Beornwulf of Mercia

Beornwulf († 825 ) was 823-825 King of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. During his reign, Mercia lost its dominant role among the kingdoms of England.

Life

About Beornwulfs origin little is known accurately. His father was the Mercian ealdorman Beorhtweald. Beornwulf could be the same person who has a charter Cenwulfs king in 812 and a charter King Ceolwulfs I in the year 823 marked as a witness. Due to the point where his signature appears in the documents, but it can be assumed that he did not belong in the political order of the Kingdom to the highest social class.

Beornwulf 823 crashed his predecessor Ceolwulf I. He completed the conquest had already begun by Ceolwulf of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys successfully.

The conflict with the Archbishop of Canterbury Wulfred to the secular control of monasteries, which had already begun under Cenwulf, was settled at the Council of 825 Clovesho. Following the settlement Beornwulf Baldred could use under the supremacy Mercia as king in Kent UK. Not only Kent was under the suzerainty Mercia, also Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, Surrey and East Anglia were under the direct control of the ruler Mercia. The only kingdom south of the Humber, which has kept its independence, Wessex was.

825 battle was fought between Mercia and Wessex in Ellandun from which the West Saxon army was victorious under their king Egbert and Beornwulf and his troops inflicted a devastating defeat and put flight.

As a result of the defeat the ruling system Mercia collapsed. During the years of political and dynastic instability within Mercia before the government takeover Beornwulfs personal loyalties and allegiances were broken, whereby the use of royal power and control of the machinery of government had been weakened. Egbert sent troops under the leadership of his son Æthelwulf to Kent, where this king Balrded sales. The population of Sussex ' and Surrey submitted to King Egbert, and also Essex seems to have accepted his suzerainty. After the Kingdom of East Anglia had won back its independence, it also concluded peace with Wessex. During the fighting in East Anglia King Beornwulf fell in the same year.

Swell

• The Anglo - Saxon Chronicle. Edited by Dorothy Whitelock, David C. Douglas, Susie I. Tucker. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick in 1961.
• Cartularium saxonicum. Edited by Walter de Gray Birch. Whiting, London 1885.