Egbert of Wessex
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About
Egbert (c.770-839), King of Wessex, is the documented head of the House of Wessex; the oldest firmly historical rung on this side of the tree. Exiled in his youth to the court of Charlemagne, he returned to take Wessex in 802, and at the battle of Ellendun in 825 he broke Mercian supremacy for good; the Chronicle for 829 styles him 'bretwalda', wide-ruler of Britain. Every later English king of the old line, and this family, descends from him through his son Æthelwulf.
Research notes
EGBERT, King of Wessex (770-839); father of Aethelwulf (our line). *** UPDATE 25 Oct 2026: his father EALHMUND, king in Kent in 784, wired ✓ (charter; ASC 784). Above Ealhmund the line through Eafa to Cerdic and the god WODEN is the legendary frontier, NOTE-ONLY (the tree's oldest honest edge). Direct ancestor. ||RESEARCH-FLAG|| FRONTIER - evidence stops here, DELIBERATELY: above Egbert the pedigree (to Cerdic and Woden) is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's construct, compiled in Alfred's own reign by the dynasty it legitimises - a legitimising tract, not a record. Frontier flag added 14 Sep 2026.