Æthelheard (meaning roughly "Noble Stern"), also spelled Ethelheard, Edelard or Æþelheard, was King of Wessex from 726 to 740. There is an unreliable record of Æthelheard having been the brother-in-law of his predecessor, Ine,[1] but his ancestry is unknown, perhaps making him the first King of Wessex not to be descended from Cynric by blood.
When Ine abdicated and went to Rome in 726, he left behind no obvious heir, and according to Bede simply left his kingdom "to younger men".[4] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls him a descendant of the early king Ceawlin.[5]
^The tradition is reflected in, and may stem from, a charter in Glastonbury, now considered spurious, in which he is identified as the queen's brother. However, even as a forgery, it has sometimes been valued as at least "some evidence, when not contradicted by anything better", to quote Edward A. Freeman (1872), "King Ine", Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society18, pt 2, 1–59, fn p. 15
^"The wife of Ine bore the name of Æthelburh. She was herself of the royal house, and her brother Æthelheard, who succeeded Ine in the kingdom, is spoken of as a kinsman of his predecessor." Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society18, pt 2, 15, [1]
^The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Part 1: A.D. 1 - 748 Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #17, [2] "A.D. 740. This year died King Ethelhard; and Cuthred, his relative, succeeded to the West-Saxon kingdom"
^Downham, Clare (2007), Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, Edinburgh: Dunedin, ISBN 978-1-903765-89-0, OCLC163618313
^Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5, OCLC123113911
^Zaluckyj, Sarah & Feryok, Marge. Mercia: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England (2001) ISBN 1-873827-62-8
^Barbara Yorke (1995), Wessex in the early Middle Ages, A & C Black, ISBN 071851856X; pp 79-83; table p. 81
^Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix I: Rulers of the English, c.450–1066". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
^Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-4152-4211-0.
^Lapidge, M.; et al., eds. (1999). "Kings of the East Angles". The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. London: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1.
^Searle, W. G. 1899. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles.
^Yorke, B. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England.
^Carpenter, Clive. Kings, Rulers and Statesmen. Guinness Superlatives, Ltd.
^Ross, Martha. Rulers and Governments of the World, Vol. 1. Earliest Times to 1491.
