Cenwalh of Wessex
| Cenwalh | |
|---|---|
| King of Wessex | |
| Reign | 642–645; 648–674 |
| Predecessor | Cynegils |
| Successor | Seaxburh |
| Died | 672 |
| Consort | Seaxburh |
| House | Wessex |
| Father | 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.
Bede states that Cenwalh was the son of the King Cynegils baptised by Bishop Birinus. He was also the great-great grandson of Cerdic. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle offers several ancestries for Cynegils, and the relationship of Cynegils and Cenwalh to later kings is less than certain. It has been noted that the name Cenwalh may have had a British rather than Anglo-Saxon etymology. Although Cynegils is said to have been a convert to Christianity, Bede writes that Cenwalh:
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...
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. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that he granted lands at Ashdown to a kinsman named Cuthred. If this is 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 East Anglia by him in 651 (according to the contemporary Additamentum Nivialensis), Cenwalh's exile cannot have begun much later than 648. Furthermore, if (as William of Malmesbury states) Cenwalh was baptised by Saint Felix, this must have occurred by c. 647. Cenwalh's repudiation of Penda's sister therefore followed fairly closely upon Penda's killing of Oswald of Northumbria at Maserfeld in 642, Oswald being the godfather of Cynegils, and husband of Cenwalh's sister Cyneburh, and thus the protector of Cynegils's line in Wessex. Penda was killed at the 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.
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