A struggle between Offa of Mercia and Charlemagne. Alfred the Great saviour of the saxons.

 

A struggle between Offa of Mercia and Charlemagne. Alfred the Great saviour of the saxons.   https://linktr.ee/ravilagut © COPYRIGHT 19-04-2023 by Rafael Alberto Vilagut - ravilagut@ymail.com CEO, and founder of the 2nd Chance M2O Movement. Telegram/youtube @ralviv.

Family tree The Iclingas.  Relationship Summary
Offa of Mercia's 8th grandfather is Icel King of Mercia.  Details Offa of Mercia (d. 0796) father Thingfrith of Mercia father Eanulf of Mercia father Osmod of Mercia father Eowa of Mercia father Pybba of Mercia father Creoda of Mercia father Cynewald of Mercia father Cnebba of Mercia (0501-0566) father Icel of Mercia (0488-0501).  Alfred the Great-Ælfred's 38th grandson is Rafael A. Vilagut-Vega b.1961.

 

Offa who died 29 July 0796, was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 0757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald. Offa defeated the other claimant, Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign, he likely consolidated his control of Midland peoples such as the Hwicce and the Magonsæte. Taking advantage of instability in the kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord, Offa also controlled Sussex by 0771, though his authority did not remain unchallenged in either territory. In the 0780s he extended Mercian Supremacy over most of southern England, allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh and regained complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of East Anglia and had King Æthelberht II of East Anglia beheaded in 0794, perhaps for rebelling against him.

 

Offa's ancestry is given in the Anglian collection, a set of genealogies that include lines of descent for four Mercian kings. All four lines descend from Pybba, who ruled Mercia early in the 7th century. Offa's line descends through Pybba's son Eowa and then through three more generations: Osmod, Eanwulf, and Offa's father, Thingfrith. Æthelbald, who ruled Mercia for most of the forty years before Offa, was also descended from Eowa according to the genealogies: Offa's grandfather, Eanwulf, was Æthelbald's first cousin. Æthelbald granted land to Eanwulf in the territory of the Hwicce, and it is possible that Offa and Æthelbald were from the same branch of the family. In one charter Offa refers to Æthelbald as his kinsman, and Headbert, Æthelbald's brother, continued to witness charters after Offa rose to power.

Offa's wife was Cynethryth, whose ancestry is unknown. The couple had a son, Ecgfrith, and at least four daughters: Ælfflæd, Eadburh, Æthelburh, and Æthelswith. It has been speculated that Æthelburh was the abbess who was a kinswoman of King Ealdred of the Hwicce, but there are other prominent women named Æthelburh during that period.

 

Offa's diplomatic relations with Europe are well documented but appear to belong only to the last dozen years of his reign. In letters dating from the late 0780s or early 0790s, Alcuin congratulates Offa for encouraging education and greets Offa's wife and son, Cynethryth and Ecgfrith. In about 0789, or shortly before, Charlemagne proposed that his son Charles marry one of Offa's daughters, most likely Ælfflæd. Offa countered with a request that his son Ecgfrith should also marry Charlemagne's daughter Bertha: Charlemagne was outraged by the request, and broke off contact with Britain, forbidding English ships from landing in his ports. Alcuin's letters make it clear that by the end of 0790, the dispute was still not resolved, and that Alcuin was hoping to be sent to help make peace. In the end, diplomatic relations were restored, at least partly by the agency of Gervold, the abbot of St Wandrille.

 

Charlemagne sought support from the English church at the council of Frankfurt in 0794, where the canons passed in 0787 at the Second Council of Nicaea was repudiated, and the heresies of two Spanish bishops, Felix and Elipandus, were condemned. In 0796 Charlemagne wrote to Offa; the letter survives and refers to a previous letter of Offa's to Charlemagne. This correspondence between the two kings produced the first surviving documents in English diplomatic history. The letter is primarily concerned with the status of English pilgrims on the continent and with diplomatic gifts, but it reveals much about the relations between the English and the Franks. Charlemagne refers to Offa as his "brother", and mentions trade in black stones, sent from the continent to England, and cloaks (or possibly cloths), traded from England to the Franks.  Charlemagne's letter also refers to exiles from England, naming Odberht, who was almost certainly the same person as Eadberht Praen, among them. Egbert of Wessex was another refugee from Offa who took shelter at the Frankish court. It is clear that Charlemagne's policy included support for elements opposed to Offa; in addition to sheltering Egbert and Eadberht he also sent gifts to Æthelred I of Northumbria.

Events in southern Britain to 0796 have sometimes been portrayed as a struggle between Offa and Charlemagne, but the disparity in their power was enormous. By 0796 Charlemagne had become master of an empire that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Hungarian Plain, and Offa and then Coenwulf were minor figures by comparison.
 

Offa of Mercia married Cynethryth Queen of Mercia.  They had the following children:

i. Ecgfrith of Mercia (d. 0976, King of Mercia only 141 days).
ii. Ælfflæd of Mercia Queen consort of Northumbria (She was the wife of KingÆthelred I of Northumbria, m. 0792).
iii. Eadburh Queen consort of Wessex (She was the wife of King Beorhtric of Wessex).
iv. Princess Æthelburh of Mercia.

v. PrincessÆthelswith of Mercia.

