Ælfweard of Wessex

Ælfweard
King of Wessex (perhaps)
Reign	(perhaps) 17 July 924 – 2 August 924
Predecessor	Edward the Elder
Successor	Athelstan
Father	Edward the Elder
Mother	Ælfflæd
Born	904 place unknown Wessex
Died	2 August 924 Oxford
Burial	Winchester Cathedral

Ælfweard (904 – 2 August 924) was the second son of Edward the Elder, the eldest born to his second wife Ælfflæd.

1 Kingship and death
2 Notes
3 References
4 See also

Kingship and death

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply states that Ælfweard died soon after his father's death on 17 July 924 and that they were buried together at Winchester Cathedral. Manuscript D of the Chronicle specifies that he outlived his father by only 16 days. No reign is explicitly attributed to him here. However, a list of West-Saxon kings in the 12th-century Textus Roffensis^[1] mentions him as his father's successor, with a reign of four weeks.^[2] He is also described as king in the New Minster Liber Vitae,^[3] a 11th-century source based in part on earlier material.^[4] On the other hand, William of Malmesbury, relying on a poem, related that Edward's eldest son (by his first wife Ecgwynn), Athelstan, succeeded directly under the terms of King Alfred's will (since lost).^[5] The poem had once been considered a near-contemporary authority, but Michael Lapidge has shown this to be based on a misunderstanding of William's reference to "a certain obviously ancient book".^[6]

This conflicting documentation has led to alternative interpretations, some modern historians concluding that he had succeeded his father in preference to his older half-brother Athelstan, while others maintain that Athelstan was the only heir to his father.^[5] Alternatively, a divided rule has been suggested, since the so-called Mercian register of the Chronicle reports that Athelstan became king of the Mercians, and William of Malmesbury, though denying a reign for Ælfweard, reports that Athelstan was educated at the Mercian court of his aunt Æthelflæd.^[2]^[5]^[7] By this theory, Ælfweard would have succeeded his father in Wessex and Athelstan in Mercia, the latter only acquiring Wessex following his brother's death shortly thereafter.

If king, Ælfweard was probably never crowned, dying 2 August 924 at Oxford. Athelstan himself was not crowned king of the Anglo-Saxons until 4 September 925 more than a year later.

Notes

^ (Rochester, Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5, fols. 7v-8r).
^ ^a ^b Yorke, Bishop Æthelwold. p. 71.
^ f. 9v, cited by Yorke.
^ Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.
^ ^a ^b ^c Williams, "Some Notes", pp. 149-50.
^ Lapidge, "Some Latin poems as evidence for the reign of Athelstan." 50-1.
^ Walker, Mercia and the Making of England. p. 127.

References

Miller, Sean, "Æthelstan" in M. Lapidge et al. (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell, London, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
Walker, Ian. Mercia and the Making of England. Sutton: Stroud, 2000. ISBN 0-7509-2131-5.
Lapidge, Michael. "Some Latin Poems as Evidence for the Reign of Athelstan." In Anglo-Latin Literature 900-1066, ed. M. Lapidge. London, 1993.
Williams, Ann, "Some Notes and Considerations on Problems Connected with the English Royal Succession, 860-1066", Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1978, R. Allen Brown, ed., Boydell & Brewer, 1979, 144-167.
Yorke, Barbara. Bishop Æthelwold. His Career and Influence. Woodbridge, 1988.
"Ælfweard 4 (male)." Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Accessed: 2009-04-08.

Preceded by Edward the Elder	King of Wessex 924	Succeeded by Athelstan

v • d • e English and British monarchs

Kingdom of the English 886–1066	Alfred the Great · Edward the Elder · Ælfweard · Athelstan the Glorious¹ · Edmund the Magnificent¹ · Eadred¹ · Eadwig the Fair¹ · Edgar the Peaceable¹ · Edward the Martyr · Æthelred the Unready · Sweyn Forkbeard · Edmund Ironside · Cnut¹ · Harold Harefoot · Harthacnut · Edward the Confessor · Harold Godwinson · Edgar the Ætheling

Kingdom of England 1066–1649	William I · William II · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda · Henry II² · Henry the Young King · Richard I · John² · Henry III² · Edward I² · Edward II² · Edward III² · Richard II² · Henry IV² · Henry V² · Henry VI² · Edward IV² · Edward V² · Richard III² · Henry VII² · Henry VIII² · Edward VI² · Jane² · Mary I² with Philip² · Elizabeth I² · James I³ · Charles I³

Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland 1653–1659	Oliver Cromwell³ · Richard Cromwell³

Kingdom of England 1660–1707	Charles II · James II · William III and Mary II · Anne

¹Overlord of Britain. ²Also ruler of Ireland. ³Lord Protector. Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.