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 == Thoughts on context/background == 

 This is just me doodling, thinking about how to address Adam Cuerden's comments. Feel free to edit. I'll fiddle around with it tomorrow when I'm more awake. 

 * To replace 2nd para of background 
 ;Start 

 Northumbria's neighbours also played a part in shaping political events. Her southern neighbour Mercia was, in the reigns of kings Æthelbald, Offa, and Coenwulf, the dominant kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. Offa, the greatest of the three, was ruler of Mercia until 796, followed soon after by Coenwulf. Offa's dominance was secured in part by marriage alliances with the other major kingdoms and Beorhtric of Wessex and Æthelred in Northumbria were married to his daughters. Further afield, Charlemagne, king of Francia and preeminent ruler in the Christian West, appears to have taken an active interest in Northumbrian affairs. Charlemagne had a number of Northumbrian churchmen in his service, among them Alcuin, whose letters illuminate Northumbria affairs at the end of the eighth century. Shortly before Æthelred was murdered in 796 an embassy from Francia delivered gifts for the king and his bishops. When the Frankish king learned of Æthelred's killing he was enraged, calling the Northumbrians ""that treacherous, perverse people...who murder their own lords"", and threatening retribution. His ambassadors, who had travelled on to Ireland and were then returning home, were ordered back to Northumbria to recover the presents. 

 Relations between Offa and Charlemagne were generally friendly, although strained by various events. Among these were Offa's complaints that Charlemagne was giving refuge to his enemies, including a Kentish priest named Odberht—probably to be identified with Eadberht Præn who ruled in Kent for a short time after Offa's death until captured and blinded by Coenwulf— and the West Saxon exile Ecgberht, who would eventually succeed Offa's son-in-law Beorhtric. If Northumbria's two powerful neighbours differed over Kent and Wessex, it appears that they were both favourably disposed towards Æthelred. Offa died soon after Eardwulf became king of Northumbria, and Coenwulf proved not to be a friend to Eardwulf. Charlemagne, on the other hand, appears to have been a supporter of Eardwulf, and was the prime mover in his restoration to power.  

 While the Mercian kings shared a land border with Northumbria, and could readily move armies to the border, or send aid to the disaffected, the means by which Carolingian power was exercised in Northumbria is less obvious. As Charlemagne had close relations with the Papacy, the most obvious means for him to have influenced events in Northumbria is through the church hierarchy, in particular the Archbishop of York. Equally unclear is the reason for Charlemagne's interest in Northumbria. Among the reasons suggested are a desire to counter Mercian influence in southern Britain, an area with long-standing ties to Francia, co-operation against Viking raiders, who had first appeared in Northumbria in the early 790s, or that Charlemagne's conception of sphere of his authority included Britain, which had once been part of the Roman Empire. 

 * Notes 

  
 ;End 

 Well, that's the best I can do for now.    "