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Carney & Wehofer Family
Genealogy Pages
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Abt 848 - 901 (~ 53 years)
Generation: 1
1. | Alfred "The Great" King Of ENGLAND, King Of England was born about 848 in Of, Wantage, Berkshire, England (son of Aethelwulf King Of WESSEX & KENT and Osburh Queen Of WESSEX); died on 26 Oct 901 in , Winchester, Hampshire, England; was buried in Winchester Old Minster Hampshire. Other Events:
- AFN: GS4H-XF
- Name: The Great
- _UID: 47D5463A70E2414F93706439B2D2B66CC42B
- ACCEDED: Apr 871
Notes:
Born at Wantage, Berkshire, in 849, Alfred was the fifth son of Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons. At their father's behest and by mutual agreement, Alfred's elder brothers succeeded to the kingship in turn, rather than endanger the kingdom by passing it to under-age children at a time when the country was threatened by worsening Viking raids from Denmark.
Since the 790s, the Vikings had been using fast mobile armies, numbering thousands of men embarked in shallow-draught longships, to raid the coasts and inland waters of England for plunder. Such raids were evolving into permanent Danish settlements; in 867, the Vikings seized York and established their own kingdom in the southern part of Northumbria. The Vikings overcame two other major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, East Anglia and Mercia, and their kings were either tortured to death or fled. Finally, in 870 the Danes attacked the only remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, whose forces were commanded by King Aethelred and his younger brother Alfred. At the battle of Ashdown in 871, Alfred routed the Viking army in a fiercely fought uphill assault. However, further defeats followed for Wessex and Alfred's brother died.
As king of Wessex at the age of 21, Alfred (reigned 871-99) was a strongminded but highly strung battle veteran at the head of remaining resistance to the Vikings in southern England. In early 878, the Danes led by King Guthrum seized Chippenham in Wiltshire in a lightning strike and used it as a secure base from which to devastate Wessex. Local people either surrendered or escaped (Hampshire people fled to the Isle of Wight), and the West Saxons were reduced to hit and run attacks seizing provisions when they could. With only his royal bodyguard, a small army of thegns (the king's followers) and Aethelnoth earldorman of Somerset as his ally, Alfred withdrew to the Somerset tidal marshes in which he had probably hunted as a youth. (It was during this time that Alfred, in his preoccupation with the defence of his kingdom, allegedly burned some cakes which he had been asked to look after; the incident was a legend dating from early twelfth century chroniclers.)
A resourceful fighter, Alfred reassessed his strategy and adopted the Danes' tactics by building a fortified base at Athelney in the Somerset marshes and summoning a mobile army of men from Wiltshire, Somerset and part of Hampshire to pursue guerrilla warfare against the Danes. In May 878, Alfred's army defeated the Danes at the battle of Edington. According to his contemporary biographer Bishop Asser, 'Alfred attacked the whole pagan army fighting ferociously in dense order, and by divine will eventually won the victory, made great slaughter among them, and pursued them to their fortress (Chippenham) ... After fourteen days the pagans were brought to the extreme depths of despair by hunger, cold and fear, and they sought peace'. This unexpected victory proved to be the turning point in Wessex's battle for survival.
Realising that he could not drive the Danes out of the rest of England, Alfred concluded peace with them in the treaty of Wedmore. King Guthrum was converted to Christianity with Alfred as godfather and many of the Danes returned to East Anglia where they settled as farmers. In 886, Alfred negotiated a partition treaty with the Danes, in which a frontier was demarcated along the Roman Watling Street and northern and eastern England came under the jurisdiction of the Danes - an area known as 'Danelaw'. Alfred therefore gained control of areas of West Mercia and Kent which had been beyond the boundaries of Wessex. To consolidate alliances against the Danes, Alfred married one of his daughters, Aethelflaed, to the ealdorman of Mercia -Alfred himself had married Eahlswith, a Mercian noblewoman - and another daughter, Aelfthryth, to the count of Flanders, a strong naval power at a time when the Vikings were settling in eastern England.
