c.880. End of Ceolwulf's authority in Mercia
(Ealdorman) Æthelred succeeds to Mercia, under Alfred of Wessex
The length of Ceolwulf's reign is uncertain. A regnal list kept at Worcester (in the western half of Mercia, and so unaffected by the partition of 877) gives him a reign of five years, which would take it to 879. By 883 (according to S 218), Ealdorman Æthelred was in charge of Mercia, under the overall authority of King Alfred of Wessex. No contemporary sources explain how this came about, though the Viking army which settled in Cirencester in western Mercia for a year in 878/9 might have finally extinguished Ceolwulf's independent Mercian kingdom.