Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 3, 2025
This Adelstane was a man of high wisedome, and one that had borne no small rule in the kingdome of the Westsaxons, as hereby it may be coniectured, that when king Ethelwulfe returned from Rome, he would not suffer him to be admitted king, because he had doone in certeine points contrarie to the ordinances and lawes of the same kingdome, wherevpon by this bishops means Ethelbald the sonne of the same king Ethelwulfe was established king, and so continued till by agréement the kingdome was diuided betwixt them, as before is mentioned.
About this time his father, over sixty years of age, married a French princess of the name of Judith, only fourteen years of age, even in that rude age a great scandal, which nearly resulted in his dethronement. He lived but two years longer; and his youthful widow, to the still greater scandal of the realm and Church, married her late husband's eldest son, Ethelbald, who inherited the crown.
I see," he continued, for the boy was silent, "you and Ethelbald have quarrelled." "No, indeed," cried Alfred, and then he stopped. The monk went on without looking, passing the pebble slowly round and round upon the slab, grinding up what looked like thin glistening black paste. "Then why did you stay behind?" said the monk gravely.
At her marriage Judith had been crowned queen, and this was contrary to the customs of the West Saxons, therefore Ethelbald was supported by the people of that country; on his father's return to England, however, father and son met, and a division of the kingdom was agreed upon.
"Ethelbald, Ethelwulf's eldest son, had acted as regent in his father's absence, and so angered was he at this marriage that he raised his standard of revolt against his father.
However, there is a rude statue said to be that of King Ethelbald, and may have been taken from the earlier structure and built into the present bridge. It is in a sitting posture at the end of the south-west wall of the bridge.
The two oldest of these, Ethelstane and Ethelbald, aided their father in defending the country, while the others were trained in hunting and warlike exercises with the same purpose in view, but Alfred, when only five years old, was sent by King Ethelwulf upon a pilgrimage to the holy city of Rome, to receive there the blessing of Pope Leo the Fourth, who was head of the Christian Church and a ruler far mightier than any other in the world.
In the four following short reigns, of ETHELWULF, and his sons, ETHELBALD, ETHELBERT, and ETHELRED, they came back, over and over again, burning and plundering, and laying England waste. In the last-mentioned reign, they seized EDMUND, King of East England, and bound him to a tree. Then, they proposed to him that he should change his religion; but he, being a good Christian, steadily refused.
"Ethelbald received Wessex, the principal part of the kingdom, and Ethelwulf took Kent, which he had already ruled over in the time of his father Egbert. Ethelwulf died a few months afterwards, leaving Kent to Ethelbert, his second surviving son.
Ethelbald, as if to complete and consummate his unnatural conduct toward his father, persuaded the beautiful Judith, his father's widow, to become his wife, in violation not only of all laws human and divine, but also of those universal instincts of propriety which no lapse of time and no changes of condition can eradicate from the human soul.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking