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THE HOUSE OF AETHELRED David H. Kelley Thepresent paper will attempt to showthat the descend­ ants of King Aethelred I, elder brother of King Alfred, played a continuously important role in the history of England from Alfred's time to the Norman Conquest. The emphasis, however,is genealogical rather than historical. The most important development of recent times for Anglo—Saxongenealogical studies is the appearance of several series dealing with Anglo-Saxon charters.1 The extremely useful series of biographies, nearly 300for the ofnorthern material charters, available. pregared Hart by has Hart also makesa done tremendousa moreextended mass study of Aethelstan, the Half-King, and his family,3 and has written on BishopOswald's relatives, especially Ead­ noth.4 Finberg has written on the family of Ordgar and Ordulf,5 and Williams on Aelfhere of Mercia and his fami­ ly. The emphasis in all these papers is more on the historical role of the particular families than ondetailed demonstration of the genealogies. Available evidence to reconstruct genealogies is ex­ tensive, particularly the massof charters, whichnot only give evidence concerning the descent of land but also, from the witness lists, always arranged in a strict order of protocol, give evidence of the changing status of indivi­ duals. Offices, though not inherited in any fixed way, tended to run in families. Although there were no family names, names also give evidence of relationships. Fre­ quently, members of a family will share names beginning with a particular soundor related group of sounds, such as the vowels. Names may consist of a single element, or theme, but more frequently consist of two themes. Twonames which share the same initial theme [Aelf—red, Aelf-wine] are said to be linked by end—variation, whereas two names which share the same final theme [Aelf—red, Aethel—red] are linked by front-variation. Occasionally the initial theme of one namelinks it to the final theme of another [Wulf­ ric, Aethel—wulf]. Both elements maybe repeated, and this is quite normal between grandparents and grandchildren or between uncle and nephewor aunt and niece. It was rare to give two living children the same name, although it hap­ pened occasionally, and apparently even morerare to give a child the nameof a parent. To recognize such linkages, it is desirable to standardize the form of the name, and customary to adopt for this purpose the Wessex dialect forms. In our sources there is no such consistency, so that a single theme mayappear in numerous spellings. For one example, beorht- mayalso appear as bert-, briht—, byrth, bryth-, bercht-, berht—,brict—, bric—, brid-, byrhtt-, bris—, brith—, brics—, bricht-, burht—, or others, de­ pending on the local dialect, the date, the person re­ 63 A Tribute to Charles Evans cording the name, and, sometimes, the vagaries of copyists. For the purpose of this paper, consistency has been ex­ tended to such names as Edward and Alfred, showing them hereafter as Eadweardand Aelfred, though the Anglo-Saxon form IE is not used, Ae being used instead. Whereproperty inheritance is concerned, people often found it desirable to meddle with the evidence, so that charters range from genuine contemporary documents through a wide range of copying and mis—copyingto outright forged instruments. Mis-copyingand a desire for noble ancestors mayalso affect pedigrees; casual statements of relation­ ship are particularly prone to copying error. Despite these handicaps, the wealth of material does make it possible to obtain results considerably morefull than has been usually acknowledged either by Anglo-Saxonists or genealogists. In a remarkable article on the genealogy of Earl God­ wine, Lundie W. Barlow was able to present very convincing evidence of the great importance of the families descended fron1KingAethelred and good evidence that Godwinebelonged to this lineage.7 However,while his hypotheses were very carefully thought out andhis citation of evidence strongly supports his conclusions, the material was presented in a very condensed form and a casual reading does not makeclear the nature of the evidence. I have found that genealogists familiar with Barlow's work profess themselves unable to judge it. Hart makes passing reference to it in his biography of Godwine,3 but to my knowledge no Anglo­ Saxonist has madea detailed appraisal of Barlow's con­ clusions. I have also had the good fortune to have access to a series of pencil notes on the LondonLibrary copy of Searle's standard work,9 by a still anonymouscommentator, whosenotes do for Leofric of Mercia what Barlow did for the house of Godwine, demonstrating the descent of the later ealdormen of Mercia from the elder son of King Aethelred. The evidence strongly suggests that muchof our avail­ able data fronlcharters and other documentsrelate to a much smaller and moreclosely inter—related.group of people than has been recognized. For these preliminary remarks, the study is directed to the relationships of Aethelweard, Ealdorman of Wessex and his son Aethelmaer, Ealdorman of Devon. King Aethelred's confirmation charter to