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Cenwalh of Wessex
Cenwealh (died 674?), also '''Cenwalh''' or '''Coenwalh''', was an Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon king traditionally counted as a king of Wessex. The creation of the kingdom of Wessex began in his reign.
Penda and Anna
Bede states that Cenwealh was the son of the King Cynegils of Wessex|Cynegils baptised by Bishop Birinus.[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', Book III, chapter 7.] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle offers several ancestries for Cynegils, and the relationship of Cynegils and Cenwealh to later kings is less than certain.[Kirby, D.P., ''The Earliest English Kings'', pp. 51ff.; Barbara Yorke|Yorke, B., ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 131ff.] Although Cynegils is said to have been a convert to Christianity, Bede writes that Cenwealh:refused to embrace the mysteries of the faith, and of the heavenly kingdom; and not long after also he lost the dominion of his earthly kingdom; for he put away the sister of Penda, king of the Mercians, whom he had married, and took another wife; whereupon a war ensuing, he was by him expelled his kingdom...[Bede, III, 7.]
Cenwealh took refuge with the Christian king Anna of East Anglia, and was baptised while in exile. The date of his exile is uncertain. Bede says that it lasted three years, but does not give the dates[Kirby, p. 51; Yorke, p. 136.]
Origins of Christian Wessex
Whenever Cenwealh returned to power, his Bishop in Dorchester-on-Thames was the Franks|Frank Agilbert. Bede states:At length the king, who understood none but the language of the Old English|Saxons, grown weary of that bishop's barbarous tongue, brought into the province another bishop of his own nation, whose name was Wine (bishop)|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.
The new diocese of Winchester, in lands formerly belonging to the Jutes, thereafter confined to the Isle of Wight, lay in the heart of the future Wessex. The ravaging of Ashdown by Penda's son Wulfhere of Mercia|Wulfhere c. 661, in the original lands of the Gewisse, suggests that this movement was brought about by sustained Mercian pressure on the Saxons.[Yorke, p. 136.]
Wulfhere advanced as far south as the Isle of Wight, and detached the River Meon|Meon valley from Cenwealh's kingdom, giving it to his godson Æthelwalh of Sussex|Æthelwalh, King of the South Saxons. At around this time, the Mercian prince Frithuwold of Surrey|Frithuwold was ruling Surrey and Berkshire. Wulfhere's defeat at the hands of Ecgfrith of Northumbria|Ecgfrith in 674 freed the southern kingdoms from Mercian control, and Wulfhere was defeated the following year by the West Saxons led by Æscwine of Wessex|Æscwine.[Kirby, pp. 115–116; Yorke, pp. 105 & 136.]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a battle between Cenwealh and the Britons in its entry for 658: "Here Cenwealh fought at Peonnum against the Wealas and caused them to flee as far as the river Parret|Parret". The advance into the British south-west is obscure, but Cenwealh's relations with the Britons were not uniformly hostile. He is reported to have endowed the British monastery at Sherborne, in Dorset, while the early Anglo-Saxon missionary Saint Boniface is said to have been born in Crediton, Devon, and educated at a formerly British monastery near Exeter.[Barry Cunliffe, ''Wessex to A.D. 1000 (The Longman Regional History of England)'', p. 297; Yorke, pp.136–137.]
Whether Cenwealh ruled alone in Wessex is uncertain. Earlier kings appear to have shared rulership, and Cenberht, father of the future King Caedwalla of Wessex|Caedwalla, may have ruled together with Cenwealh rather than being merely a sub-king.[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.]
In 665–668 Cenwealh 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.[Kirby, p. 59.]
Cenwealh died in the 670s. His death if generally assumed to be in 674, but a case has been made for 676. According to tradition, his widow, Seaxburh of Wessex|Seaxburh held power for a year after his death.[Kirby, p. 52.]
Descendants
No later kings of the West Saxons are known to be descended from Cenwealh, indeed no descendants of his are known. King Centwine of Wessex|Centwine is said to have been his brother, but Kirby notes the circumstantial evidence which makes this unlikely.[Kirby, p. 53.]
However, if no descendants of Cenwealh held the throne in Wessex, it may be that his descendants held power in Mercia and Kingdom of Kent|Kent in the ninth century. The Mercia kings Coenwulf of Mercia|Coenwulf and Ceolwulf I of Mercia|Ceolwulf, and their brother Cuthred of Kent|Cuthred, King of Kent, claimed descent from an otherwise unknown brother of Penda and Eowa of Mercia|Eowa called Coenwalh. It has been suggested that Coenwalh was in fact this Cenwealh, brother-in-law, rather than brother, of Penda and Eowa.[Williams, Ann, ''Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England'', p. 29.]
See also
- House of Wessex family tree
Notes
External links
- Cenwealh 2 at the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Anglo-Saxons.net has a chronology and the texts of charters attributed to Cenwealh
Category:670s deaths
Category:Converts to Christianity
Category:West Saxon monarchs
Category:Burials at Winchester Cathedral
Related Images- 180px
Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL
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