In 825, following his decisive victory over Mercia at the Battle of Ellendun, Ecgberht of Wessex moved to extend his power across the south-east of England. He sent his son Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its sub-king, Baldred, who held a pro-Mercian position, was driven out shortly afterwards. This action formed part of a broader collapse of Mercian supremacy in southern England that had been fatally undermined by the defeat at Ellendun.
The expulsion of Baldred brought Kent firmly under West Saxon control. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had likewise submitted to Ecgberht, who appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as king of Kent. The arrangement was not necessarily conceived as a permanent union, since Ecgberht and later Æthelwulf both appointed sons as sub-kings of Kent rather than absorbing it directly into Wessex, and Kentish charters continued to be witnessed by the Kentish elite separately from West Saxon magnates.
Prince Æthelwulf, son of King Egbert of Wessex, led the invasion of Kent and drove out its pro-Mercian ruler Baldred, completing a swift transfer of power in the south-east that followed directly from Ecgberht's crushing victory over Mercia at Ellendun in the same year.
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