Coenwulf of Mercia
Encyclopedia
Coenwulf (died 821) was King of Mercia
from December 796 to 821. He was a descendant of a brother of King Penda
, who had ruled Mercia in the middle of the 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith
, the son of Offa
; Ecgfrith only reigned for five months, with Coenwulf coming to the throne in the same year that Offa died. In the early years of Coenwulf's reign he had to deal with a revolt in Kent, which had been under Offa's control. Eadberht Præn
returned from exile in Francia to claim the Kentish throne and Coenwulf was forced to wait for papal support before he could intervene. When Pope Leo
agreed to anathematize Eadberht, Coenwulf invaded and retook the kingdom; Eadberht was taken prisoner, and was blinded and had his hands cut off. Coenwulf also appears to have lost control of the kingdom of East Anglia
during the early part of his reign, as an independent coinage appears under King Eadwald. Coenwulf's coinage reappears in 805 indicating that the kingdom was again under Mercian control. Several campaigns of Coenwulf's against the Welsh are recorded, but only one conflict with Northumbria
, in 801, though it is likely that Coenwulf continued to support the opponents of the Northumbrian king Eardwulf
.
Coenwulf came into conflict with Archbishop
Wulfred
of Canterbury over the issue of whether laypeople could control religious houses such as monasteries. The breakdown in the relationship between the two eventually reached the point where the archbishop was unable to exercise his duties for at least four years. A partial resolution was reached in 822 with Coenwulf's successor, King Ceolwulf
, but it was not until about 826 that a final settlement was reached between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter, Cwoenthryth, who had been the main beneficiary of Coenwulf's grants of religious property.
He was succeeded by his brother, Ceolwulf; a post-Conquest legend claims that his son Cynehelm was murdered to gain the succession. Within two years Ceolwulf had been deposed and the kingship passed permanently out of Coenwulf's family. Coenwulf was the last king of Mercia to exercise substantial dominance over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Within a decade of his death, the rise of Wessex had begun, under King Egbert, and Mercia never recovered its former position of power.
ousted Beornred and took the throne for himself. Offa's daughter Eadburh
married Beorhtric of Wessex
in 789, and Beorhtric became an ally thereafter. In Kent, Offa intervened decisively in the 780s, and at some point became the overlord of East Anglia
, whose king, Æthelred
, was beheaded at Offa's orders in 794.
Offa appears to have moved to eliminate dynastic rivals to the succession of his son, Ecgfrith
. According to a contemporary letter from Alcuin of York, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade at Charlemagne
's court as one of his chief advisors, "the vengeance of the blood shed by the father has reached the son"; and Alcuin adds "This was not a strengthening of the kingdom, but its ruin." Offa died in July 796, and Ecgfrith succeeded, but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf came to the throne. The surviving sources do not record whether Ecgfrith died of natural causes or was assassinated, though Alcuin's letter seems to imply the latter.
A significant corpus of letters dates from the period, especially from Alcuin, who corresponded with kings, nobles and ecclesiastics throughout England. Letters between Coenwulf and the papacy also survive. Another key source for the period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
, a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle was a West Saxon
production, however, and is sometimes thought to be biased in favour of Wessex. Charters
dating from Coenwulf's reign have survived; these were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land. A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma
, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere
of the Hwicce
, is described as a "subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald's.
Coenwulf was descended from a brother of Penda
's named Cenwealh of whom there is no other record. It is possible that this refers to Cenwealh of Wessex, who was married to (and later repudiated) a sister of Penda's.
Coenwulf's kin may have been connected to the royal family of the Hwicce
, a subkingdom of Mercia around the lower river Severn
. It appears that Coenwulf's family were powerful, but they were not of recent Mercian royal lineage. A letter of Alcuin's to the people of Kent in 797 laments that "scarcely anyone is found now of the old stock of kings". Eardwulf of Northumbria
had, like Coenwulf, gained his throne in 796: Alcuin's meaning is not clear, but it may be that he intended it as a slur on Eardwulf or Coenwulf or on both. Alcuin certainly held negative views of Coenwulf, regarding him as a tyrant, and criticizing him for putting aside one wife and taking another. Alcuin wrote to a Mercian nobleman to ask him to greet Coenwulf peaceably "if it is possible to do so", implying uncertainty about Coenwulf's policy towards the Carolingians.
