Cenwalh of Wessex

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Cenwalh
Cynegils

Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 642 to c. 645 and from c. 648 until his death, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in c. 672.

Penda and Anna

Penda, king of the Mercians, whom he had married, and took another wife; whereupon a war ensuing, he was by him expelled his kingdom...[1]

Cenwalh took refuge with the Christian king Anna of East Anglia, and was baptised while in exile, although the date of his exile is uncertain. Bede says that it lasted three years, but does not give the dates.[1] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that he granted lands at Ashdown to a kinsman named Cuthred. If this is the same Cuthred whose death is reported around 661, then he was perhaps a son of King Cwichelm or a grandson of Cynegils, if indeed King Cwichelm was not also a son of Cynegils.

None of the West Saxon dates give any clear evidence for the period of Cenwalh's exile, but since King Anna was killed by Penda in 654, and exiled from

Battle of Winwaed on 15 November 655. Barbara Yorke suggests that Cenwalh returned to power in 648, D.P. Kirby places his exile in the 650s.[4]

Origins of Christian Wessex

When Cenwalh returned to power, his Bishop in

Dorchester-on-Thames was the Frank Agilbert. Bede states:

At length the king, who understood none but the language of the Saxons, grown weary of that bishop's barbarous tongue, brought into the province another bishop of his own nation, whose name was Wini, who had been ordained in France; and dividing his province into two dioceses, appointed this last his episcopal see in the city of Winchester, by the Saxons called Wintancestir.[5]

The new diocese of Winchester, in lands formerly belonging to the Jutes (who were thereafter confined to the Isle of Wight) lay in the heart of the future Wessex. The ravaging of Ashdown by Penda's son Wulfhere c. 661, in the original lands of the Gewisse, suggests that this movement was brought about by sustained Mercian pressure on the Saxons.[6]

Wulfhere advanced as far south as the Isle of Wight, and detached the

Frithuwold was ruling Surrey and Berkshire. Wulfhere's defeat at the hands of Ecgfrith in 674 freed the southern kingdoms from Mercian control, and Wulfhere was defeated the following year by the West Saxons, led by Æscwine.[7]

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a battle between Cenwalh and the Britons in its entry for 658: "Here Cenwalh fought at Peonnum against the Wealas and caused them to flee as far as the

Devon, and educated at a formerly British monastery near Exeter.[8]

Whether Cenwalh ruled alone in Wessex is uncertain. Earlier kings appear to have shared rulership, and

King Caedwalla, may have ruled together with Cenwalh rather than being merely a sub-king.[9]

In 665–668 Cenwalh quarreled with Bishop Wini, who sought refuge with the Mercian king Wulfhere, which D.P. Kirby takes to be a sign of Wulfhere's influence. By this time, the Bishop at Dorchester was the Mercian-backed Ætla, and Thame was a possession of Wulfhere's.[10]

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cenwalh died in 672, and was succeeded by his widow, Seaxburh, who held power for about a year.[11][12]

Descendants

No later kings of the West Saxons are known to be descended from Cenwalh, indeed no descendants of his are known. King Centwine is said to have been his brother, but Kirby notes the circumstantial evidence which makes this unlikely.[13]

However, if no descendants of Cenwalh held the throne in Wessex, it may be that his descendants held power in Mercia and Kent in the 9th century. The Mercian kings Coenwulf and Ceolwulf, and their brother Cuthred, King of Kent, claimed descent from an otherwise unknown brother of Penda and Eowa called Coenwalh. It has been suggested that Cenwalh was this Coenwalh, brother-in-law, rather than brother, of Penda and Eowa.[14]

See also

  • House of Wessex family tree

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III, chapter 7.
  2. ^ Kirby, D.P., The Earliest English Kings, pp. 51ff.; Yorke, B., Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 131ff.
  3. ^ Hills, C., (2003) Origins of the English, Duckworth. p. 105: "Records of the West Saxon dynasties survive in versions which have been subject to later manipulation, which may make it all the more significant that some of the founding 'Saxon' fathers have British names: Cerdic, Ceawlin, Cenwalh."
  4. ^ Kirby, p. 51; Yorke, p. 136.
  5. ^ Bede, Book III, Chapter 7.
  6. ^ Yorke, p. 136.
  7. ^ Kirby, pp. 115–116; Yorke, pp. 105 & 136.
  8. ^ Barry Cunliffe, Wessex to A.D. 1000 (The Longman Regional History of England), p. 297; Yorke, pp.136–137.
  9. ^ Kirby, pp. 49 & 119; Yorke, pp. 143–145. Cenberht died in the same year as Cuthred son of Cwichelm, circa 661 according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
  10. ^ Kirby, p. 59.
  11. ^ Kirby, p. 52.
  12. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4996. Retrieved 8 May 2023. His wife Seaxburg (or Seaxburh) apparently reigned for about one year after his death. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)     (Subscription or UK public library membership required)
  13. ^ Kirby, p. 53.
  14. ^ Williams, Ann, Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, p. 29.

External links

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Cynegils
 King of Wessex
642–645 		Succeeded by
Preceded by King of Wessex
648–672 		Succeeded byas Queen of Wessex
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