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____ Egbert "the Great"
Birth:           775 Wessex
Death:          4 Feb  839 Winchester, Wessex

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egbert_of_Wessex
Egbert (771/775–839), also spelled 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 'wide-ruler' of Anglo-Saxon lands.

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 Ęthelwulf to rule as a subking 
under Egbert. When Egbert died in 839, Ęthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern 
kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after Ęthelwulf's death in 
858.
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 Ęthelwulf 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.[2] Egbert's descent from Ingild was accepted by 
Frank Stenton, but not the earlier genealogy back to Cerdic.[3] 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,[4] whereas Rory Naismith considered a Kentish origin 
unlikely, and that it is more probable that "Egbert was born of good West Saxon royal 
stock".[5]

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.[6] 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.[7] He was believed at one time to also be the father 
of Saint Eadgyth of Polesworth and Ęthelstan of Kent.

Parents
____ Eahlmund (Edmund) (ABT  758 -  788)
OF KENT ----- (ABT  758 - )

Siblings
____ Egbert "the Great" ( 775 - 4 Feb  839)

Marriage To OF THE CAROLINGIANS Raedburh (Raedberg) (BEF 768 - ) m. Notes Parents ____ Pepin III "Le Bref" ("the Short") ( 715 - 24 Sep 768) DE LAON Bertha (Bertrade) "Broadfoot" ( 720 - 12 Jul 783) Children by OF THE CAROLINGIANS Raedburh (Raedberg) BEF 768 -
____ Aethelwulf (ABT 806 - 13 Jan 859)
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