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Egbert (771/775–839), also known as Ecgberht, Ecgbert, or Ecgbriht, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s Egbert was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and took the throne. Little is known of the first 20 years of Egbert's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain the independence of Wessex against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In 825 Egbert defeated Beornwulf of Mercia, ended Mercia's supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. In 829 Egbert defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Egbert received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore. The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' subsequently described Egbert as a ''bretwalda'', or "Ruler of Britain". Egbert was unable to maintain this dominant position, and within a year Wiglaf regained the throne of Mercia. However, Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey; these territories were given to Egbert's son Æthelwulf to rule as a subking under Egbert. When Egbert died in 839, Æthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after Æthelwulf's death in 858. ==Family== Historians do not agree on Egbert's ancestry. The earliest version of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,'' the ''Parker Chronicle,'' begins with a genealogical preface tracing the ancestry of Egbert's son Æthelwulf back through Egbert, Ealhmund (thought to be Ealhmund of Kent), and the otherwise unknown Eoppa and Eafa to Ingild, brother of King Ine of Wessex, who abdicated the throne in 726. It continues back to Cerdic, founder of the House of Wessex.〔Garmonsway, G.N. ed., ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', London, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., pp. xxxii,2,4〕 Egbert's descent from Ingild was accepted by Frank Stenton, but not the earlier genealogy back to Cerdic.〔Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 65–66〕 Heather Edwards in her Online Dictionary of National Biography article on Egbert argues that he was of Kentish origin, and that the West Saxon descent may have been manufactured during his reign to give him legitimacy,〔Edwards, ''Ecgbehrt''〕 whereas Rory Naismith considered a Kentish origin unlikely, and that it is more probable that "Egbert was born of good West Saxon royal stock".〔Naismith, p. 16〕 Egbert's wife's name is unknown. A fifteenth century chronicle now held by Oxford University names Egbert's wife as Redburga who was supposedly a relation of Charlemagne that he married when he was banished to Francia, but this is dismissed by academic historians in view of its late date.〔The chronicle ((Hardy, Vol III, No. 326 )) describes Egbert's wife as "''Redburga regis Francorum sororia''" (sister or sister-in-law of the Frankish Emperor). Some nineteenth-century historians cited the manuscript to identify Redburga as Egbert's wife, such W. G. Searle in his 1897 ''(Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum )'' and (as Rædburh) in his 1899 ''(Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles )''. Other historians of that time were sceptical, such as William Hunt, who did not mention Redburga in his article about Egbert in the original ''Dictionary of National Biography'' in 1889. In the twentieth century, popular genealogists and historians have followed Searle in naming Redburga as Egbert's wife, but academic historians ignore her when discussing Egbert, and Janet Nelson's 2004 article on his son (Æthelwulf ) in the Online ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' states that his mother's name in unknown.〕 He is reputed to have had a half-sister Alburga, later to be recognised as a saint for her founding of Wilton Abbey. She was married to Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire, and on his death in 802 she became a nun, Abbess of Wilton Abbey.〔Farmer, D.H.: ''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints'', p. 10〕 He was believed at one time to also be the father of Saint Eadgyth of Polesworth and Æthelstan of Kent. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Egbert of Wessex」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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