With Queen Elizabeth II celebrating 60 years on the throne today, I thought we would take a look at Britain’s first monarch.

In the early 600s, the Anglo Saxons had driven the Celts from England. The country was then divided into seven kingdoms, or The Heptarchy: Kent, Sussex, Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Wessex. Kent and Northumbria, which practiced Christianity, often fought with the adjoining kingdoms in an effort to convert their “heathen” neighbors. Northumbria and Mercia were the most successful in their efforts to dominate their neighbors. Finally, Wessex found a footing when they defeated the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandun.

Ecgberht, King of Wessex (771-839), had led his people through the worst of the conflicts leading up to this victory. The son of Ealhmund of Kent, in the 780s, he was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric’s death, Ecgberht returned to claim the throne in 802. At the time, Mercia dominated the other southern English kingdoms. With the defeat of Beornwulf of Mercia in the 825 battle, the Mercian control of southeastern England ended. In 829, Ecgberht defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove the man from his kingdom, giving Ecgberht  temporary rule of Mercia. Later in the same year, Northumbria submitted to him. The Anglo-Saxon Chroniclesdescribed Ecgberht as a “bretwalda” or “Ruler of Britain.”

Depiction of Egbert from the Genealogical Chronicle of the English Kings, a late 13th century manuscript in the British Library

Ecgberht was unable to maintain this dominant position, and within a year Wiglaf regained the throne of Mercia. However, Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex and Surrey; these territories were given to Ecgberht’s son Æthelwulf to rule as a subking under Egbert. When Egbert died in 839, Æthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after Æthelwulf’s death in 858. Ecgberht’s grandson, Alfred the Great, consolidated these gains.

The earliest version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the Parker Chronicle, begins with a genealogical preface tracing the ancestry of Ecgberht’s son Æthelwulf back through Ecgberht, Ealhmund (thought to be Ealhmund of Kent), and the otherwise unknown Eoppa and Eafa to Ingild, brother of King Ine of Wessex, who abdicated the throne in 726. It continues back to Cerdic, founder of the House of Wessex. He is reputed to have had a half-sister Alburga, later to be recognized as a saint for her founding of Wilton Abbey. She was married to Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire, and on his death in 802 she became a nun, Abbess of Wilton Abbey.  The only source naming the wife of Ecgberht is a later medieval manuscript at Trinity College, Oxford, which relates that Ecgberht married Redburga, regis Francorum sororia, thought to indicate sister, sister-in law or niece of the Frankish Emperor.  This seems consistent with Ecgberht’s strong ties to the Frankish royal court and his exile there.

Egbert's name, spelled Ecgbriht, from the 827 entry in the C manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

During Echberht’s life and reign, Anglo-Saxon England produced a number of impressive scholars, the most notable of those being Baeda, or the Venerable Bede (673-735), who produced the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which outlined the Roman occupation of Britain. Other important events during the period include:

** In 613, Aethelfrith of Northumbria, defeated the Celts at the Battle of Chester.

** The Picts defeated Ecgfrith of Norhumbria at the Battle of Nechtansmere in Scotland. It was the beginning of Northumbria’s influential decline.

** In 716, Aethelbald becomes Mercia’s king. His reign brought Mercia into dominance.

** In 779, Offa, King of Mercia, defeats the West Saxon at Benson. He is considered to be England’s overlord.  The following year, Offa begins begins constructing a defensive dyke on the English/Welsh border.

** In 787, the first Viking raids occurred along the English coast.

** Charlemagne and Offa sign an trade agreement in 794. The pact would encourage exchange of goods between Europe and England.

** In 871, Ecgberht’s grandson, Alfred the Great, succeeds to the throne of England.