King of Northumbria (c810-c841)
About the reign of Eanred one can make two observations; firstly that he succeeded his father Eardwulf apparently without challenge, secondly that he ruled for over thirty years, which given the events of the previous half century or so in Northumbria where no mean achievments.
The only noteworthy event during his reign was the arrival of Ecgberht
king of Wessex on the borders of Northumbria in 829. As recorded by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Ecgberht led an army against the Northumbrians as far as Dore, where they met him, and offered terms of obedience and subjection, on the acceptance of which they returned home.
Which means that Eanred recognised
Ecgberht as his overlord. Or at least he did in 829 when faced with a large army from
Wessex on his borders. It is unlikely that
Ecgberht actually exercised much authority over
Northumbria given the
Mercian revival in 830 and the subsequent distractions of
Viking raids in the south, but it symbolises how far
Northumbria had fallen. Once one of the pre-eminent
Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the land, dynastic strife and civil war had now reduded it to the status of an also-ran.
SOURCES
A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain by Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth and D. P. Kirby (Seaby 1991)
Historia regum Anglorum et Danorum by Simeon of Durham