Æthelred

views updated

Æthelred (d. c.716), king of Mercia (675–704). All we know of Æthelred, son of Penda, comes from episodic indications of a career whose apparent paradoxes signal a world no less pious than brutal. Its realities can be glimpsed, not recaptured. In 676 he ravaged Kent, and not least its churches. In 679 he won an important victory over the Northumbrians at the battle on the Trent. In 697 his nobles murdered his royal Northumbrian wife Osthryth. In 704 he abdicated to become a monk.

James Campbell

More From encyclopedia.com