Egbert (also Ecgbehrt or Ecgbert, means roughly 'The shining edge of a blade') (c. 770 — July 839) was King of Wessex from 802 until his death. Under Egbert, Wessex rose to become the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, overthrowing the supremacy of Mercia. He was called Bretwalda (British Ruler).

King of Wessex 802–839 Succeeded by Ethelwulf of Wessex
King of Kent 825–839
King of Essex 825–839
King of Sussex 825–839
King of Mercia 829–830 Succeeded by Wiglaf
King of England (Not proclaimed) 829–830

Name and early life

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Egbert was the son of Ealhmund, King of Kent. There is a genealogical preface to the Chronicle, which gives the name of Egbert's father as Ealhmund, without further identifying him, and which claims Egbert as a descendant of Ingeld, a brother of Ine of Wessex. A separate copy of the Chronicle manuscript has a marginal note against the year 784, commenting that King Ealhmund of Kent is the father of Egbert, who was the father of Æthelwulf.

After the murder of King Cynewulf in 786, Egbert may have contested the succession, but the throne went to Beorhtric, an ally of Offa of Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Egbert spent three years in Francia before he was king, exiled by Beorhtric and Offa. This may have been an error for thirteen years: the error would have been "iii" for "xiii" in the original. Beorhrtic's reign lasted sixteen years, and not thirteen; and all extant texts of the chronicle agree on "iii", but most modern accounts assume that Egbert did indeed spend thirteen years in Francia.

Beorhtric's wife, Eadburh, was a daughter of Offa's, and this may indicate that Wessex remained under Mercian domination through Offa's reign and beyond. When Egbert succeeded, there are some indications that he sought greater independence from Mercia. The day of his accession, the Hwicce (by that time part of Mercia) attacked, under the leadership of their ealdorman, Aethelmund. Weohstan, a Wessex ealdorman, met him with men from Wiltshire; the Hwicce were defeated, though Weohstan was killed as well as Aethelmund.

In 815 Egbert ravaged the whole of the territories of the West Welsh, which probably at this time did not include much more than Cornwall; it is probably from his reign that Cornwall can be considered subject to Wessex. The next important occurrence in the reign was the defeat of Beornwulf of Mercia at a place called Ellandun in 825. After this victory, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submitted to Wessex; while the East Anglians, who rose against Mercian rule and slew Beornwulf shortly afterwards, acknowledged Egbert as overlord.

In 829 the king conquered Mercia, and Eanred of Northumbria accepted him as overlord after refusing to fight his forces at Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield). In 830 he led a successful expedition against the Welsh, and it was in the same year that Mercia regained its independence under Wiglaf, although it is uncertain whether this was achieved through a rebellion or was the result of a grant by Egbert to Wiglaf. In 836 Egbert was defeated by the "Danish People", but in 838 he won a battle against them and their allies the West Welsh at Hingston Down in Cornwall.

In the year 825, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that Egbert sent his son Æþelwulf into Kent to recover what had been the rightful property of his kin. Following the conquest of Kent, Egbert issued a charter as King of the West Saxons and the Kentishmen.

Egbert married Redburga, a Frankish princess (possibly a sister or sister-in-law of the emperor Charlemagne), and had two sons and a daughter. Egbert died in about 839. He was succeeded by his son, King Ethelwulf of Wessex. Egbert was buried in the Old Minster at Winchester. A number of simple mortuary chests containing the bones of the Wessex and English kings were transferred to its replacement, Winchester Cathedral in the 11th century. During the English Civil War, Parliamentary soldiers dumped Egbert and the other kings' bones out of the chests and used them to smash windows in the church. The jumbled-up bones were then replaced in the chests. Distinguishing between the bones (four skulls now reside in Egbert's chest with other bones) is impossible without forensic examination.

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