Three Royal Brothers

Æthelwulf’s will attests to his desire that upon his death Wessex would pass into the hands of his sons. This desire was fulfilled when his eldest surviving son Æthelbald became king following his father’s death in 858. The years that passed between this accession and the rise of the youngest son, Alfred, to the throne in 871 would see a complex detente form between the four brothers as Wessex rapidly passed from one to another. Histories of Wessex tend to overlook the years between Æthelwulf and Alfred, preferring to focus instead of Alfred, his father, and his grandfather to give the sense of a simple progression of a united Wessex developing into a united kingdom of England. However the reigns of Alfred’s three older brothers deserve to be discussed in detail since it is under them that several key factors in Alfred’s reign fully emerge into West Saxon history such as the transition from Scandinavian raiding into Scandinavian conquest and the alliance with Mercia, both of which would bear fruit in Alfred’s reign and shape the earliest form of the kingdom of England.
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Music: 'Wælheall' by Hrōðmund Wōdening
• Anglo-Saxon Folk Music...
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[@bethwilliams4903]

Your attention to detail delights me no end - I may need to listen to your podcasts (I think of them as lectures) several times to fully grasp the whole of what you are imparting but I put that on me, not you. My area is considerably later (1300-1500 beginning with the French Wars) but I’ve been drawn into this period thru Marc Morris and more recently Eleanor Parker. Your work stands alongside theirs without question, in fact, I can count on you to find snippets of info I hear nowhere else (ie on the broadcast about the Northumbrian saints the use of stained glass to help the unlettered ‘read’ the gospel is an idea well known to those of us who teach, but I myself never heard a source suggested - St Benedict of Northumbria indeed, your reasoning as it is in every lecture, is measured. A delight, every lecture.

[@grandiane5569]

: )