When King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession, Æthelbald, Æthelbert and Æthelred.

But when Wihtred died in 725, and Ine abdicated his throne the following year to become a monk in Rome, Æthelbald was free to establish Mercia's hegemony over the rest of the Anglo-Saxons south of the Humber.

His eldest surviving son Æthelbald ( Athelstan had since died ) had devised a conspiracy with the Ealdorman of Somerset and the Bishop of Sherborne to oppose Æthelwulf's resumption of the kingship on his return.

When Æthelbald died childless in 860, the kingship of the West Saxons also passed to Æthelberht.

Æthelbald ( also spelled Ethelbald, or Aethelbald ) ( died 757 ) was the King of Mercia, in what is now the English Midlands, from 716 until 757.

When Ceolred died of a fit at a banquet, Æthelbald returned to Mercia and became ruler.

* Æthelbald ( bishop ), bishop of Sherborne ( died between 918 and 925 )

Judith was still childless when Æthelbald died in 860 after a reign of two and a half years,

Æthelbald did become king and, even though Guthlac had died two years previously, kept his word and started construction of Crowland Abbey on St Bartholomew's Day 716 AD.

He was buried at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset beside his brother Æthelbald.

Both Wessex and Kent were ruled by strong kings at that time, but within fifteen years the contemporary chronicler Bede describes Æthelbald as ruling all England south of the river Humber.

The subsequent 747 council of Clovesho, and a charter Æthelbald issued at Gumley in 749 — which freed the church from some of its obligations — may have been responses to Boniface's letter.

In 752, Æthelbald and Cuthred are again on opposite sides of the conflict, and according to one version of the manuscript, Cuthred " put him to flight " at Burford.

Æthelbald seems to have reasserted his authority over the West Saxons by the time of his death, since a later West Saxon king, Cynewulf, is recorded as witnessing a charter of Æthelbald at the very beginning of his reign, in 757.

A council was, in fact, subsequently held at Clovesho ( the location of which is now lost ); Æthelbald attended and perhaps presided.

A 19th-century engraving of the crypt at Repton where Æthelbald was interred.

Two years after this, in 749, at the synod of Gumley, Æthelbald issued a charter that freed ecclesiastical lands from all obligations except the requirement to build forts and bridges — obligations which lay upon everyone, as part of the trinoda necessitas.

In 757, Æthelbald was killed at Seckington, Warwickshire, near the royal seat of Tamworth.

Æthelbald was buried at Repton, in a crypt which still can be seen ; a contemporary is reported to have seen a vision of him in hell, reinforcing the impression of a king not universally well-regarded.

The monastery church on the site at that time was probably constructed by Æthelbald to house the royal mausoleum ; other burials there include that of Wigstan, but nearly all of the Royal coffins in Repton were probably vandalised and destroyed by the Vikings ..

Image: Repton crypt. jpg | 1-A 19th-century engraving of the crypt at Repton where Æthelbald was interred

This year Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, in the 12th year of his reign, fought at Burford, against Æthelbald king of the Mercians, and put him to flight.

In 752, Cuthred led a successful rebellion against Æthelbald at Battle Edge in Burford and secured independence from Mercia for the rest of his reign.

The first church of Hoo St Werburgh may have been built in the reign of the 8th century King Æthelbald of Mercia, though presumably a monastery existed nearby at an earlier time.

After returning from exile, Æthelbald of Mercia succeeded Coelred and afterwards endowed the church at Crowland.

The Life of Guthlac, which includes information about Æthelbald during his period of exile at Crowland, is dedicated to Ælfwald.

Æthelbald was driven to take refuge deep in the Fens at Crowland, where Guthlac, another descendant of the Mercian royal house, was living as a hermit.

According to Alfred the Great's biographer, Asser, during Æthelwulf's absence there may have been a plot hatched to prevent the king's return either by Æthelbald, or by Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne and Eanwulf, Ealdorman of Somerset, or by all three.

Little is known of his reign and only one charter survives, witnessed by king Æthelbald, king Æthelbert and Judith, suggesting that he was on good terms with his brother.

Æthelbald came to the throne on the death of his cousin, King Ceolred.

There is little direct evidence of the relationship between Æthelbald and the kings who were dependent on him.

From Kentish charters it is known that Æthelbald was in control of London, and from Æthelbald's time on, the transition to Mercian control appears to be complete ; an early charter of Offa's, granting land near Harrow, does not even include the king of Essex on the witness list.

In 745 – 746, the leading Anglo-Saxon missionary in Germany, St Boniface, along with seven other bishops, sent Æthelbald a scorching letter reproaching him for many sins — stealing ecclesiastical revenue, violating church privileges, imposing forced labour on the clergy, and fornicating with nuns.

The mounted figure on the Repton Stone in Derby Museum has been identified as Æthelbald.

A fragment of a cross shaft from Repton includes on one face a carved image of a mounted man which, it has been suggested, may be a memorial to Æthelbald.

Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere of the Hwicce, is described as a " subregulus ", or subking, of Æthelbald of Mercia.

Earnwine's father had been an exile in the north after his defeat in the civil war of 705 – 706, and it may be that Óengus, or Æthelbald, or both, had tried to place him on the Northumbrian throne.

Unlike the straightforward narrative of the attacks on Dál Riata, a number of interpretations have been offered of the relations between Óengus, Eadberht and Æthelbald in the period from 740 to 750.

This rests largely on a confused passage in Symeon of Durham's Historia Regum Anglorum, and it has more recently been suggested that the interpretation offered by Frank Stenton — that it is based on a textual error and that Óengus and Æthelbald were not associated in any sort of joint overlordship — is the correct one.

Through the influence of King Æthelbald he was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 731 and was consecrated on 10 June 731.

Wootton is first mentioned when Æthelbald, King of the Mercians, gave to the Earl Aethilric 20 hides of land for a minster between the years 723 and 737.