 

Offa died on 29 July 0796 and may be buried in Bedford, though it is not clear that the "Bedeford" named in that charter was modern Bedford. He was succeeded by his son, Ecgfrith of Mercia, but according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Ecgfrith died after a reign of only 141 days.  A letter written by Alcuin in 0797 to a Mercian ealdorman named Osbert makes it apparent that Offa had gone to great lengths to ensure that his son Ecgfrith would succeed him. Alcuin's opinion is that Ecgfrith "has not died for his sins, but the vengeance for the blood his father shed to secure the kingdom has reached the son. For you know very well how much blood his father shed to secure the kingdom of his son. It is apparent that in addition to Ecgfrith's consecration in 0787, Offa had eliminated dynastic rivals. This seems to have backfired, from the dynastic point of view, as no close male relatives of Offa or Ecgfrith are recorded, and Coenwulf, Ecgfrith's successor, was only distantly related to Offa's line.

 

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians (or Ealdorman Æthelred of Mercia; died 0911) became ruler of English Mercia shortly after the death or disappearance of its last king, Ceolwulf II in 0879. Æthelred's rule was confined to the western half, as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking-ruled Danelaw. His ancestry is unknown. He was probably the leader of an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of Wales in 881, and soon afterward he acknowledged the lordship of King Alfred the Great of Wessex. This alliance was cemented by the marriage of Æthelred to Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd.  

 

In 0886, Alfred took possession of London, which had suffered greatly from several Viking occupations. Alfred then handed London over to Æthelred, as it had traditionally been a Mercian town. In 892, the Vikings renewed their attacks, and the following year, Æthelred led an army of Mercians, West Saxons, and Welsh to victory over a Viking army at the Battle of Buttington. He spent the next three years fighting them alongside Alfred's son, the future King Edward the Elder. At some time after 0899 Æthelred's health may have declined, and Æthelflæd may have become the effective ruler of Mercia.

After Æthelred's death, Æthelflæd ruled as Lady of the Mercians until she died in 0918. The couple's only child, a daughter called Ælfwynn, then ruled briefly until deposed by her uncle, King Edward.   

 

Alfred the Great-Ælfred's 38th grandson is Rafael A. Vilagut-Vega b.1961.  I am connected to many of these ancestors by several siblings, two, three, and even four, as in the case of Charlemagne our ancestor by at least 4 different branches by a daughter and by three sons.

 

Ælfred (0849-0899) daughter Elfrida of Wessex (0877-0929) son Arnulfo I of Flandes (0889-0965) son Balduino III of Flandes (0940-0962) son Arnulfo II of Flandes (0960-0998) son Balduino IV conde of Flandes (0980-1035) son Baldwin V Count of Flanders (1012-1067) daughter Matilda of Flanders (1031-1083) son Henry I of England King of England (1061-1135) daughter Mathilde l`Emperess de la maison de Normandie (1102-1167) son King Henry II of England (1133-1189) daughter Eleanor of England Queen of Castilla (1161-1214) daughter Urraca of Castile Queen of Portugal (1187-1220) son King Afonso III of Bourgogne Rei of Portugal of Algarve (1210-1279) son Martim Afonso Chichorro (1250-1313) daughter Maria Afonso Chichorro (b.1295) daughter Maria Gonçalves Briteiros () son Dom João Lourenço da Cunha (1345-1385) son João Álvares da Cunha (b. 1371) son Rui Afonso de Melo (1395-1477) son Rui de Melo da Cuhna (1455-1530) son Alférez Álvaro de Alfonso (1535-1602)  daughter Isabel de Acuña y Berrio (1573-1622) daughter María Pereira Cardoso (1596-1636)  daughter Juana Gómez () daughter Ana Gómez (1560-1633) daughter María De La Portilla (1589-1650) daughter Catalina Mora (1608-1670) daughter María Monterroso (1625-1695) son Andrés Arias (1685-1723) son Felipe Arias () son José T. Arias () son Luis Arias (b.1763) son Antonio Arias (b.1789) son José María Arias-Zumbado (1814-1870) son Manuel Maria Arias Ugalde (1837-1890) daughter María Manuela Arias-Camacho (1876-1959) daughter Angelica Rodriguez-Arias (1908-2012) daughter Nydia Vega-Rodriguez (b.1934) son Rafael A. Vilagut-Vega (b.1961), https://vilagut.tribalpages.com. 

 

Digital Entrepreneur, Author, Researcher, Educator, Coach, and Teacher. He lives and works between Caracas (Venezuela), Barcelona, and Madrid (Spain) and Central America Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Link: https://linktr.ee/ravilagut © COPYRIGHT 2009 - 2023 Rafael Alberto Vilagut - ravilagut@ymail.com CEO M2O. Telegram/youtube @ralviv.

 

Mercia Explained in 11 Minutes, https://youtu.be/wuk1DAD6_LA. It has not been easy but it has been fun: We are direct descendants of Charlemagne through at least 4 different branches by Rafael Vilagut. San José, Costa Rica, April 18, https://bit.ly/3GQt8oQ.  Alfred the Great - Saviour of the Saxons Documentary, https://youtu.be/MLIf4XX_p_E.List of monarchs of Wessex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_Wessex#Genealogy.