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'''Egbert''' was the King of [[Wessex]] from 802-839, and in 829 defeated King [[Wiglaf]] of [[Mercia]] and became [[Bretwalda]] of the other English kingdoms of the [[Heptarchy]]. He is therefore widely considered one of the first Kings of a unified England. The Current Queen of the United Kingdom , [[Queen Elizabeth II]] is a direct descendent of King Egbert.

'''Egbert''' (died 839), (named as ''Ecgbryht” in some editions of the [[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]) [[king]] of [[Wessex]] 802-839 is considered to be the greatest of the West Saxon kings before [[Alfred the Great]].

 

He came to the West Saxon throne in 802 after some years at the court of [[Charlemagne]]. Not a lot is known of his early reign, but by 827 he had expanded his own kingdom with victory over [[Celt]]ic [[Cornwall]] in the west, conquest and union with [[Jutes|Jutish]] [[Kent]] to the east and, in 825, a decisive defeat of the recently dominant [[Mercia]]ns to the north.  Two years later he was in control of all Anglo-Saxon lands south of the [[River Humber]] and the Chronicle was describing him as [[bretwalda]](overlord).  In 829 he marched into [[Northumbria]] and that kingdom submitted.

 

For a brief period (830-831) he controlled all of non-Celtic Britain. It cannot be called a united country however. Soon the Mercians would regain autonomy, and the land, at least north of the [[River Thames|Thames]], reverted to competing kingdoms. Despite this, Egbert had made Wessex the dominant force in the land, where it would remain well into the next century. It is from Egbert and his line of West Saxon kings that the present monarch, [[Elizabeth II]] is descended.

 

In 835, the Chronicle reported that  ''"Heathen men ravaged Sheppey"''. (North-east [[Kent]]) The next year there was ''"great slaughter"'' in Carhampton, West [[Somerset]] when Egbert lost to a [[Denmark|Danish]] seaborne force.  He defeated a Danish-Cornish alliance in 838 but these conflicts marked the beginning in earnest of the great waves of Danish (Viking) attempts at invasion, begun as sporadic raids in 793, that would continue almost unceasingly until the [[Norman Conquest]].

 

:''“Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”''  trans.  Anne Savage 1982 pp.82/83

 

 

 

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{{Nb english monarchs}}