Æthelwold's Revolt is a failed attempt by Æthelwold of Wessex to seize England’s preeminent throne from Edward the Elder after the death of Alfred the Great.

King Alfred of Wessex dies on October 26, 899.

The first monarch of an English kingdom to become a symbol and focus of national unity, he is he only English king called “the Great”.

The brothers 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 had left the bulk of his estate to his eldest son Edward, while Æthelhelm had been left eight estates, and Æthelwold only three at Godalming and Guildford in Surrey, and Steyning in Sussex.

Alfred had also favored his own son by giving him opportunities for command in battle once he was old enough.

After Alfred's death, Æthelwold, as the senior ætheling (prince of the royal dynasty eligible for kingship), has a strong claim to succeed him, and made a bid for the throne.

Æthelwold's revolt is probably partly motivated by a belief that he had been denied his rights in his uncle's will.

Very little is known of Æthelwold's family.

His mother was probably the Wulfthryth who in 868 witnessed a charter.

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 advantage over Edward.

In the only surviving charter that recorded Æthelwold, he is listed above 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.

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 favor of Edward and may have been intended to delegitimize a politically important marriage.

Æthelwold takes her to the royal manors of Twynham (now Christchurch) and then to Wimborne Minster, symbolically important as his father's burial place, where he declares that "he would live or die".

However, when Edward's army approaches and camps nearby at Badbury Rings, he is unable to gain sufficient support to meet them in battle.

Æthelwold, leaving behind his wife, flees to the Danes of Northumbria.

According to one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Northumbrians had accepted him as king, but within a year he had been driven out.

Northumbrian coins are issued at this time in the name of a king called 'Alwaldus', who is thought to have been Æthelwold.

Edward is meanwhile crowned on June 8, 900, possibly at Kingston on Thames.

Æthelwold in 901 had sailed with a fleet to Essex.

He persuades the Danes in East Anglia in 902 to wage war against Edward and joins them in a raid on Mercia and Wessex.

Edward retaliates by ravaging the southern Danelaw, but when he withdraws, the men of Kent refuse to obey the order to retreat.

They meet the Danes in East Anglia on December 13 at the Battle of the Holme.

Its location is unknown but may be Holme in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire).

The Danes are victorious but suffer the heavier losses.

Æthelwold is among the leaders on the Danish side who are killed, as is a King Eohric, possibly of the East Anglian Danes.

Relations with the North for the next several years will prove problematic for Edward.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes "of necessity".