BURGRED, King of Mercia

Mercia was an important Anglo Saxon kingdom. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands.

Burgred succeeded to the throne in 852, and in 852 or 853 called upon Ethelwulf of Wessex to aid him in subduing northern Wales. The request was granted and the campaign proved successful, the alliance being sealed by the marriage of Burgred to Aethelswith, daughter of Ethelwulf. In 868 the Mercian king appealed to Ethelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred the Great for assistance against the Danes, who were in possession of Nottingham. The armies of Wessex and Mercia did no serious fighting, and the Danes were allowed to remain through the winter. In 874 the march of the Danes from Lindsey to Repton drove Burgred from his kingdom. They appointed a Mercian ealdorman Ceolwulf to replace him, demanding oaths of loyalty to the Danes. Burgred retired to Rome and died there. He was buried, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "in the church of Sancta Maria, in the school of the English nation" in Rome.