Æthelred of Mercia

Æthelred († 716 at Bardney) was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia from 675-704. Æthelred was a son of King Penda and younger brother of Wulfhere, whom he succeeded as king after Wulfhere fell at the Battle of Biedanheafde in 675 against the forces of Wessex under their king Æscwine.

In the same year Æthelred founded the monastery of Breedon-on-the-Hill, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. Hardulf. In 676 King Æscwine of Wessex died, and Æthelred invaded and ravaged the kingdom of Kent to such an extent that two successive bishops of the diocese of Rochester resigned their offices on account of insufficient revenues.

Æthelred was able to extend his influence temporarily into the Wessex area, as he was able to appoint a Mercian bishop at Dorchester-on-Thames, where the first bishops of the West Saxons were based. In addition, Æthelred is associated with the foundation of the Abbey at Abingdon.

The kingdom of Hwicce came within Æthlred's sphere of influence, as his nephew Berhtwald was able to grant land to Bishop Aldhelm of Sherborne in the territory of the kingdom of Hwicce in 685.

At the beginning of his reign, Æthelred drew closer to Northumbria. He married Osthryth, the sister of the Northumbrian king Ecgfrith - but disagreements between the two kingdoms soon arose again, presumably over the possession of the kingdom of Lindsey, which again led to war. In 679 a battle ensued at the River Trent, which Æthelred won victoriously, annexing the hitherto relatively independent kingdom of Lindsey to Mercia. However, he had to pay Ecgfrith wergeld for the death of his brother Ælfwine, who had died in the battle, at the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus. Subsequently, Æthelred extended his dominance over the south of England; in 688 he installed Oswine as a king in Kent who was devoted to him.

Æthelred succeeded in shaking off the last remnants of Northumbria's suzerainty over Mercia, consolidating his domain, extending it eastwards and integrating the kingdom of Lindsey into Mercia. The suzerainty over the various lands and territories exercised by Æthelred is made clear by a unique document known as the Tribal Hidage, commonly dated to the second half of the seventh century. The Tribal Hidage is a list of named areas and territories, the size of which is given by the number of their hooves. As this list begins with Mercia, which also has by far the largest number of hooves, and concentrates on the Midlands, with other territories peripheral to the Midlands also mentioned, this suggests that it is a list of Mercia dependent dominions, prior to their full integration into the strengthening Mercia. The southern kingdoms, on the other hand, began to escape Mercia's control, and so there were constant clashes with Wessex, which was growing in strength.

In 697 Æthelred's wife Ostryth was murdered by Mercian nobles. She was buried in the monastery of Bardney and later venerated as a saint. The reason for her murder is unclear. However, it is possible that she conspired with her son Oshere to break away the Hwicce kingdom from Mercia. In 704 Æthelred finally resigned as king to retire as abbot to the monastery of Bardney, and he designated Wulfhere's son Cenred as his successor. Æthelred died twelve years later at Bardney.