to the Mercian Ealdormanry during this meeting, alongside a hefty annual tribute. Shropshire, however, would be ruled by the Ealdorman of Mercia – which at this time was Beornwulf – only in name, and was only de facto under the administration of the Anglo-Saxons decades later.

The following half-decade of Beornwulf’s life consisted of mercilessly crushing any dissent within the former Northumbrian Kingdom, and breaking any semblance of organisation the Norse and Britons had in the Scottish lowlands, abruptly passing away in 937 to unknown causes at the age of 59. His first daughter, Wulfgyth, had died of unknown causes in 929. Of his other three daughters of his second marriage, two had been promised to the clergy, and the third had died of an unknown disease in 933. In November of 936 – 6 months before his death – scarce evidence was presented where Beornwulf had discovered a plot to assassinate him by his own granddaughter, Wynnflæd, daughter of Wulfgyth. It is unknown whether Wynfflæd had carried out her plans, or for what purpose.

Regardless of the outcome, Wynnflæd was the sole inheritor to any personal properties Beornwulf had left behind, and in late-937, his granddaughter had also been appointed Lady of all three of the late Ealdorman’s responsibilities – being Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia.

Europe in 942, 5 Years after Beornwulf's Passing​

 

[Koweth]

VIII. LADY WYNNFLÆD OF THE EAST ANGLES, PART ONE​

​

Wynnflæd, Lady of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia (maybe still a Queen? I like to keep it ambiguous for my own sanity)


​

Prior to her ascension as ruler of three of England’s five ealdormanries, the information on Wynnflæd is scant. Her life begins on the historical record in 932, when she married a minor French noble – an Adrien of Auxerre. In November of 936, an assassination plot on her grandfather, Beornwulf, was discovered, with a Ceorl’s confession linking the conspiracy to Wynnflæd. This, however, seemed to have no consequences for the lady, possibly due to largely circumstantial evidence. Following Beornwulf's passing on the 4th of June, 937, Wynnflæd had become the sole inheritor of her grandfather's possessions, and was appointed as Lady of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia.

The circumstances which she had inherited were less than desirable. Her grandfather’s untimely death in early-June had left the 20-year-old Wynnflæd in an unfavourable position militarily, as the Spring of 937 had brought aspiring Viking conquerors to England. Bergþór – with a host of 8,000 – had landed outside of Pocklington somewhere between December and February, conquering the settlement during this time. Furthermore, Norse-Gael settlers in Cumbria had taken up arms against Anglo-Saxon tyranny, as the slow, yet brutal conquest of their home had given these people little mercy.

As Bergþór's host made its way to Lincoln in June, an Anglo-Saxon army of 2,500 had gathered in Grimsby to thwart the Northmen’s conquest. Grimsby is believed to be the site of Beornwulf's death, as his abrupt passing in June with coincides with Norse and English sources indicating the the Anglo-Saxons state of disarray before the impending battle. With no one stepping forward to assume command of the army, the Norsemen circumvented the Humber unopposed on the 29th, slaughtering two fifths of the army in the chaos outside of the village.

With the support of Wynnflæd, Osulf – the High Reeve of Nottingham – had gathered an army of 1,700 men to reconquer Pocklington, recapturing the town in early-August. Osulf had met the King’s fyrd of 4,300 outside of Lincoln, whereupon the two armies massacred Bergþór’s host in the Yorkshire Wolds during the Spring of the same year. With Bergþór captured, the Northman had sued for peace sixteen days thereafter. Sometime after the Norseman’s crushing defeat, Wynnflæd – or, more accurately, her advisers – had brokered an agreement with the Norse-Gaels. While it is uncertain what the terms of the treaty were, it had ended the realm’s conflict with the settlers peacefully in September.

Wynnflæd had birthed her first son, Morcær, in 938. In 939, she became pregnant once more and had her first daughter, Leofwynn, in late-940. Leofwynn, however, was described as a sickly, moribund babe – not expected to survive.

In August of 940, Eormenred had suffered a crippling injury in an unspecified accident, with the King losing his cognitive abilities. Over the course of the following months, his first son, Cerdic, began assuming more of the King’s royal responsibilities. Upon Eormenred’s death in October, Cerdic had managed to convince the Witan to endorse his succession as monarch in opposition to his cousin and claimant, Ealdorman Swithræd of Kent.

