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  • Ruler of Wessex
  • Died on pilgrimage to Rome
  • 686: First charter for Kingdom of West Saxons
  • AKA: Cædwalla of Wessex

Ceolwald of Wessex was born circa 622 in Wessex, England to Cutha Cathwulf (592-) and Gwynhafar of Dumnonia and died circa 688 Rome of unspecified causes.

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Please check for any inaccuracies, and modify and cite sources as needed.

Biography

Ceolwald (or Cædwalla) of Wessex was a member of the House of Wessex (See House of Wessex family tree). Although a member of the direct male line from Cynric to Egbert, Ceolwald was never king. (Estimated birth circa 615 AD.)

His father was Cutha Cathwulf and his child Coenred of Wessex. Nothing more of him is known for certain. Some sites list him as married to Fafertach (620-644), daughter of Prince Finguine of Mumhan (603-644). Several list him as son of Princess Gwynhafar of Dumnonia (daughter of King Clemen ap Bledric). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles are explicit that in 688 AD (at a great age) he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome to be baptized of Pope Sergius, but then died just one week later.

West Saxon territory in the 680s

British seventh century kingdoms

The kingdoms of Britain in the late 7th century.

  • 686: First charter for King of West Saxons

The future territory of Wessex was first known as Gewisse. But in 686 Ceolwald issues the first charter for the kingdom under the name of the West Saxons.

In the late 7th century, the West Saxons occupied an area in the west of southern England, though the exact boundaries are difficult to define.[1] To their west was the native British kingdom of Dumnonia, in what is now Devon and Cornwall. To the north were the Mercians, whose king, Wulfhere, had dominated southern England during his reign. In 674 he was succeeded by his brother, Æthelred, who was less militarily active than Wulfhere had been along the frontier with Wessex, though the West Saxons did not recover the territorial gains Wulfhere had made.[2] To the southeast was the kingdom of the South Saxons, in what is now Sussex; and to the east were the East Saxons, who controlled London.[3]

Not all the locations named in the Chronicle can be identified, but it is apparent that the West Saxons were fighting in north Somerset, south Gloucestershire, and north Wiltshire, against both British and Mercian opposition. To the west and south, evidence of the extent of West Saxon influence is provided by the fact that Cenwalh, who reigned from 642 to 673, is remembered as the first Saxon patron of Sherborne Abbey, in Dorset; similarly, Centwine (676–685) is the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, in Somerset. Evidently these monasteries were in West Saxon territory by then. Exeter, to the west, in Devon, was under West Saxon control by 680, since Boniface was educated there at about that time.[1]

Abdication, baptism and death

In 688 Cædwalla abdicated and went on a pilgrimage to Rome, possibly because he was dying of the wounds he had suffered while fighting on the Isle of Wight.[1] Cædwalla had not been baptised, and Bede states that he wished to "obtain the particular privilege of receiving the cleansing of baptism at the shrine of the blessed Apostles". He stopped in Francia at Samer, near Calais, where he gave money for the foundation of a church, and is also recorded at the court of Cunincpert, king of the Lombards, in what is now northern Italy.[4] In Rome, he was baptised by Pope Sergius I on the Saturday before Easter (according to Bede) taking the baptismal name Peter, and died not long afterwards, "still in his white garments". He was buried in St. Peter's church. Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle agree that Cædwalla died on 20 April, but the latter says that he died seven days after his baptism, although the Saturday before Easter was on 10 April that year. The epitaph on his tomb described him as "King of the Saxons".[5][6]

Cædwalla's departure in 688 appears to have led to instability in the south of England. Ine, Cædwalla's successor, abdicated in 726, and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List says that he reigned for thirty-seven years, implying his reign began in 689 instead of 688. This could indicate an unsettled period between Cædwalla's abdication and Ine's accession. The kingship also changed in Kent in 688, with Oswine, who was apparently a Mercian client, taking the throne; and there is evidence of East Saxon influence in Kent in the years immediately following Cædwalla's abdication.[7]

In 694, Ine extracted compensation of 30,000 pence from the Kentishmen for the death of Mul; this amount represented the value of an aetheling's life in the Saxon system of Weregild. Ine appears to have retained control of Surrey, but did not recover Kent.[8] No king of Wessex was to venture so far east until Egbert, over a hundred years later.[9]


Children


Offspring of Ceolwald of Wessex and unknown parent
Name Birth Death Joined with
Cenred of Wessex (c644-c694) 644 Wessex, England 694 Wessex, England



Siblings


Offspring of Cutha Cathwulf (592-) and Gwynhafar of Dumnonia
Name Birth Death Joined with
Ceolwald of Wessex (c622-688) 622 Wessex, England 688 Rome


Royal Lineage Family of Kent

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles compiled at the time of Alfred the Great generally agree as to the royal lineage of the early English kings through the House of Wessex. They show that lineage as follows:


See Also

Bibliography

  • Kelley, David H., "The House of Aethelred", in Brooks, Lindsay L., ed., Studies in Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans. Salt Lake City: The Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, Occasional Publication, No. 2, pp. 63–93.
  • Kirby, D.P. (1992). The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09086-5.
  • Yorke, Barbara (1990). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby. ISBN 1-85264-027-8.

External Links


Ancestry Trees

Contemporary Sources

Anglo Saxon Chronicles

Source: Online Medieval and Classical Library Part 1 (400-750 AD)

  • Succession: Ethelwulf was the son of Egbert, Egbert of Ealmund, Ealmund of Eafa, Eafa of Eoppa, Eoppa of Ingild, Ingild of Cenred (Ina of Cenred, Cuthburga of Cenred, and Cwenburga of Cenred), Cenred of Ceolwald, Ceolwald of Cuthwulf, Cuthwulf of Cuthwine, Cuthwine of Celm, Celm of Cynric, Cynric of Creoda, Creoda of Cerdic.
  • 688 AD: This year Ceadwall went to Rome, and received baptism at the hands of Sergius the pope, who gave him the name of Peter; but in the course of seven nights afterwards, on the twelfth day before the calends of May, he died in his crisom-cloths, and was buried in the church of St. Peter. To him succeeded Ina in the kingdom of Wessex, and reigned thirty-seven winters. He founded the monastery of Glastonbury; after which he went to Rome, and continued there to the end of his life. Ina was the son of Cenred, Cenred of Ceolwald; Ceolwald was the brother of Cynegils; and both were the sons of Cuthwin, who was the son of Ceawlin; Ceawlin was the son of Cynric, and Cynric of Cerdic.


References

  1. ^ a b c For a discussion of 7th-century West Saxon expansion, see Yorke 1990, pp. 135–138.
  2. ^ Kirby 1992, pp. 115–116.
  3. ^ The general topography of the 7th-century kingdoms is given in map form in Hunter Blair 1966, p. 209.
  4. ^ Stenton 1971, pp. 2–7.
  5. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Bede_275
  6. ^ Swanton 1996, pp. 40–41.
  7. ^ Kirby 1992, p. 122.
  8. ^ Kirby 1992, p. 124.
  9. ^ Kirby 1992, p. 192.


Footnotes (including sources)

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