Ealhswith’s mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal family. The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini. She had died by 856 when Æthelwulf married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, King of West Francia.
Osburh was described by Alfred’s biographer Asser as “a most religious woman, noble by temperament and noble by birth”. This is unlikely because Bede tells us that they were all slaughtered by the Saxons under Cædwalla. Asser, in his Vita Ælfredi asserts that this shows his lineage from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight. Most historians think that Osburh was the mother of all Æthelwulf’s children, but some suggest that the older ones were born to an unrecorded first wife.Īlfred’s mother was Osburga, daughter of Oslac of the Isle of Wight, Chief Butler of England. Æthelbald (858-860) and Æthelberht (860-865) were also much older than Alfred, but Æthelred (865-871) was only a year or two older.Īlfred’s only known sister, Æthelswith, married Burgred, King of Mercia in 853. Alfred’s next three brothers were successively kings of Wessex. His eldest brother, Æthelstan, was old enough to be appointed sub-king of Kent in 839, almost 10 years before Alfred was born. This dating is adopted in the biography of Alfred by Alfred Smyth, who regards Asser’s biography as fraudulent, an allegation which is rejected by other historians.Īlfred was the youngest of six children of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, and his wife Osburh. However, West Saxon genealogical lists state that Alfred was 23 when he became king in April 871, implying that he was born between April 847 and April 848.
This date has been accepted by the editors of Asser’s biography, Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, and by other historians such as David Dumville and Richard Huscroft. According to his biographer, Asser, writing in 893, “In the year of our Lord’s Incarnation 849 Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons”, was born at the royal estate called Wantage, in the district known as Berkshire (which is so called from Berroc Wood, where the box tree grows very abundantly).” Under Alfred’s rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England.Īlfred was a son of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, and his wife Osburh. Alfred the Great (848/49 – October 26, 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to c. 886 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 to 899.
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