The Danish threat remained, and Alfred reorganised the Wessex defences in recognition that efficient defence and economic prosperity were interdependent. First, he organised his army (the thegns, and the existing militia known as the fyrd) on a rota basis, so he could raise a 'rapid reaction force' to deal with raiders whilst still enabling his thegns and peasants to tend their farms.
Second, Alfred started a building programme of well-defended settlements across southern England. These were fortified market places ('borough' comes from the Old English burh, meaning fortress); by deliberate royal planning, settlers received plots and in return manned the defences in times of war. (Such plots in London under Alfred's rule in the 880s shaped the streetplan which still exists today between Cheapside and the Thames.) This obligation required careful recording in what became known as 'the Burghal Hidage', which gave details of the building and manning of Wessex and Mercian burhs according to their size, the length of their ramparts and the number of men needed to garrison them. Centred round Alfred's royal palace in Winchester, this network of burhs with strongpoints on the main river routes was such that no part of Wessex was more than 20 miles from the refuge of one of these settlements. Together with a navy of new fast ships built on Alfred's orders, southern England now had a defence in depth against Danish raiders.
Alfred's concept of kingship extended beyond the administration of the tribal kingdom of Wessex into a broader context. A religiously devout and pragmatic man who learnt Latin in his late thirties, he recognised that the general deterioration in learning and religion caused by the Vikings' destruction of monasteries (the centres of the rudimentary education network) had serious implications for rulership. For example, the poor standards in Latin had led to a decline in the use of the charter as an instrument of royal government to disseminate the king's instructions and legislation. In one of his prefaces, Alfred wrote 'so general was its [Latin] decay in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English or translate a letter from Latin into English ... so few that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when I came to the throne.'
To improve literacy, Alfred arranged, and took part in, the translation (by scholars from Mercia) from Latin into Anglo-Saxon of a handful of books he thought it 'most needful for men to know, and to bring it to pass ... if we have the peace, that all the youth now in England ... may be devoted to learning'. These books covered history, philosophy and Gregory the Great's 'Pastoral Care' (a handbook for bishops), and copies of these books were sent to all the bishops of the kingdom. Alfred was patron of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (which was copied and supplemented up to 1154), a patriotic history of the English from the Wessex viewpoint designed to inspire its readers and celebrate Alfred and his monarchy.
Like other West Saxon kings, Alfred established a legal code; he assembled the laws of Offa and other predecessors, and of the kingdoms of Mercia and Kent, adding his own administrative regulations to form a definitive body of Anglo-Saxon law. 'I ... collected these together and ordered to be written many of them which our forefathers observed, those which I liked; and many of those which I did not like I rejected with the advice of my councillors ... For I dared not presume to set in writing at all many of my own, because it was unknown to me what would please those who should come after us ... Then I ... showed those to all my councillors, and they then said that they were all pleased to observe them' (Laws of Alfred, c.885-99).
By the 890s, Alfred's charters and coinage (which he had also reformed, extending its minting to the burhs he had founded) referred to him as 'king of the English', and Welsh kings sought alliances with him. Alfred died in 899, aged 50, and was buried in Winchester, the burial place of the West Saxon royal family.
By stopping the Viking advance and consolidating his territorial gains, Alfred had started the process by which his successors eventually extended their power over the other Anglo-Saxon kings; the ultimate unification of Anglo-Saxon England was to be led by Wessex. It is for his valiant defence of his kingdom against a stronger enemy, for securing peace with the Vikings and for his farsighted reforms in the reconstruction of Wessex and beyond, that Alfred - alone of all the English kings and queens - is known as 'the Great'.
Relationship (J,M&L):
38th Great-grandparent
ACCEDED:
Reigned Apr 871 To 26 Oct 899
Alfred married Ealhswith Queen Of ENGLAND, Queen Of England in 868. Ealhswith (daughter of Ethelred "Mucil" Eald Of The GAINAI and Eadburh FADBURN) was born about 852 in Mercia, England; died on 5 Dec 905. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Notes:
Married:
NOTE MARRIED
Children:
- Elfridam Princess Of ENGLAND was born about 868 in Wessex, England; died on 7 Jun 929 in Flanders, Nord, France.