On the 16th of January, 941, Wynnflæd had travelled from Dunwich to Winchester to legitimise her submission to the King of the English. Much unlike her grandfather, she came bearing gifts in the form of coin – likely to receive Cerdic’s favour. It seems, however, by April, the King had opted to antagonise his northern vassal by refusing Wynnflæd’s entrance into the Royal Manor in Winchester, rebuffing any request the Lady had of the King.

Similar to his father, Cerdic had made attempts to centralise England, strengthening royal authority. His initial attempts at gaining more financial and administrative control over the realm had been successful, but expectedly, there was a small, yet outspoken opposition to his new policies – particularly among the Welsh nobility. Wynnflæd, either through mere happenstance, or out of spite, had joined this chorus of voices in June, and with the support of many in the Principality of Dyfed, had demanded the King reverse his reforms and return to a more traditional, laissez-faire attitude towards governance.

Cerdic, expectedly, had refused these demands, and had raised an army of 3,500 in anticipation of civil war. Siân ferch Llywarch – Princess-Regnant of Dyfed – had wholeheartedly supported Wynnflæd’s attempts at rebellion, and had sent a force of three-to-four hundred men in support of her revolt. Somewhere between July and August of 941, Wynnflæd had raised an army of 2,900 to engage the King’s host in combat. The first and only battle of the war was a victory for the revolt, as contemporary historians call it the Slaughter on the River Wye.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has this entry:

“A.D. 942. In this year, Wynnflæd's host, led by High-Sheriff Osulf of Nottingham, confronted King Cerdic's army stationed defensively across the River Wye. The East Angles swiftly gained the upper hand. The ensuing clash wrought havoc upon King Cerdic's forces, resulting in a defeat and the capture of his kinsman, Swithraed, the Ealdorman of Kent.”

– The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

As civil war gripped the realm, the Danes, perhaps, noticed a moment of weakness in the unconquerable façade of the English kingdom. Refusing both England and East Anglia’s Danegeld, 6,000 Danes had landed in Norfolk with aspirations to conquer southern England. As the Slaughter on the River Wye concluded, Árni of Varde had led the Norse host in conquering East Anglia, sacking Norwich, Dunwich and Elmham. As a result, Wynnflæd and Cerdic had met in Gloucester, perhaps out of desperation, to negotiate peace terms. Neither were in a favourable position. While Wynnflæd had the capability to burn her way through Wessex after Cerdic’s crushing defeat on the Wye, her legitimacy was being torn apart by Danes conquering her home. Cerdic, while able to take advantage of Wynnflæd’s unwanted position, no longer had the manpower necessary to fight any would-be Viking conqueror.

On the 1st of January, 942, the two would make peace in Gloucester. Cerdic would reverse any policies and reforms he had made regarding the crown’s authority, and Wynnflæd would reconquer East Anglia and Essex in exchange for amnesty. A joint Anglo-Saxon army had met the Norsemen at Bedricsworth, triumphant in their battle with the Northmen and reconquering Norwich from Árni in May of 942.

Ultimately, Wynnflæd’s revolt had proven fruitless. In 943, Cerdic had reintroduced his administrative policies he had made 2 years prior, with little pushback from his nobility – including Wynnflæd. In the Summer, surprisingly, the Lady had fought and won a duel against the English King. According to the myths, this had occurred as a result of Cerdic insulting Wynnflæd’s womanly appearance in a bathhouse both frequented.

 

[Koweth]

IX. A MATTER OF SUCCESSION​

Wulfgar of Surrey, supposedly the lover of Wynnflæd in 951
​

Amidst the Winter of 945, the East Anglian court was gripped by both scandal and tragedy. The legitimacy of Wynnflæd’s own children had been put into question by much of the realm’s nobility, as an extramarital affair had been uncovered between the Lady of the East Angles and a Thegn from Surrey. Their relationship had supposedly been ongoing for close to a decade, and coincided with the birth of Wynnflæd’s first three children.

Coincidentally, the East Anglian Lady had contracted tuberculosis four months following the supposed discovery of Wynnflæd’s adulterous nature. To many, this was divine retribution for her impiety. However, no action was pursued to rectify her purported infidelity.

