Centwine of Wessex

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Centwine
Cynegils
?

Centwine (died after 685) was

West Saxons
at the time.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Centwine became king c. 676, succeeding Æscwine. Bede states that after the death of King Cenwalh: "his under-rulers took upon them the kingdom of the people, and dividing it among themselves, held it ten years".[1] Bede's dismissal of Æscwine and Centwine as merely sub-kings may represent the views of the supporters of the King Ine, whose family ruled Wessex in Bede's time.[2] However, if the West Saxon kingdom did fragment following Cenwalh's death, it appears that it was reunited during Centwine's reign.[3]

An entry under 682 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that "Centwine drove the Britons to the sea". This is the only event recorded in his reign. The Carmina Ecclesiastica of

Cynegils, and thus a brother of King Cenwalh and maybe of Cwichelm, King of the Gewisse, but Aldhelm does not record any such relationship.[5]

Chapter 40 of

Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfrid records that Centwine was married to a sister of Queen Iurminburh, second wife of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Her name is not reliably recorded, and the suggestion that she is to be identified with Dunna, Abbess of Withington, is broadly rejected. Their daughter Bugga was certainly a nun when Aldhelm dedicated verses to her, and was probably an Abbess.[6]

Centwine is reported to have abdicated and become a

Caedwalla
.

See also

  • House of Wessex family tree

Notes

  1. ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book IV, chapter 12.
  2. ^ Kirby, D.P., The Earliest English Kings, pp. 52–53.
  3. ^ Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 145–146.
  4. ^ Miller, Sean. "Anglo-Saxons.net". Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  5. ^ Kirby, p. 53.
  6. ^ Bugga 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  7. ^ Centwine 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 2007-02-10

External links

Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Wessex
676–685/686
Succeeded by
Caedwalla