Eardwulf (fl. 790 – 830) was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scene of dynastic strife between several noble families: in 790, king Æthelred I attempted to have Eardwulf assassinated. Eardwulf's survival may have been viewed as a sign of divine favour. A group of nobles conspired to assassinate Æthelred in April 796 and he was succeeded by Osbald: Osbald's reign lasted only twenty-seven days before he was deposed and Eardwulf became king on 14 May 796.
Little is recorded of Eardwulf's family, though his father, also named Eardwulf, is known to have been a nobleman. Eardwulf was married by the time he became king, though his wife's name is not recorded. It is possible he later wed an illegitimate daughter of Charlemagne. In 798, early in his reign, Eardwulf fought a battle at Billington Moor against a nobleman named Wada, who had been one of those who killed King Æthelred. Wada was defeated and driven into exile. In 801, Eardwulf led an army against Coenwulf of Mercia, perhaps because of Coenwulf's support for other claimants to the Northumbrian throne.
Eardwulf was deposed in 806 and according to a Frankish record, returned to his kingdom in 808. No record has survived of his death or the end of his reign: dates from 811 to 830 have been suggested. He was possibly buried at the Mercian royal monastery of Breedon on the Hill, which carries a dedication to Saint Mary and Saint Hardulph, with whom Eardwulf is identified by several historians.
Background
During the latter half of the eighth century, the Northumbrian succession included a long series of murdered and deposed kings, as several royal lines contended for the throne. The main lines were those of Eadberht, Æthelwald Moll and Alhred. In the eight years before Eardwulf's accession, all three of these dynastic lines were involved in the struggle for kingship: on 23 September 788, King Ælfwald I, grandson of Eadberht, was murdered by the patricius Sicga near Hexham, and Ælfwald's cousin Osred became king. Osred, who was of Alhred's line, was deposed after a year, and Æthelred, son of Æthelwald Moll, who had been deposed in 778 at a young age, was restored to the kingship, resuming the title Æthelred I.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 90, table 11.
Some Anglo-Saxon kings are known to have been killed by their households or in open warfare against rivals, but overall the record is very sparse. The evidence as regards the deposition of kings is equally limited. Only two eighth-century depositions offer any context, those of Æthelwald Moll in Northumbria and Sigeberht of Wessex. In both cases the decision is presented as that of some form of council.Wormald, Patrick, "The Age of Offa and Alcuin" in Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 114–115.
This record of disputed succession was by no means unique to Northumbria, and the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex experienced similar troubles during the eighth and ninth centuries. In Wessex, from the death of Centwine in 685 to Egbert's seizure of power in 802, the relationships between successive kings are far from clear and few kings are known to have been close kinsmen of their predecessors or successors. The same may be true of Mercia from the death of Ceolred in 716 until the disappearance of the Mercian kingdom in the late ninth century.
Kings did not rule alone, but rather governed together with the leading churchmen and nobles. While Northumbria lacks the body of charters which shed light on the institutions of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, sufficient evidence survives for historians to reconstruct some aspects of Northumbrian political life. The evidence for Northumbria survives largely in Latin documents, and these use the words dux and patricius to describe the leading noblemen of the kingdom. The word dux is usually translated by the Old English word ealdorman. The historian Alan Thacker estimates that there were about eight men holding the title of dux in late Northumbria.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms pp. 92–93. The title patricius is usually translated as patrician, which ultimately means noble, but in the latter days of the Roman Empire represented a high-ranking position, second only to the emperor. The meaning of the title in Northumbria is unclear, but it appears that there was only one patricius. While it may be simply an alternative to dux, it might represent a position approximating to that of the Mayor of the Palace in late Merovingian Francia.Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 90–92.
The church in Northumbria was one of the major landowners, perhaps second only to the king.Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, pp. 147–149. At the head of the Northumbrian church was the Archbishop of York, an office held by Eanbald I to 796, Eanbald II until some time after 808, and then by Wulfsige to around 830.After the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Immediately below the archbishop were three bishops: the bishop of Lindisfarne, the bishop of Hexham and the bishop of Whithorn. The typically long term of office of senior clerics meant that kings often had to work with men appointed by their predecessors, with whom their relations might be difficult.Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 147.
Relations with other states Northumbria's southern neighbour Mercia was, under the rule of kings Æthelbald, Offa and Coenwulf, the dominant kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. Offa, the greatest of the three, ruled Mercia until 796, followed soon after by Coenwulf.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 130, 179. Offa's dominance was secured in part by marriage alliances with the other major kingdoms: Beorhtric of Wessex and Æthelred of Northumbria were married to his daughters.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms pp. 114, 141; Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 174. Further afield, Charlemagne, the pre-eminent ruler in the Christian West, appears to have taken an active interest in Northumbrian affairs. Charlemagne initially ruled Francia and parts of Italy, but by 796 had become master of an empire which stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Hungarian Plain. He was a staunch defender of the Papacy, and in the popes and the church hierarchy he had allies whose influence extended to Northumbria and beyond. Events in southern Britain to 796 have sometimes been portrayed as a struggle between Offa and Charlemagne, but the disparity in their power was enormous, and Offa and then Coenwulf were clearly minor figures by comparison.Nelson, Janet, "Carolingian Contacts" in Brown & Farr, Mercia, especially pp. 139–143. For the contrary view, see Wormald, "The Age of Offa and Alcuin", pp. 101–106.