- Ethelfleda Princess Of ENGLAND was born about 869 in , Wessex, England; died on 12 Jun 918 in , St. Peters, Gloucestershire, England.
- Edward I "The Elder" King Of ENGLAND, King Of England was born about 871 in Wessex, England; died on 17 Jul 924 in Farrington (Farndon-On-Dee), Berkshire, England; was buried in Winchester Cathedral, London, England.
- Edmund Prince Of ENGLAND was born about 873 in , Wessex, England; and died.
- Ethelgiva Princess Of ENGLAND was born about 875 in , Wessex, England; and died.
- Athelstan King Of SAXONY was born in 878; and died.
- Ethelwerd Prince Of ENGLAND was born about 879 in Of, Wessex, England; died on 16 Oct 922.
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Generation: 2
2. | Aethelwulf King Of WESSEX & KENT was born about 806 in Of, Wessex, England (son of Egbert King Of WESSEX and Raedburh Of TOULOUSE); died on 13 Jan 856-857 in , England; was buried in , Stamridge. Other Events:
- AFN: 9GCX-J1
- Name: Ethelwulf King Of WESSEX
- _UID: 323E86458C944024912EF1DCD3C3B1770971
Notes:
Aethelwulf, also spelled ETHELWULF (d. 858), Anglo-Saxon king in England, the father of King Alfred the Great. As ruler of the West Saxons from 839 to 856, he allied his kingdom of Wessex with Mercia and thereby withstood invasions by Danish Vikings.
The son of the great West Saxon king Egbert (ruled 802-839), Aethelwulf ascended the throne four years after the Danes had begun large-scale raids on the English coast. In 851 he scored a major victory over a large Danish army at a place called Aclea in Surrey. Aethelwulf then married his daughter to the Mercian king Burgred (853), and in 856 he himself married the daughter of Charles II the Bald, king of the West Franks. Aethelwulf was deposed by a rival faction upon his return from a pilgrimage to Rome in 856, but he continued to rule Kent and several other eastern provinces until his death. In addition to Alfred the Great (ruled 871-899), three of Aethelwulf's other sons became kings of Wessex. [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
Source: lorenfamily.com
Relationship (J,M&L):
39th Great-grandparent
Aethelwulf married Osburh Queen Of WESSEX about 830. Osburh (daughter of Oslac Chief Butler Of WESSEX) was born about 810 in Of, Wessex, England; died about 853. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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3. | Osburh Queen Of WESSEX was born about 810 in Of, Wessex, England (daughter of Oslac Chief Butler Of WESSEX); died about 853. Other Events:
- AFN: FLGQ-GK
- _UID: F7CD0BD97C97404FB3D8F55FE413B4330723
Notes:
Title: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999
Page: 1-14
Title: Encyclopedia Britannica, Treatise on
Page: United Kingdom, Sovereigns of Britain
Source: lorenfamily.com
Relationship (J,M&L):
39th Great-grandparent
Children:
- Aethelred I King Of WESSEX & KENT was born about 830 in Of, Wantage, Berkshire, England; died on 23 Apr 871 in Merton, Torrington, Devonshire, England; was buried in Wimborne, Dorsetshire, England.
- Athelstan King Of KENT, ESSEX AND SUSSEX was born about 838 in Of, Wantage, Berkshire, England; died about 850.
- Ethelbald King Of WESSEX was born about 840 in Of, Wantage, Berkshire, England; and died.
- Ethelswith Queen Of MERCIA was born about 846 in Of, Wantage, Berkshire, England; died about 888.
- 1. Alfred "The Great" King Of ENGLAND, King Of England was born about 848 in Of, Wantage, Berkshire, England; died on 26 Oct 901 in , Winchester, Hampshire, England; was buried in Winchester Old Minster Hampshire.