As gossip enthralled Dunwich’s court, a second misfortune had befallen the realm in Winchester. Perhaps, the pressures of ruling a kingdom – to live up to Eormenred’s legacy – had overwhelmed Cerdic, and had caused a fatal brain haemorrhage in December, dying at the age of 38. His cousin, Swithræd – Ealdorman of Kent – had assumed the throne with the support of the Witan, as a hastily-organised coronation occurred in Kingston-upon-Thames one month following Cerdic’s death.

Cerdic’s brother, Eormenred the Younger, had disputed the election of his cousin in January, and had gathered significant support in Wales to claim England as his birthright. Unofficially, this had marked Wales’ separation from the English crown’s domination, as Eormenred the Younger had split the realm between cultural lines, perhaps unintentionally creating a unified Welsh realm under the guise of an Anglo-Saxon one. Swithræd, in recognition of Wynnflæd’s support in his ascension to the throne, had extended the Lady’s East Anglian Ealdormanry south to the northern banks of the Thames, incorporating Essex into his northern vassal’s burgeoning domain, previously administered by the Ealdormanry of Kent.

England in 947​

While Eormenred’s Welsh aristocracy – particularly Gwynedd’s – had backed his claim to the English throne, none had supported the assertion of his birthright, content with low-intensity raids on Mercia’s border. Unlike his cousin, the pretender lacked any demesne to call his own and wielded scant influence over the actions of his supposed subjects. In reality, his claim posed little threat to Swithræd – So much so that Wynnflæd's requests to fortify the Welsh border were invariably denied by the new king.

On the 1st of May, 947, Wynnflæd had once more made the trek to Winchester to legitimise her submission to Swithræd. This time, however – despite the King’s expressed disdain for the East Anglian Lady – Wynnflæd had brought nothing but words. Between June and July, the Lady suffered notable familial loss, as fate had dealt her two tragedies. Her twin-sons, Stigand and Sæweald, had both died. One, a stillborn, and the other succumbing to the pneumonia which had gripped the one-month-old since late-June.

Swithræd, King of the English
​

Despite her deteriorating physical health, Wynnflæd endured two attempts on her life in 949, emerging remarkably victorious against both man and nature. To many, it appeared that Wynnflæd, in spite of her sins, was invincible. Such a myth was reinforced the following year, as, according to East Anglian sources, she was miraculously cured of her ailments, including the tuberculosis which had haunted the Lady’s life for a half-decade.

In January of 951, she became pregnant with her seventh child. As many, assumedly, grumbled at her invincibility and feigned their celebrations, the impossible occurred – Wynnflæd had choked on her dinner and abruptly passed away in June. Coincidentally, her lover – the Thegn from Surrey – had passed away the same year. This, much to the misfortune of her family, had occurred in the midst of an attempted Norse conquest of East Anglia. As she died, her properties were passed on to her two living sons, Morcær and Wulfstan, and the Ealdormanries which she had administered were reserved for their appointments until they had come of age.

As East Anglia was undergoing a chaotic transition of power, the King’s fyrd had repelled the Norse siege of Dunwich in September with the support of the garrison, and had driven a force of almost 7,000 to the sea. Following the Anglo-Saxon repellance of would-be Norse conquerors in 951, the King wielded greater authority than any previously, exerting considerable influence and de facto control over the extensive realm that Beornwulf had conquered two decades prior. As such, East Anglian and West Saxon sources no longer conflict with each other in the titling of any future Lords, with the south-eastern and northern kingdoms officially incorporated into the English realm by 952 – though this had occurred in all but name since 940.

Left: Morcær, Right: Wulfstan​

Morcær, compared to his youngest brother – a 5-year-old Wulfstan – suffered much in the vicious political fallout following his mother’s death. Questions of his bastardry were ever-present in courtly circles, with his brother receiving more favour among the northern nobility. His upbringing in Warwick, as opposed to a more traditional childhood in Dunwich had given Wulfstan more cultural familiarity with the Mercians particularly, and had made the Northumbrians more accepting of a southern noble ruling the north. While Morcær had suffered much in the struggles for influence and favour in his great-grandfather’s conquests, his second brother – a 6-year-old Osric – had received nothing from his inheritance, fading into obscurity among the political backstabbings and feuds. A son, or child, receiving no inheritance was an incredibly uncommon practice for the period, as gavelkind, or similar forms of succession were favoured, and customary for 10th century England.

