Ceolred of Mercia
Ceolred | |
---|---|
King of Mercia | |
Reign | 709–716 |
Predecessor | Coenred |
Successor | Æthelbald |
Died | 716 AD |
Burial | |
Spouse | Werburgh?[1] |
Dynasty | Iclingas |
Father | Æthelred |
Mother | Osthryth? |
Ceolred (died 716) was king of Mercia from 709 to 716.
Mercia at the end of the 7th century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/British_kingdoms_c_800.png/250px-British_kingdoms_c_800.png)
By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the
The main source for this period is
Ancestry and reign
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Aethelred_family_tree.svg/300px-Aethelred_family_tree.svg.png)
Ceolred's father, Æthelred, came to throne of Mercia in 675 on the death of his brother, Wulfhere. Æthelred abdicated in 704 and went to Rome, leaving the kingdom to his nephew Coenred, Wulfhere's son.
The reduced prestige of both Ceolred and his predecessor, Coenred, may have stirred unrest among the Mercian nobility: Æthelbald was in exile during Ceolred's reign, and the survival of a hostile account of Ceolred may indicate a more general dissatisfaction with the ruling line.[9]
In 709 Coenred abdicated in favour of Ceolred.
Ceolred was
Charters
Ceolred confirmed a grant to Waldhere, the Bishop of London, evidence that London was firmly under Mercian overlordship.[15] Later Mercian kings treated London as their direct possession, rather than as a province ruled by an underking, but Ceolred did not go that far.[16][17] Three possibly genuine charters of Ceolred's have survived.[18]
Death and succession
In the next year, Ceolred died; Saint Boniface later described him as dying in a crazed frenzy at a banquet, "gibbering with demons and cursing the priests of God". Æthelbald, a member of another branch of the Mercian royal line who had been forced into exile during Ceolred's rule, succeeded him.[12]
Family
He was related to Coenred, the brother of Saint Werburgh of Mercia.
References
- ^ J. A. Giles, ed. (1914). "Anno 782". The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London: G. Bell and Sons LTD.
- ^ Yorke, "The Origins of Mercia" in Brown & Farr, Mercia, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 100.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 54". Sean Miller. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 65". Sean Miller. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 81". Sean Miller. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
- ^ Simon Keynes, "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", in Blackwell Encyclopedia, p. 35.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 112.
- ^ Kelly, "Coenred"
- ^ a b Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 174.
- ^ a b c D. P. Kirby, The Earliest English Kings (1991, 2000 paperback), pages 108–109.
- ^ Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943, 1971, 1998 paperback), page 203.
- ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, translated by Michael Swanton (1996), manuscripts A and E, years 715 and 716.
- ^ Kirby, Earliest English Kings, pp. 123–124.
- ^ Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 203–205.
- ^ Wormald, "The Age of Bede and Æthelbald", p. 95.
- ^ "Ceolred 1". Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 11 March 2009.