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Generation: 3
4. | Egbert King Of WESSEX was born about 784 in Of, Wessex, England (son of Ealhmund Under-King Of KENT and Princess Of KENT); died after 19 Nov 838 in , Wessex, England; was buried in Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, England. Other Events:
- AFN: G70H-62
- Name: Egbert I First Saxon KING
- Name: King Of Wessex EGBERT
- _UID: 19AD2712ECDA4CE18A0E3E345B857354A36D
Notes:
Egbert became the first King of Wessex in 802, he also included Kent in his kingdom in 827. He is considered to be the first king of England--however it only included the south and west (Kent and Wessex areas).
Source: lorenfamily.com
Relationship (J,M&L):
40th Great-grandparent
Egbert married Raedburh Of TOULOUSE in , Wessex, England. Raedburh (daughter of Makhir I (Thierry) Ha-David Count Of TOULOUSE, Count Of Autun and Aude (Aldana) Of AUSTRASIA, Princess Of The Franks) was born about 773 in Toulouse, France; died about 840 in Wessex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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6. | Oslac Chief Butler Of WESSEX was born about 785 in Of, Wessex, England; and died. Other Events:
- AFN: FLGQ-VM
- Name: Chief Butler Of Wessex OSLAC
- Name: Oslac Ealdorman Royal Cupbearer Of WESSEX
- Name: Oslac The Thane Of ISLE OF WIGHT
- _UID: 07C9B5EFAD164B5BBC51573E2E1B57CDEC4A
Notes:
Source: lorenfamily.com
Relationship (J,M&L):
40th Great-grandparent
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Generation: 4
9. | Princess Of KENT was born about 759 in Kent, Jefferson County, Indiana (daughter of Aethelbert II King Of KENT); and died. Other Events:
- AFN: G70H-5V
- _UID: 54104CCEA0904B48A2C92D8963BF8C8393A2
Notes:
Source: lorenfamily.com
Children:
- 4. Egbert King Of WESSEX was born about 784 in Of, Wessex, England; died after 19 Nov 838 in , Wessex, England; was buried in Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, England.
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10. | Makhir I (Thierry) Ha-David Count Of TOULOUSE, Count Of Autun was born in 730 in Babylon, Iraq (son of Haninai (Havivai) Ben Natronai HA-DAVID and Rolinde (Rolinda) De LAON); died in 804 in Toulouse, France. Other Events:
- Name: Aka Makhir Ben Habibai DAVID
- Name: Aka Makhir Ben Habibai HA-DAVID
- Name: Makhir Theodoric Count Of AUTUN
- Name: Makir Theodoric AYMERI
- Name: Thierry Count Of AUTUN
- _UID: 007EFBEFFFB74A7A8B11E467004FDAD2C4DB
- Event: Abt 752
- Titled: Abt 753
Notes:
SOURCES:
(Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 234, Line 329-40)
Duke of Toulouse Note: Called "Makir"
Note: Also called Theodericus I, Judiarch of Narbonne a ranking Jewish leader
Note:
His ancestry is one of the great lineages of antiquity. Ancestry for Theodoric is takenfrom Augustan Society Charts. (Chart R2 "Sasanians to the Exilarcs") According to Roderick W. Stuart in his "Royalty for Commoners) on page 229, "This is factual material based on sound material."
Relationship (J,M&L):
38th Great-grandparent
Relationship (J,M&L):
37th Great-grandparent
Relationship (J,M&L):
41st Great-grandparent
Event:
Sent to France by the Caliph of Baghdad, Abul 'Abbas Al-Saffah, after Pepin "the Short" requests a Jew of the line of David.
Titled:
Comte (Count) d'Autun
Makhir married Aude (Aldana) Of AUSTRASIA, Princess Of The Franks about 753. Aude (daughter of Charles Martel "The Hammer", Mayor Of Palace and Rotrou (Chrotrude) Of ALEMANIA, Duchess Of Austrasia) was born before 724 in France; died before 804. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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