is incorrect at this period). He was married to Osburh, daughter of Oslac, the royal cup-bearer, a descendant of the ancient princely line of the Jutes of Wight, and gave his eldest son, Æthelstan, charge of the Kentish kingdom with the title of king, putting him in the position that he had held during the later years of his father's life (ib. p. 241; A.-S. Chron. sub an. 836). At the time of his accession the English were much troubled about a vision that a priest declared he had seen concerning the neglect of Sunday. Æthelwulf took the matter to heart as much as his people, determined to make a pilgrimage to Rome, and sent an embassy to the emperor Lewis, asking that he might pass through his dominions (Annales Bertiniani, sub an. 839). His journey, however, was put off. According to William of Malmesbury Æthelwulf was slothful, loved quiet, and was only stirred to active exertion by the influence of his ministers Swithun and Ealhstan, Swithun giving him advice on ecclesiastical and Ealhstan on secular matters, the one managing the treasury, the other the army (Gesta Regum, ii. sec. 108). While this description is no doubt somewhat coloured by the legend of the king's admission to clerical orders, there is probably some truth in it. Æthelwulf seems only occasionally to have taken a personal part in resisting the invasions of the Danes; he was roused now and again to great and successful efforts, and then returned to his usual quiet life, and left the work of meeting the constantly repeated attacks to the leaders of local forces. He was extremely religious, and his religion was not more enlightened than that of his people generally, and he was lavish in his gifts to the church. There is reason to believe that a portion of his subjects grew dissatisfied with his rule; he lacked the power or the energy necessary to preserve the unity of his kingdom, and he declined to wage war against rebellion. (For a wholly different view of Æthelwulf's character see Conquest of England, p. 73. Mr. Green is mistaken in attributing Swithun's influence to the fact that he was ‘bishop of the royal city of Winchester;’ he did not become bishop until 852, and his promotion to the see was therefore rather a consequence of his ministerial importance than the cause of it.).
In the first year of the reign the Danes landed at Southampton, and were defeated by the ealdorman Wulfheard, one of Ecgberht's most trusted officers, who evidently met the invaders with the forces of his shire. On the other hand, another party of invaders defeated the Dorset men at Portland, and slew their ealdorman. During the next year Lindsey, East Anglia, and Kent suffered severely. Then successful raids were made on London, Canterbury, and Rochester. Meanwhile Æthelwulf appears personally to have remained inactive until, perhaps in 842 (A.-S. Chron. an. 840), he met the crews of thirty-five ships at Charmouth and was defeated. During the next nine years all that is known of Æthelwulf seems to be that he made sundry grants, and the history of the reign is a blank save for the notice of a brilliant victory gained over the invaders at the mouth of the Parret by the fyrds of Somerset and Dorset, under the command of the ealdormen of the two shires and of Bishop Ealhstan. In 851 the invaders were defeated in the west by the ealdorman of Devonshire. More serious invasions were, however, made the same year on the east coast. When the Danish fleet came off Sandwich, King Æthelstan and the ealdorman of Kent put out to sea and gained a naval victory, taking ten prizes and putting the rest of the ships to flight. Nevertheless the Danes for the first time wintered in Thanet. Meanwhile a fleet of three (or two, Asser) hundred and fifty ships, coming probably from the viking settlements that had lately been formed on the islands between the mouths of the Scheldt and the Meuse, sailed into the mouth of the Thames; the crews landed, took Canterbury and London by storm, put the Mercian king Beorhtwulf to flight, and crossed the Thames into Surrey. Roused by the danger that threatened him, Æthelwulf and his second son, Æthelbald, gathered a large force, met the invaders at Ockley, and after a stubborn fight completely routed them, slaying a larger number of them than had ever before fallen in England (A.-S. Chron.; Asser). Æthelstan, the king's eldest son, probably died in the following year, and his third son, Æthelberht, was made king in his place (Kemble, Codex Dipl. p. 269), the kingship of Wessex being destined for Æthelbald. The invasions of the Northmen encouraged the Welsh to rise against their conquerors, and in 853 Burhred [q. v.] of Mercia, the successor of Beorhtwulf, sent to his West-Saxon overlord to come and help him against them. Æthelwulf accordingly marched into Wales and brought the Welsh to submission. On his return from this expedition he gave his daughter Æthelswith (ib. p. 278) in marriage to Burhred at Chippenham. This marriage was a step towards the extinction of the existence of Mercia as a separate kingdom. Ecgberht had conquered Mercia, deposed its king, and restored him as an under-king to himself, and now Æthelwulf governed it by his son-in-law as king. A further step
