Consequences
Ecgberht's victory permanently transformed the political situation in south-eastern England. The king at once sent his son Æthelwulf with an army into the south-east. The West Saxons succeeded in conquering Surrey, Sussex (hitherto under direct Mercian rule), Kent and Essex, which had been governed by sub-kings under Mercian overlordship. All of these territories were annexed to Wessex, roughly doubling the kingdom's size.
Meanwhile, Beornwulf's defeat emboldened the East Angles to revolt against Mercian rule and reassert their independence, in alliance with Wessex. Beornwulf fought the East Angles, but was defeated and killed. His successor Ludeca met the same fate the following year and East Anglian independence was successfully re-established.
Ecgberht's power peaked in 829, when he occupied Mercia and secured recognition of his supremacy by the Northumbrians, making him temporarily the overlord of all England. Mercian independence was restored in the following year by Wiglaf, who achieved a significant recovery of Mercian prestige and was even able to extend his power over Berkshire. The independence of East Anglia and the West Saxon conquest of the south-east proved irreversible and Mercia never regained the primacy it had enjoyed in the century before Ellandun.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Ellandun
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