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Historians do not agree on Ecgberht's ancestry. The earliest version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Parker Chronicle, begins with a genealogical preface tracing the ancestry of Ecgberht's son Æthelwulf back through Ecgberht, Ealhmund (thought to be king Ealhmund of Kent), and the otherwise unknown Eafa and Eoppa to Ingild, brother of King Ine of Wessex, who abdicated the throne in 726.
Ecgberht (died 873) was king of Northumbria in the middle of the 9th century. This period of Northumbrian history is poorly recorded, and very little is known of Ecgberht. He first appears following the death of kings Ælla and Osberht in battle against the Vikings of the Great Heathen Army at York on 21 March 867. Symeon of Durham records:
Son of Ecgberht. 858 to 860: Æthelbald: Son of Æthelwulf. 860 to 865: Æthelberht: ... 25th King of Wessex 865–871: Alfred the Great c. 848–849 –899
Ecgberht had been expelled from England in his youth by Offa and Beorhtric, Ecgberht's predecessor as king of Wessex. The Chronicle states that Beorhtric helped Offa because he was married to his daughter, and Edwards argues that this shows that Ecgberht was a threat to Offa's control of Kent, and that Beorhtric had no personal reason to fear ...
Ecgberht was the son of Ealhmund, who had briefly been King of Kent in 784. Following Offa's death, King Coenwulf of Mercia (796–821) maintained Mercian dominance, but it is uncertain whether Beorhtric ever accepted political subordination, and when he died in 802 Ecgberht became king, perhaps with the support of Charlemagne. [5]
The Battle of Hingston Down took place in 838, probably at Hingston Down in Cornwall between a combined force of Cornish and Vikings on the one side, and West Saxons led by Ecgberht, King of Wessex on the other. The result was a West Saxon victory. [1] According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which called the Cornish the West Welsh:
6. She was also 38th in direct line of descent from Egbert, King of Wessex from 802 and King of England from 827 to 839. 7. Aged five weeks, she was christened in the chapel at Buckingham Palace.
Ecgberht's victory permanently transformed the political situation in south-eastern England. The king at once sent his son Æthelwulf with an army into the south-east. The West Saxons succeeded in conquering Sussex (hitherto under direct Mercian rule), Kent, and Essex, which had been governed by under-kings who had accepted Mercian overlordship.