Coenwulf's early reign was marked by a breakdown in Mercian control in southern England. In East Anglia, King Eadwald minted coins at about this time, implying that he was no longer subject to Mercia. A charter of 799 seems to show that Wessex and Mercia were estranged for some time before that date, though the charter is not regarded as undoubtedly genuine. In Kent, an uprising began, probably starting after Ecgfrith's death, though it has been suggested that it began much earlier in the year, before Offa's death. The uprising was led by Eadberht Præn
, who had been an exile at Charlemagne's court: Eadberht's cause almost certainly had Carolingian support. Eadberht became king of Kent, and Æthelheard
, the archbishop of Canterbury at that time, fled his see; it is likely that Christ Church, Canterbury was sacked.
Coenwulf was unwilling to take military action in Kent without acknowledgement from Pope Leo III
that Eadberht was a pretender. The basis for this assertion was that Eadberht had reportedly been a priest, and as such had given up any right to the throne. Coenwulf wrote to the Pope and asked Leo to consider making London the seat of the southern archbishopric, removing the honour from Canterbury; it is likely that Coenwulf's reasons included the loss of Mercian control over Kent. Leo refused to agree to moving the archiepiscopate to London, but in the same letter he agreed that Eadberht's previous ordination made him ineligible for the throne:
This authorization from the Pope to proceed against Eadberht was delayed until 798, but once it was received Coenwulf took action. The Mercians captured Eadberht, put out his eyes and cut off his hands, and led him in chains to Mercia, where according to later tradition he was imprisoned at Winchcombe, a religious house closely affiliated with Coenwulf's family. By 801 at the latest Coenwulf had placed his brother, Cuthred
, on the throne of Kent. Cuthred ruled until the time of his death in 807, after which Coenwulf took control of Kent in name as well as fact. Coenwulf styled himself "King of the Mercians and the Province of Kent" (rex Merciorum atque provincie Cancie) in a charter dated 809.
Offa's domination of the kingdom of Essex
was continued by Coenwulf. King Sigeric of Essex
left for Rome in 798, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, presumably abdicating the throne in favour of his son, Sigered
. Sigered appears on two charters of Coenwulf's in 811 as king (rex) of Essex, but his title is reduced thereafter, first to subregulus, or subking, and thereafter to dux or ealdorman
.
The course of events in East Anglia is less clear, but Eadwald's coinage ceased and a new coinage of Coenwulf's began by about 805, so it is likely that Coenwulf forcibly re-established Mercian dominance there. The resumption of friendly relations with Wessex under Beorhtric received a setback when Beorhtric died and the throne of Wessex passed to Egbert, who, like Eadberht, had been an exile at Charlemagne's court. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that on the same day that Egbert came to the throne, an ealdorman of the Hwicce named Æthelmund led a force across the Thames at Kempsford
but was defeated by the men of Wiltshire under the leadership of Weohstan, also an ealdorman. Egbert may also have had a claim on the Kentish throne, according to the Chronicle, but he made no move to recover it during Coenwulf's reign. Egbert appears to have been independent of Mercia from the beginning of his reign, and Wessex's independence meant that Coenwulf was never able to claim the overlordship of the southern English that had belonged to Offa and Æthelbald. He did, however, claim the title of "Emperor" on one charter; the only Anglo-Saxon king to do so before the 10th century.
In 796 or 797 the Welsh engaged Mercian forces at Rhuddlan
. By 798 Coenwulf was in a position to invade in return, killing Caradog ap Meirion
, the King of Gwynedd
. A civil war in Gwynedd in the 810s ended with the succession of Hywel ap Caradog in 816 or 817, and Coenwulf invaded again, this time ravaging Snowdonia
and taking control of Rhufuniog, a small Welsh territory near Rhos
. It is not clear if the Mercians were involved in a battle recorded in Anglesey
in 817 or 818, but the following year Coenwulf and his army devastated Dyfed
.
