Aethelwold's Raid into Mercia and Wessex 902
Who Fought
East Anglian Danes led by Æthelwold
the men of Kent
History & Significance
Æthelwold () or Æthelwald (died probably 13 December 902) was the younger of two known sons of Æthelred I, King of Wessex from 865 to 871. Æthelwold and his brother Æthelhelm were still infants when their father the king died while fighting a Danish Viking invasion. The throne passed to the king's younger brother (Æthelwold's uncle) Alfred the Great, who carried on the war against the Vikings and won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington in 878.
After Alfred's death in 899, Æthelwold disputed the throne with Alfred's son, Edward the Elder. As senior ætheling (prince of the royal dynasty eligible for kingship), Æthelwold had a strong claim to the throne. He attempted to raise an army to support his claim, but was unable to get sufficient support to meet Edward in battle and fled to Viking-controlled Northumbria, where he was accepted as king. In 901 or 902 he sailed with a fleet to Essex, where he was also accepted as king.
The following year Æthelwold persuaded the East Anglian Danes to attack Edward's territory in Wessex and Mercia. Edward retaliated with a raid on East Anglia, and when he withdrew the men of Kent lingered and met the East Anglian Danes at an unknown location in the Battle of the Holme, probably on 13 December 902. The Danes were victorious but suffered heavy losses, including the death of Æthelwold, which ended the challenge to Edward's rule.
In the eighth century, Mercia was the most powerful kingdom in southern England, but in the early ninth century Wessex became dominant. In the 820s King Egbert of Wessex conquered south-east England (Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex). His reign saw the beginning of Viking attacks, but Egbert and his son Æthelwulf, who succeeded in 839, were able to resist them. Æthelwulf died in 858, and he was followed by four sons in succession. King Æthelbald died in 860, and King Æthelberht in 865; Æthelwold's father, Æthelred, then succeeded to the throne. In the same year the Viking Great Heathen Army invaded England. Within five years they had conquered Northumbria and East Anglia, and forced Mercia to buy them off. In late 870 the Vikings invaded Wessex, and in early 871 they fought armies under Æthelred and Alfred in four battles in quick succession, the last two of which Wessex lost. Æthelred died shortly after Easter that year, leaving young sons. Primogeniture was not established in this period, and it was believed that kings should be adults, so he was succeeded by his younger brother Alfred.
By 878 the Vikings had seized eastern Mercia and nearly conquered Wessex, and Alfred was reduced to being a fugitive in the Somerset marshes, but he fought back and won the Battle of Edington. This was followed by a period of peace, and in the late 880s Alfred concluded a treaty with Guthrum, king of the East Anglian Vikings, setting the boundary between Wessex and English Mercia on the one hand, and the Danelaw on the other. Further Viking assaults in the mid 890s were unsuccessful.
The ground they fought on
The site of Aethelwold's Raid into Mercia and Wessex 902 lies on Kellaways Formation And Oxford Clay Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Oxfordian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
The Battle of the Holme on 13 December 902 proved a costly Danish victory: though the East Anglian Danes defeated the Kentish forces who had lingered after Edward the Elder's retaliatory raid on East Anglia, the fighting claimed the life of Æthelwold himself, the ætheling who had instigated the entire campaign, and with him died the threat to Edward's kingship.
- Æthelwold killed; heavy Danish losses reported
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- Æthelwold ætheling · Wikipedia
- Æthelred I of Wessex · Wikipedia