 No surviving contemporary source records Beorhtwulf 's death , but according to the Anglo @-@ Saxon Chronicle his successor , Burgred , reigned for twenty @-@ two years and was driven from his throne by the Vikings in 874 , implying that Beorhtwulf died in 852 . From Burgred 's charters it is known that his reign began before 25 July 852 . It has been suggested that an otherwise unknown king named Eanred may have reigned briefly between Beorhtwulf and Burgred ; the evidence for this consists of a single silver penny inscribed " EANRED REX " , which has similarities to some of Beorhtwulf 's and Æthelwulf 's pennies and hence is thought to have been produced after 850 . The only recorded King Eanred ruled in Northumbria and is thought to have died in 840 , though an alternative chronology of the Northumbrian kings has been proposed that would eliminate this discrepancy . Generally the penny is considered to belong to " an unknown ruler of a southern kingdom " , and it cannot be assumed that an Eanred succeeded Beorhtwulf . 
