What is Athelbald of Wessex?
{{Infobox Monarch | name=Athelbald | title=King of Wessex | image= Æthelbald - MS Royal 14 B V.jpg | reign=856/858 - 20 December 860 | birth_date=834<ref>https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3379/ethelbald</ref> | birth_place= | death_date=20 December 860 | death_place= | burial_place=[[w:Sherborne Abbey|Sherborne Abbey]] | spouse=[[Judith, Countess of Flanders|Judith]] | father=[[Athelwulf of Wessex|Athelwulf]] | mother=Osburga }} '''Athelbald''', also spelled '''Æthelbald''' or '''Ethelbald''' ({{circa|834}}–860) was a [[Wessex|West Saxon]] [[nobleman]]. In 856 he was [[List of monarchs of Wessex|King of Wessex]] while his father was in Rome. When Athelwulf returned, Athelbald refused to step down. To avoid a civil war, Athelwulf gave his son the kingdom of Wessex and became sub-king of [[Kent]]. ==Career== Athelbald was the second of the five sons of King [[Athelwulf of Wessex]] and Osburga.<ref>Detlev Schwennicke, ''Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten'', Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 78</ref> She was the daughter of Oslac, Athelwulf's butler.{{efn|The office of chief butler in an Anglo-Saxon royal household is most likely his title here. He would be a nobleman who held the honorary office of butler.<ref>Laurence Marcellus Larson, ''The King's Household in England Before the Norman Conquest'', Thesis (Ph. D.), University of Wisconsin (1902), p. 127</ref>}}<ref>''Asser's Life of King Alfred'', Trans. L.C. Jane (London: Chatto & Windus, 1926), p. 3</ref> He was born about 832. He is recording fighting alongside his father in 851 in the battle at Acleah.<ref name=Bradbury141>Jim Bradbury, ''The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare'' (London; New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 141</ref> There the [[Vikings]] who had just defeated [[Berhtwulf of Mercia]] near [[London]] and when they moved into Surrey they were met and defeated by the West Saxons.<ref name=Bradbury141/> In 855 his father Athelwulf went on a [[:en:wikt:pilgrimage|pilgrima