Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/48

 in the same direction was taken by Ælfred when he married his daughter Æthelflæd [see ] to the Mercian ealdorman. In this year also he sent his youngest and best loved son Alfred, or Ælfred [q. v.], to Rome to Leo IV. Although the victory of Ockley checked the invasions of the pirates, they still held Thanet, and a vigorous attempt that was made by the forces of Kent and Surrey to dislodge them ended in failure. Still the country was, on the whole, at peace, and Æthelwulf determined to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Before he set out he made a grant, or a series of grants, which used to be considered the origin of tithes in England. The whole subject has been critically examined by Kemble (Saxons in England, ii. 481–90), and Haddan and Bishop Stubbs (Eccles. Documents, iii. 636–48). It will therefore be enough to say here that this donation ‘had nothing to do with tithe’ (Const. Hist. i. 228), that the payment of tithe was ordered by law in 787, and that the effect of Æthelwulf's charters, as far as anything can be made out of them and out of the notices of historians, was to free a tenth part of the folc-lands, whether held by ecclesiastics or laymen, from all burdens save the three called the trinoda necessitas, which fell on all land, and to give a tenth part of his own land to various thegns and religious houses. The grants he made, or at least is said to have made, were very large, and, whatever they conveyed, Æthelwulf seems to have adopted the measure of the tenth as one that appeared suitable for benefactions. His donation, of course, ‘affected Wessex only’ ( and ). His grants were made for the good of his own soul and the souls of his ancestors. He left England probably early in 855, and proceeded to the court of Charles the Bald, king of the West-Franks. The Frankish king had, equally with Æthelwulf, to contend with Scandinavian invaders; but the intercourse between the English and the Franks was already so frequent that it seems going too far to imagine that Æthelwulf's visit and subsequent marriage suggest the formation of ‘a common plan of operations,’ or show that his policy ‘was in advance of his age’. Charles received him with much honour, and conducted him in kingly state through his dominions (Ann. Bertin.) At Rome he is said to have been received by Leo IV, who died 17 July. His visit no doubt really belongs to the pontificate of Benedict III. He made a large number of offerings of pure gold of great weight and magnificence, rebuilt the English school or hospital for English pilgrims, and perhaps promised a yearly payment to the holy see, which is said to have been the origin of Peter's pence (Gesta Regum, i. 152). After staying a year in Rome he returned to France, and in July 856 betrothed himself to Judith, the daughter of Charles. The marriage took place on 1 Oct. at Verberie on the Oise, though, as the bride's parents were married on 14 Dec. 842 (, iv. c. 6), she could not have been more than thirteen; and there is reason to believe that Æthelwulf's English wife, Osburh, was still living [see under ]. Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, married them, and after the marriage placed a crown upon the bride's head and blessed her as queen, though it was contrary to West-Saxon custom that the king's wife should be crowned or be called queen (Ann. Bertin. sub an. 856), a custom which King Ælfred told Asser was to be traced to the general abhorrence of the crimes of Eadburh, queen of Beorhtric [q. v.] The form used for the marriage and coronation of Judith is still extant (Capitularia C. Calvi,, vii. 620). Æthelwulf then returned to England with his bride, but according to Asser's story found Wessex in revolt. During his absence his son Æthelbald, Bishop Ealhstan, and Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, conspired to keep him out of the land, and held a meeting of their adherents in the forest of Selwood. The marriage with Judith, which was probably considered as likely to lead to a change in the succession to the injury of Æthelbald and the other West-Saxon æthelings, was the primary cause of the conspiracy, though the king is said to have given other causes of offence. Æthelwulf was joyfully received in Kent, and the Kentishmen urged him to let them do battle with his son. He shrank from such a war, and at a meeting of the witan gave up the kingdom of the West-Saxons to Æthelbald, and kept only the under-kingdom of Kent for himself. In this kingdom he set his queen Judith beside him on a royal throne without exciting any anger. Neither the ‘Chronicle’ nor Æthelweard mentions this revolt; Florence of Worcester copies it from Asser, and it must therefore stand on Asser's authority, which seems indisputable. Æthelwulf lived for two years, or perhaps two years and a half, after he returned from France (two years A.-S. Chron. sub an. 855; ), and it is certain that in the period of five years assigned in the ‘Chronicle’ as the duration of Æthelbald's reign two years and a half must belong to the time during which his father was alive. This would not, however, have any decisive bearing on the story of the partition of the kingdom. Before Æthelwulf died he made a will with the