Wiglaf (died 839) ruled the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia from 827 to 829 and again from 830 until his death. His ancestry is uncertain: the 820s were a period of dynastic conflict within Mercia, and the genealogies of several of the kings of this time are unknown. He succeeded Ludeca, who was killed campaigning against East Anglia. Wiglaf's first reign coincided with the continued rise of the rival kingdom of Wessex under Ecgberht. Ecgberht drove Wiglaf from the throne in 829, and ruled Mercia directly for a year. Mercia never regained the south-eastern kingdoms, but Berkshire and perhaps Essex came back into Mercia's control. Although Wiglaf appears to have restored independence, the recovery was short-lived, and later in the century Mercia was divided between Wessex and the Vikings. Wiglaf died in about 839, and was eventually succeeded by Beorhtwulf, though one tradition records his son Wigmund as having reigned briefly. Wiglaf is buried at Repton, near Derby (engraving of the crypt pictured).
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiglaf_of_Mercia
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1510:
Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India, led an armada to conquer the city of Goa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_conquest_of_Goa
1678:
Trunajaya rebellion: After a series of difficult marches, the allied Mataram and Dutch troops successfully assaulted the rebel stronghold of Kediri in eastern Java. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kediri_campaign_%281678%29
1917:
World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa in an attempt to escape superior British forces to the north and resupply from captured Portuguese materiel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ngomano
1940:
The de Havilland Mosquito (examples pictured) and the Martin B-26 Marauder, two of the most successful military aircraft in World War II, both made their first flights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
chatelaine: 1. (dated) The mistress of a castle or large household. 2. (historical) A chain or clasp worn at the waist by women with handkerchief, keys, etc., attached, supposed to resemble the chain of keys once worn by medieval chatelaines. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chatelaine
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I must mend the ways of my mind. This is a very big place, and I do not know how it works. I am a member of a fragile species, still new to the earth, the youngest creatures of any scale, here only a few moments as evolutionary time is measured, a juvenile species, a child of a species. We are only tentatively set in place, error prone, at risk of fumbling, in real danger at the moment of leaving behind only a thin layer of of our fossils, radioactive at that. --Lewis Thomas https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Thomas