ETHELHARD (AETHELHEARD) OF CANTERBURY

Archbishop; d. May 12, 805. The creation of the Mercian archbishopric of Lichfield in the 780s at the instigation of King Offa had ended the primacy of canter-bury's jurisdiction in southern England. When Ethelhard, Abbot of "Hlud" (probably Louth in Lincoln-shire), was elevated to Canterbury under Mercian influence following Archbishop Jaenbert's death (Aug. 12,791), Kentish opposition caused his consecration by Archbishop Hygebert of Lichfield to be postponed until July 21, 793. In 796 a Kentish revolt under the apostate cleric Eadbert Praen forced Ethelhard into exile. Cenwulf, the new king of Mercia, and Ethelhard collaborated in breaking the revolt, and it was their correspondence with Pope leo iii that brought the reassertion of Canterbury's primacy. Journeying to Rome, Ethelhard received papal confirmation of the rights of his see (802), a judgment implemented by Cenwulf and Ethelhard at the Council of Clovesho (803), which abolished the arch-bishopric of Lichfield and maintained southern English ecclesiastical unity under Canterbury. Episcopal declarations of faith and obedience to the metropolitan apparently began in England during these troubles. Sources for Ethelhard include the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, florence of worcester, simeon of durham, and william of malmesbury.

Bibliography: a. w. haddan and w. stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3v. in 4 (Oxford 1869–78) v.3. w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 6:887–889. f. m. stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (2d ed. Oxford 1947).

[w. a. chaney]