Icel (fl. early 500s, possibly c. 450–c. 525),[1] also spelt Icil, is a possibly legendary king of Mercia. He was supposedly the son of Eomer, last King of the Angles in Angeln.[2] Icel supposedly led his people across the North Sea to Britain around 515 during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.[3] Icel was the eponymous ancestor of Mercia's first attested royal family, the Iclingas.[4]
History
Spread of Angles (red), which was Icel's tribe, and Saxons (blue) around 500AD, which was well within Icel's lifetime
Icel was born before 500 and, if his genealogies can be trusted, became king of Anglia upon his father's death. He was the last king of Anglia, migrating to eastern England around 510. During the same year, he became king of Mercia.[1]
By 527, Icel had worked his way through East Anglia and into Mercia, as it has been reported in the 13th century manuscript known as the Flores Historiarum: "Pagans came from Germany and occupied East Anglia, that is, the country of the East Angles; and some of them invaded Mercia, and waged war against the British." According to one source, his son Cnebba was born some time close to 526.[5] By the end of his reign Icel reportedly held large portions of both East Anglia and Mercia, and therefore could be considered the first true king of Mercia.[6] Icel was succeeded after his death, which may have been c. 535,[7] by his son Cnebba.
^Downham, Clare (2007), Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, Edinburgh: Dunedin, ISBN 978-1-903765-89-0, OCLC163618313
^Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5, OCLC123113911
^Zaluckyj, Sarah & Feryok, Marge. Mercia: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England (2001) ISBN 1-873827-62-8
^Barbara Yorke (1995), Wessex in the early Middle Ages, A & C Black, ISBN 071851856X; pp 79-83; table p. 81
^Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix I: Rulers of the English, c.450–1066". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
^Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-4152-4211-0.
^Lapidge, M.; et al., eds. (1999). "Kings of the East Angles". The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. London: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1.
^Searle, W. G. 1899. Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles.
^Yorke, B. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England.
^Carpenter, Clive. Kings, Rulers and Statesmen. Guinness Superlatives, Ltd.
^Ross, Martha. Rulers and Governments of the World, Vol. 1. Earliest Times to 1491.
.png)
.svg.png)
.svg.png)
.svg.png){kind=small}
.svg.png){kind=small}
.svg.png){kind=small}
.svg.png){kind=small}
.svg.png){kind=small}
