On his way back from Rome, Æthelwulf stayed for several months with Charles the Bald, King of the West Franks, whose twelve-year-old daughter Judith he married.

Asser, the biographer of his youngest brother, Alfred the Great, denounced Æthelbald and Judith's union as being "against God's prohibition and Christian dignity, and also contrary to the practice of all pagans",[1] but the marriage does not seem to have been condemned at the time.

[5] In 851, Æthelwulf and Æthelbald defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "we have never heard of a greater slaughter of them, in any region, on any one day, before or since".

Asser regarded it as "a terrible crime: expelling the king from his own kingdom; but God did not allow it to happen, nor would the nobles of the whole Saxon land have any part in it".

[15] Kirby describes her anointing as "a charismatic sanctification which enhanced her status, blessed her womb and conferred additional throne-worthiness on her male offspring.

"[16] These marks of a special status implied that a son of hers would succeed to at least part of Æthelwulf's kingdom, and explain Æthelbald's decision to rebel.

[19] Janet Nelson goes further, seeing Æthelwulf's pilgrimage as intended from the start to enhance his prestige to assist him in facing down filial resentments.

[20] Kirby and Sean Miller argue that it is unlikely that Charles would have agreed to his daughter being taken to a country in a state of civil war, so Æthelbald's revolt was probably a response to the marriage, which threatened to produce sons who had a stronger claim to the throne than he had.

[21] Richard Abels argues that Æthelbald probably hoped that his rule would be permanent: "All knew the dangers that attended a pilgrimage to Rome and were aware of the possibility that Æthelwulf would not return.

[28] According to Asser, at the end of his life, Æthelwulf directed that his kingdom should be divided between his two eldest sons, and this was carried out when he died on 13 January 858.

[29] Judith's status as both a Carolingian princess and a consecrated queen was so great that, rather than lose the prestige of her connections to Francia and to his father's reign, Æthelbald decided to marry her.

[31] Æthelbald's marriage to his widowed stepmother was subsequently condemned by Asser as "against God's prohibition and Christian dignity, and also contrary to the practice of all pagans",[1] although it does not appear to have aroused opposition at the time.

The Frankish Annals of St Bertin reported the marriage without comment, and stated that when she returned to her father after Æthelbald's death, Judith was treated "with all the honour due to a queen".

[35] Both are attested by Judith, an indication of her high status, as ninth-century West Saxon kings' wives were not normally given the rank of queen and almost never witnessed charters.

[38] S 1274 is the earliest surviving West Saxon charter to require a contribution to fortification work, and Nelson suggests that Judith's entourage may have been responsible for the innovation.

A few years later Charles the Bald began a programme of rebuilding town walls and building new fortresses in West Francia.

There was one mint in Wessex, probably at Southampton or Winchester, but it operated at a minimal level in the mid-ninth century and only three coins from it between 839 and 871 are known, two of Æthelwulf and one of Æthelred I, all produced by the same moneyer.

[41] Æthelbald died in 860 and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives him a reign of five years, dating the start to 855 when Æthelwulf left for Rome.

[49] Roger of Wendover condemned Æthelbald in similar terms, but claimed that in 859 he repented of his error, put aside Judith and ruled thereafter "in peace and righteousness".

[50] The exception was Henry of Huntingdon, who stated that Æthelbald and Æthelberht, "young men of superlative natural quality, possessed their kingdoms very prosperously as long as they each lived.