In addition to this unfavoured position, Morcær had become an unwitting scapegoat in a struggle for power within Northumbria. The Bishop of York had made attempts to increase his own influence at the expense of the realm – and upon receiving pushback, had pinned much of his own shortcomings on the young Morcær. This had culminated in the boy’s disappearance from Dunwich’s court somewhere between July and August of 953, and was never mentioned thereafter in any contemporary sources – a complete disappearance from the historical record.

England in 952, before Morcær's disappearance​

Regardless of the facts presented, a 7-year-old Wulfstan was the sole inheritor of his mother’s personal properties by 953, and was provided with the expectation that he would rise to the position of Ealdorman of the northern realms (and East Anglia) upon adulthood – a burden which the boy was not meant to shoulder so early, and for such significant swathes of land.

Europe in 970, 19 Years after Wynnflæd's Passing​

 

[Koweth]

X. EALDORMAN WULFSTAN OF THE MERCIANS, PART ONE​

​

Wulfstan, Ealdorman of Mercia and Northumbria at 16 Years of Age

In a surprising twist of fate, the man entrusted with the governance of the King’s largest vassal was Burghred of Hereford, a grandson of the last Mercian King. Upon Ælfgar’s passing in 932, the nobleman had amassed significant wealth and power, and while not previously enough to rival the East Anglian Ealdormen, the circumstances following Wynnflæd’s death in 951 had given this plucky Thegn the chance to restore the prominence of his family. Needless to say, Burghred was – according to contemporary scholars in Warwick – completely self-interested, and pursued his own desires during his tenure as opposed to the betterment of the realm as a whole.

Wulfstan, during the tumultuous period of his upbringing, had two principal supporters of the status quo, being Wulf of Stafford, his second cousin and legitimised bastard son of Æthelburh – granddaughter of the late King Eadmund – and his father, Adrien of Auxerre. Both had taken responsibility for the protection of the child, and had managed to curry enough favours to have the support of the dioceses in Lichfield and York.

Burghred, while of Mercian ancestry, had gathered significant support amongst the now-disgruntled Northumbrian aristocracy. Among the East Angles’ court there were a scant few Northumbrians which could be considered important figures regarding matters of governance, and were largely unheard and underrepresented in their own realm. Important figures such as Reeves and land-holders were overwhelmingly East Anglian or Mercian, and despite the Ealdormanry’s size and significance, had been relegated to a more secondary position within Anglo-Saxon politics.

Burghred of Hereford, grandson of King Burghred of the Mercians​

Understandably, those Northumbrians who still held political and military significance felt marginalised, and began colluding with Burghred to pilfer the young Wulfstan’s inheritance. While not known whether the Northumbrians had explicitly conspired with the nobleman to usurp Wulfstan’s status, the general consensus remains that the Northumbrian Revolt of 960 was most likely a joint effort by those who felt disgruntled with the establishment, Burghred among these significant figures. While not directly involved in the revolt, the Thegn had much to gain from the rebellion’s success.

Much to the detriment of the Northumbrian rebels, the conflict was remarkably swift for a rebellion of its magnitude. After the Ealdormanry’s fyrd was raised to crush a heresy in Worcester, the army had moved to meet the rebel nobles outside of Leicester, four-thousand men on opposite sides of the battlefield. The limited knowledge modern historians have on the Battle of Bardon Hill is incredibly limited, however, what is clear is that the struggle near the heights was an unanticipated victory for the East Angles, and the aftermath had resulted in the death or capture of many significant rebel leaders. It is widely acknowledged that such events during Wulfstan's formative years contributed to the development of his paranoia, which was tempered only by the support of his close circle of loved ones and advisers.

Northumbrian Revolt of 960​

By late-August of 961, Wulfstan – or more accurately, his supporters – had managed to secure his position as Ealdorman of both Mercia and Northumbria, appointed by Swithræd to govern the two Ealdormanries on the 30th. Interestingly, Wulfstan was not given the opportunity to govern East Anglia. It was at this time that his sixteen-year-old brother – one year Wulfstan’s senior – Osric, had re-appeared on the historical record, and was given his due inheritance in the form of the Ealdormanry of East Anglia. There are two possibilities for this outcome, being that Osric was not recorded in great detail following the tumultuous period of his mother’s death, and as such, already had the rights to Wynnflæd’s East Anglian properties – or, he hadn’t received his birthright, and Swithræd had made the decision to appoint Wulfstan’s brother as East Anglian Ealdorman to diminish the family’s prominence within Anglo-Saxon politics.