AETHELWEARD

died 998? also spelled Ethelwerd English chronicler and ealderman of the western provinces (probably the whole of Wessex), a descendant of King Alfred's brother Aethelred. He wrote, in elaborate and peculiar Latin, a chronicle for his continental kinswoman, Matilda, abbess of Essen. In the printed version of the text, the chronicle stops in 975, but fragments of the burned manuscript show that it continued into the reign of Aethelred (978-1016). Up to 894 it is based on a version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, more ancient than any now surviving; thereafter it is an independent authority. Aethelweard was the patron of Aelfric the homilist. The last certain mention of him is in 998.