Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldred (fl.823-825)
BALDRED (fl. 823-825), king of Kent, during the dissensions which weakened Mercia after the death of Cenwulf, endeavoured to make Kent independent of that kingdom. He seems to have been on good terms with Archbishop Wulfred, who was a Kentishman, and who had himself carried on a long dispute with the Mercian king about the rights of his church. Baldred's kingdom fell before Ecgberht. He was chased from Kent by a West-Saxon army led by Æthelwulf, the king's son, Ealhstan, the bishop of Sherborne, and the ealdorman Wulfheard, and fled 'northwards over the Thames.' At the moment of his flight he granted Mailing to Christ Church, Canterbury, in the hope, it may be, of prevailing on the archbishop to espouse his cause. After his deposition Kent was held as a sub-kingdom by æthelings of the West-Saxon house, until it was finally incorporated with the rest of the southern kingdom on the accession of Æthelberht to the throne of Wessex.
[Anglo-Saxon Chron. sub an. 823 ; Kemble's Codex Dipl. ccxl.; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, &c., iii. 557; Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 190 n., 256.]