Æthelwold of Wessex Æthelwold or Alwaldus ( died 13 December 902 ) was the younger of two known sons of Æthelred , the king of Wessex from 865 to 871 . Æthelred ended his reign fighting a Viking invasion , and he suffered several defeats shortly before his death . His sons were too young to carry on the resistance against the Vikings , and he was succeeded by his younger brother , Alfred the Great . After Alfred ' s death in 899 , Æthelwold disputed the throne with Alfred ' s son , Edward the Elder . Æthelwold attempted to raise an army to support his claim , but he was unable to get sufficient support to meet Edward in battle , and he fled to Viking controlled Northumbria , where he was accepted as king . In 901 he sailed with a fleet to East Anglia , which was also then part of the Danelaw . The following year he persuaded the East Anglian Danes to launch an attack on Edward ' s territory in Wessex and Mercia . Edward retaliated by a raid on East Anglia , but when he retreated the men of Kent lingered and met the Danes at the Battle of the Holme on 13 December 902 . The Danes were victorious , but suffered heavy losses , including the death of Æthelwold , ending the challenge to Edward ' s rule . Background . In the eighth century Mercia was the most powerful kingdom in southern England , but in the early ninth Wessex under King Egbert became dominant . His reign saw the beginning of Viking attacks , but Egbert and his son Æthelwulf , who succeeded in 839 , were successful in resisting them . Æthelwulf died in 858 , and he was succeeded by four sons in succession . Æthelwold ' s father , Æthelred , succeeded after brief reigns by two elder brothers in 865 , the year that the Viking Great Heathen Army invaded England . Within five years they had conquered Northumbria and East Anglia and forced Mercia to buy them off . In late 870 the Vikings invaded Wessex , and in early 871 they fought Æthelred and Alfred in four battles in quick succession , the last two of which Wessex lost . Æthelred then died shortly after Easter . By 878 the Vikings had nearly conquered Wessex and Alfred was reduced to being a fugitive in the Somerset marshes , but he then fought back and won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington . This was followed by a period of peace , and in the late 880s he concluded a treaty with Guthrum , king of the East Anglian Vikings , setting the boundary between Wessex and English Mercia on the one hand , and the Danelaw on the other . A further Viking assault in the mid 990s was unsuccessful . Early life . Very little is known of Æthelwold ' s family . His mother was probably the " Wulfthryth " who witnessed a charter in 868 . She is described there as " regina " , whereas Edward ' s mother was only the king ' s wife , and Æthelwold ' s status as the son of a queen may have given him an advange over Edward . In the only surviving charter which recorded Æthelwold , he is listed above Alfred ' s eldest son , Edward , implying that he ranked above him . The only record of Æthelwold ' s older brother Æthelhelm is as a beneficiary of Alfred ' s will in the mid - 880s , and he probably died soon afterwards . Æthelred and Alfred had agreed that the bulk of their property should go to the survivor , an arrangement which left Æthelhelm and Æthelwold at a disadvantage when Æthelred died first , and Alfred ' s will makes clear that they complained that he had denied them their property . He left the bulk of his estate to Edward , while Æthelhelm was left eight estates , and Æthelwold only three at Godalming and Guildford in Surrey , and Steyning in Sussex . Alfred also favoured his own son by giving him opportunities for command in battle once he was old enough . Æthelwold ' s revolt was probably partly motivated by a belief that he had been denied his rights in his uncle ' s will . Revolt against Edward . After Alfred ' s death in 899 , Æthelwold , as the senior ætheling ( prince of the royal dynasty eligible for kingship ) , had a strong claim to succeed him , and made a bid for the throne . According to the ' A ' version of the " Anglo - Saxon Chronicle " , Æthelwold seized a nun from her convent and married her without the permission of King Edward and against the command of the bishop . Her identity is not known , but it must have been intended to strengthen his claim , and in the view of historian Pauline Stafford , the " Chronicle ' s " account is biased in favour of Edward and may have been intended to delegitimize a politically important marriage . Æthelwold took her to the royal manors of Twynham ( now Christchurch ) and then to Wimborne Minster , symbolically important as his father ' s burial place , where he declared that " he would live or die " . However , when Edward ' s army approached and camped nearby at Badbury Rings , he was unable to gain sufficient support to meet them in battle . Leaving behind his wife , he fled to the Danes of Northumbria . According to one version of the " Anglo - Saxon Chronicle " , the Northumbrians accepted him as king , but within a year he had been driven out . Northumbrian coins were issued at this time in the name of a king called ' Alwaldus ' , who is thought to have been Æthelwold . In 901 , he sailed with a fleet to Essex . In 902 he persuaded the Danes in East Anglia to wage war against Edward and joined them in a raid on Mercia and Wessex . Edward retaliated by ravaging the southern Danelaw , but when he withdrew , the men of Kent refused to obey the order to retreat . They met the Danes in East Anglia on 13 December at the Battle of the Holme . Its location is unknown but may be Holme in Huntingdonshire ( now part of Cambridgeshire ) . The Danes were victorious but suffered the heavier losses , Æthelwold was amongst the leaders on the Danish side who were killed . Legacy . In the view of the historian James Campbell , had Æthelwold not been killed at the Holme , he might have united England with much less warfare than ultimately proved to be necessary : " Had it not been for the chances of battle and war Æthelwold might very well have been regarded as one of the greatest figures in our island ' s story " . Ryan Lavelle has argued that " it is important to acknowledge the audacity of Æthelwold ' s actions " and that he " well deserves to be ranked amongst the ' Nearly Men ' of early Medieval Europe " . It is not known whether he had any descendants , but the chronicler Æthelweard claimed descent from King Æthelred , and this may have been through Æthelwold . Richard Abels refers to Æthelweard as a descendant of Æthelwold , and in the view of Nick Higham , Æthelweard shows a " lack of empathy " for Edward the Elder in his chronicle , which Higham attributes to Edward ' s victory over Æthelweard ' s ancestor .