Eynsham Abbey, edited and studied by Salter,1° mentions Beorhtnoth [Brithnoth], Ealdorman of Essex and Beorht-helm [Brith­ helm], Bishop of Winchester, as relatives of Ealdorman Aethelmaer, whois himself called a relative of the king. The will of Aelfheah, Ealdorman of Hampshire11mentions his brother Aelfhere, knownto be the Ealdorman of Mercia, and his kinsman Aethelweard, apparently the above-mentioned Ealdorman of Wessex, to whomhe devised Wicuman. This is presumably Wycombe,co. Bucks, held at a later date by the family of Godwine. Since it will be shownthat Godwine's family held a considerable numberof properties previously 64 The House of Aethelred held by Ealdorman Aethelweard of Wessex, this tends to support the Viewthat the Aethelweard called "kinsman" of Ealdorman Aelfheah was that same Ealdorman of Wessex. Aelfheah's will also mentions Crondall, which had been devised to him by his relative Aelfsige, Bishop—E1ectof Canterbury. This Aelfsige also held Clere, which had been devised by Ealdorman Aethelweald to an unnamed son of his brother Aelfstan;12 Aethelweald also devised Carcel to Aelfsige, his brother's son. This will be discussed later at greater length, but it may already be assumed with considerable probability that these statements are in part parallel and safely identify Aelfsige, Bishop—e1ectof Canterbury, as nephewof Aethelweald and son of Aelfstan. This Aethelweald, Ealdormanof Wiltshire, also mentions in his will his brother Aethelstan, knownfrom other sources as the "Half-King", Ealdorman of East Anglia and, for a time, of Mercia. Aethelstan is described in the history of RamseyAbbeyas "from royal ancestors".13 His son Aethel­ wine is called in his epitaph "relative of King Edwin" [Regis Eadwini cognatus] and in the life of St. Oswald14as "bornof royal lineage". All of these items indicate direct royal ancestry for the family of Aethelstan. The other previously mentioned individuals are also known to be royal relatives. King Eadred gave land at Bockland, co. Dorset to his kinsman “Elfere" [Aelfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia] in 951.16 Aelfhere is described by Florence of Worcester17 as "a relative of Ed ar, Kingof the English" and as "prince of the Mercians".1 Aelfheah, the previously mentionedbrother of Aelfhere, is described as a relative of King Eadwig.19 Beorhthelm [Brithhelm], the previously mentioned Bishop of Winchester, is described in a grant of 960 as a "blood relative" of King Edgar and "of the biological lineage" of the sameking in a charter of 961.20 His name suggests some possible relationship to manofBeorhthelm, Essex, the described father of as Beorhtnoth "prince".2 Ebyrthnothl, Beorhtnoth's ealdor— wife was a sister of the wife of King Eadmund,and his ownsister was married to Aethelstan, the Half-King.22 Thus the families of Aelfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, of Beorhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex, of Beorhthelm, Bishop of Winchester, and, as will be shown, of Aethelstan, Ealdorman of East Anglia, were all related to Aethelweard, Ealdorman of Wessex. Moreover, all five families were related to the royal family, and the families of Aelfhere and Aethelstan are known to be related to each other. The simplest explanation for this series of relationships is a common royal descent for all or most of them; for some of them, indeed, such a descent was alleged. Evidence from land descent also supports this view. Thewill of KingAelfred23 left a series of properties to "Aethelm"[Aethelhelm], the son of his brother (King Aethelred) with the proviso that they be inherited in the male line "while there shall be any worthyof it" andwith ultimate reversion to Aelfred's next 65 A Tribute to Charles Evans of kin. Noreversion occurred. Amongthese properties were Aldinbourn, left in the will of EaldormanAelfheahll to his brother Aelfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, Compton(probably including the Little Comptongiven by Ealdorman Aethel­ maer, son of Ealdorman Aethelweard, to EynshamAbbey), and Crondall, devised by Aelfsige, Archbishop-Elect of Canter­ bury to his relative Ealdorman Aelfheah, as previously mentioned. Aethelweald, uncle of Aelfsige, also held Newnton, which had been separately granted by King Aelfred to his nephew, EaldormanAethelhelm, and devised it to his brother Aethelstan. Thusthree of the five families weare considering are knownto have held property which, under the will of KingAelfred, were limited to descendants of his nephewAethelhelm in the male line. If this is accepted as a valid indication that Aethel­ stan and his brothers were descendants of Aethelhelm, chronology prevents their being more remote descendants than grandsons. Fenton Aylmerwas able to show24that there is goodevidence that Aethelstan's father wasAethelfrith, Ealdormanof Mercia. This Aethelfrith lost his property titles by fire and someof the lands were reconfirmed to him, including Wrington, co. somerset and Princes Ris­ borough, co. Bucks, the latter of which had previously belonged to a certain Aethelwulf [Athulf] and his daughter Aethelgyth.

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