Æthelwulf (d. 858), king of Wessex (839-58). The son of Egbert (802-39) and father of four kings, the youngest of whom was Alfred the Great (871-99), Æthelwulf is a far from negligible figure. He was a competent military leader, conducting substantial campaigns against the Danes at Aclea in Kent in 851 and against the Welsh of Powys in 853. Much of his personal interest seemed, however, to lie in ecclesiastical directions. He made generous provision for the financing of churches (his Decimations). In 855 he yielded his authority to his eldest son Æthelbald, and went on pilgrimage to Rome. Æthelwulf was away for a twelvemonth, and on his return with a Frankish princess as a bride (a young girl, Judith) he was forced to agree to a division of the kingdom with his own authority confined to the south-east.

(ĕ'thəlwʊlf, ă'–) , d. 858, king of Wessex (839–56), son and successor of Egbert; father of Æthelbert, Æthelred, and Alfred. He was lord of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex before his father's death in 839. As king of Wessex he was compelled to defend his realm against constant Danish attacks, and he won a notable victory over them at Aclea in 851. He also campaigned against the Welsh. A man of great piety, he went with his son Alfred to Rome in 855. In 856 he took as his second wife Judith, daughter of Charles II (Charles the Bald) of France. Learning before his return to England that his son Æthelbald, who had ruled in his absence, would resist his resumption of the kingship, Æthelwulf left his son as king of Wessex and himself ruled only in Kent and its dependencies, where Æthelbert succeeded him.