Æthelwulf, King of Wessex

Æthelwulf was sent by his father Ecgberht to Kent in 825 with an army to drive out Mercia's sub-king, and stayed on as sub-king himself. He became King of Wessex in 839, the first son to succeed his father there in nearly two centuries. He lost to Vikings at Carhampton in 843 but crushed them at Aclea in 851, and in 853 joined Mercia's campaign into Wales while marrying his daughter Æthelswith to Mercia's king. In 855 he gave away a tenth of his property, divided the realm between his sons Æthelbald and Æthelberht, and set off for Rome. After a year there he married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, but when he returned Æthelbald refused to step aside. Æthelwulf agreed to rule the east, leaving his son the west, and died in 858. Twentieth-century historians called him weak and overly pious; twenty-first-century ones see the king who made Wessex strong enough for Alfred the Great to finish the job.