WIGLAF (d. 838), king of Mercia, succeeded to his throne on the death of Ludecan in 825 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ap. Petrie, Monumenta Brit. i. 343). At the time when Mercia was exhausted by victories over East-Anglia, Egbert (d. 839) [q. v.], king of Wessex, was extending his rule over Southern Britain, and in 827 or 828 he overran Mercia and drove Wiglaf from his throne. Shortly afterwards, however, and probably owing to danger on the Welsh border, Wiglaf was restored to his throne by Egbert as an under-king of Wessex. He reigned thirteen years (Will. Malm. Gesta Regum, p. 132, Engl. Hist. Soc.), died in 838 (Flor. Wig. ap. Petrie, l.c. p. 549), and was buried at Repton (ib. p. 638). Wiglaf married Cynethryth, and left a son Wigmund (ib.)
Several charters of Wiglaf are extant (Wilkins, Concilia Mag. Brit. et Hibern. i. 176 seq.), including two to the monastery of Hanbury in Worcestershire, of which house Tanner supposes Wiglaf to have been the founder (Notitia Monastica, Worcest.)
[In addition to the authorities mentioned in the text, see Henry of Huntingdon's Hist. Angl. in Petrie's Mon. Brit. i. 733; Gaimar's L'Estorie des Engles, ib. p. 792; Ethelwerd's Chron. ib. p. 512; Dugdale's Monast. Angl. i. 588–9, ii. 109 seq.; Green's Conquest of England, pp. 48–9, and Making of England, p. 435.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.279
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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