Ecgberht II of Northumbria

Who is Ecgberht II of Northumbria?

Ecgberht was a king in Northumbria in the later Ninth century. Very little is known of his reign.

Unlike his predecessor King Ricsige, who may have ruled most of the kingdom of Northumbria following the expulsion of the first King Ecgberht in 872, this Ecgberht ruled only the northern part of Northumbria, the lands beyond the Tyne in northern England and southern Scotland. The northern frontier of Ecgberht's kingdom is uncertain.

Ricsige's death and Ecgberht's coming to power is recorded by Symeon of Durham, who writes, that in 876:

The pagan king Halfdene divided between himself and his followers the country of the Northumbrians. Ricsig, king of the Northumbrians, died, and Egbert the second reigned over the Northumbrians beyond the river Tyne.

In 883, recording the election of a king of the Vikings in York and southern Northumbria on the death of their leader Halfdene, Symeon states:

Then St. Cuthbert, aiding by a vision, ordered abbot Eadred to tell the bishop and the whole army of Angles and Danes, that by paying a ransom, they should redeem Guthred, the son of Hardicnut, whom the Danes had sold as a slave to a certain widow at Whittingham, and should raise him, then redeemed, to be king; and he reigned over York, but Egbert over the Northumbrians.