Ealdred I of Bamburgh
Ealdred was a ruler of Bamburgh, at least part of the former kingdom of Bernicia in northern Northumbria, in the early tenth century. He was the son of Eadwulf.
Background
Ealdred's father, Eadwulf, called "king of the Saxons of the North" by the Annals of Ulster, but only actor of Bamburgh by the chronicler Æthelweard, died in 913. Eadwulf may have also been ruler of all of Northumbria following Eowils and Halfdan who were killed at Tettenhall circa 910. The twelfth-century tract De Northumbria post Britannos describes Ealdred's father Eadwulf as the grandson of Ælla of Northumbria, via a daughter of the latter, Æthelthryth.Life
Upon his father's death in 913, Ealdred succeeded him. The Historia de Sancto Cuthberto states that Ealdred "was a friend of King Edward the Elder, as his father had been a favourite of King Alfred the Great". Seemingly in the 910s, according to the same source, Ealdred was driven from at least some of his lands by Ragnall ua Ímair.The Historia states that Ealdred sought refuge with Constantín mac Áeda, the king of Scotland, and that the two fought Ragnall at the Battle of Corbridge, dated by the Annals of Ulster and the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba to 918. The battle appears to have been indecisive and Ragnall remained the master of southern Northumbria, former Deira. However, if Ealdred was indeed "driven from his lands" then his regaining control of northern Northumbria was a decided benefit resulting from the battle.
According to Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, at a meeting in Bakewell in 920 northern rulers including Ealdred submitted to Edward the Elder, but this interpretation has been challenged by historians including Michael Davidson, who see it as a meeting of equals. On 12 July 927 Ealdred was one of the northern rulers who submitted to Edward's son King Æthelstan at Eamont Bridge. Ealdred's submission added Northumbria to Æthelstan's kingdom and is generally seen as the date of the foundation of the Kingdom of England.