Early evidence of friendly relations between Charlemagne and Offa is tempered by signs of strain. Charlemagne sheltered two exiles from England at his court: Odberht of Kent (probably Eadberht Praen) and Egbert of Wessex. Eadberht Praen ruled the Kingdom of Kent for a short time after Offa's death, but was deposed by Coenwulf. Egbert was more successful, taking and holding the throne of Wessex in 802.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 176, 189; Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms pp. 31–32, 121; Nelson, "Carolingian Contacts", pp. 137–139 & 141. It is clear that Mercian and Frankish interests could not always be reconciled and Frankish policy then moved towards support for Offa's opponents.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 176. To Charlemagne this primarily meant Northumbria: according to Patrick Wormald, "Charlemagne ... saw England as if it were ruled by two kings only: Æthelred ruling Northumbria and Offa ruling everything to the south".Wormald, "The Age of Offa and Alcuin", p. 101. Frankish support for Northumbria thus appears to have been driven by a desire to counter Mercian influence in southern Britain, an area with long-standing ties to Francia.Nelson, "Carolingian Connections", p. 137–139. It has also been suggested that Charlemagne's interest in Northumbria was motivated by a desire for co-operation against Viking raiders, who had first appeared in Northumbria in the early 790s.Riché, Les Carolingiens, p. 134. Alternatively it may be that Charlemagne's conception of the sphere of his authority included Britain, which had once been part of the Roman Empire.Story, Carolingian Connections, pp. 162 & 166–167; Forsman, "Appeal to Rome".
Initially, both Charlemagne and Offa appear to have shared a common interest in supporting King Æthelred, Offa's son-in-law.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 155; Story, p. 162. Shortly before Æthelred was murdered in 796, an embassy from Francia delivered gifts for the king and his bishops. When Charlemagne learned of Æthelred's killing he was enraged, called the Northumbrians "that treacherous, perverse people...who murder their own lords", and threatened retribution. His ambassadors, who had travelled on to Ireland and were then returning home, were ordered back to Northumbria to recover the presents.Forsman, "Appeal to Rome". Charlemagne in time became a supporter of Eardwulf.Forsman, "Appeal to Rome"; Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 149. Eardwulf is said by the early 12th-century Annals of Lindisfarne and Durham to have married one of Charlemagne's daughters, information not found in other sources.Levison, "England and the Continent", p. 114. If this is correct she must have been illegitimate, as the marriages of all the legitimate daughters are known.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms p. 95. Coenwulf, on the other hand, who became king of Mercia shortly after Eardwulf's accession, is recorded as having fought with Eardwulf in 801.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 58–59
Early life and accession Eardwulf was not, so far as is known, connected to any of the factions that had been warring for the throne up to the mid-790s. Nothing is definitely known of his background, though Symeon of Durham's History of the Kings, an early twelfth-century work based on the lost late tenth-century chronicle of Byrhtferth, records that his father's name was also Eardwulf,Symeon of Durham, History of the Kings, s.a. 796. Roger of Hoveden and the Chronicle of Melrose record his father's name as Ea[r]nwulf. For the history of these northern annals, see Lapidge, "Byrhtferth"; Rollason, David, "Northern annals"; & Rollason, "Symeon of Durham", in Lapidge & al, Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. and both father and son are given the title dux.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms pp. 89, 93. Historian Barbara Yorke has proposed that he was a descendant of one Eanwine who (according to Symeon of Durham) was killed in 740 on the orders of King Eadberht. This Eanwine may be identified with King Eadwulf's son of the same name.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 145; Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms p. 90, table 11. Eardwulf's father may have been one of the two Eardwulfs whose deaths are recorded by Symeon of Durham in 774 and 775.Joanna Story (Carolingian Connections, p. 159) draws attention to the second of these who, "taken by cunning treachery, was in a short space of time killed, buried, and forgotten" early in the first reign of Æthelred I. See also Symeon of Durham, Historical Works, p. 451.
Eardwulf appears to have been an enemy of Æthelred I. He first appears in the historical record circa 790, when Symeon of Durham reports that:Symeon of Durham, History of the Kings, s.a. 790.Eardulf was taken prisoner, and conveyed to Ripon, and there ordered by the aforesaid king [Æthelred] to be put to death without the gate of the monastery. The brethren carried his body into the church with Gregorian chanting, and placed it out of doors in a tent; after midnight he was found alive in the church. A letter from Alcuin to Eardwulf suggests that this fortunate recovery was seen as being miraculous.Rollason, "Eardwulf", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Williams et al, "Eardwulf".