The Northumbrian king, Æthelred
, was assassinated in April 796, and less than a month later his successor, Osbald
, was deposed in favour of Eardwulf
. Eardwulf had Alhmund
killed in 800; Alhmund was the son of King Alhred of Northumbria
, who had reigned from 765 to 774. Alhmund's death was regarded as a martyrdom, and his cult subsequently developed at Derby
, in Mercian territory, perhaps implying Mercian involvement in Northumbrian politics at the time. Coenwulf gave hospitality to Eardwulf's enemies, who had been exiled from Northumbria, and consequently Eardwulf invaded Mercia in 801. The invasion was inconclusive, however, and peace was arranged on equal terms. Coenwulf may also have been behind the coup in 806 that led to Eardwulf losing his throne, and it is likely that he continued to give support to Eardwulf's enemies after Eardwulf's return in 808.
In 787, Offa had persuaded the Church to create a new archbishopric at Lichfield, dividing the archdiocese of Canterbury. The new archdiocese included the sees of Worcester, Hereford, Leicester, Lindsey, Dommoc and Elmham; these were essentially the midland Anglian territories. Canterbury retained the sees in the south and southeast. Hygeberht, already Bishop of Lichfield
, was the new archdiocese's first and only archbishop.
Two versions of the events that led to the creation of the new archdiocese appear in the form of an exchange of letters in 798 between Coenwulf and Pope Leo III
. Coenwulf asserted in his letter that Offa wanted the new archdiocese created out of enmity for Jaenberht, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the division; but Leo responded that the only reason the papacy agreed to the creation was because of the size of the kingdom of Mercia. Both Coenwulf's and Leo's comments are partisan, as each had their own reasons for representing the situation as they did: Coenwulf was entreating Leo to make London the sole southern archdiocese, while Leo was concerned to avoid the appearance of complicity with the unworthy motives Coenwulf imputed to Offa. Coenwulf's desire to move the southern archbishopric to London would have been influenced by the situation in Kent, where Archbishop Æthelheard
had been forced to flee by Eadberht Præn. Coenwulf would have wished to retain control over the archiepiscopal seat, and at the time he wrote to the pope Kent was independent of Mercia.
Æthelheard, who had succeeded Jaenberht in 792, had been the abbot of a monastery at Louth
in Lindsey
. On 18 January 802 Æthelheard received a papal privilege that re-established his authority over all the churches in the archdiocese of Lichfield as well as those of Canterbury. Æthelheard held a council at Clovesho on 12 October 803 which finally stripped Lichfield of its archiepiscopal status. However, it appears that Hygeberht had already been removed from his office; a Hygeberht attended the council of Clovesho as the head of the Church in Mercia, but signed as an abbot.
Archbishop Æthelheard died in 805 and was succeeded by Wulfred
. Wulfred was given freedom to mint coins that did not name Coenwulf on the reverse, probably indicating that Wulfred was on good terms with the Mercian king. In 808 there was evidently a rift of some kind: a letter from Pope Leo to Charlemagne mentioned that Coenwulf had not yet made peace with Wulfred. After this no further discord is mentioned until 816, when Wulfred presided over a council which attacked lay control of religious houses. The council, held at Chelsea, asserted that Coenwulf did not have the right to make appointments to nunneries and monasteries, although both Leo and his predecessor, Pope Hadrian I, had granted Offa and Coenwulf the right to do so. Coenwulf had recently appointed his daughter, Cwoenthryth, to the position of abbess of Minster-in-Thanet
. Leo died in 816, and his successor, Stephen IV
, died the following January; the new pope, Paschal I
confirmed Coenwulf's privileges but this did not end the dispute. In 817 Wulfred witnessed two charters in which Coenwulf granted land to Deneberht
, bishop of Worcester, but there is no further record of Wulfred acting as archbishop for the rest of Coenwulf's reign. One account records that the quarrel between Wulfred and Coenwulf led to Wulfred's being deprived of his office for six years, with no baptisms taking place during that time, but this may have been an exaggeration, with four years being the more likely term of the suspension.
In 821, the year of Coenwulf's death, a council was held in London at which Coenwulf threatened to exile Wulfred if the archbishop did not surrender an estate of 300 hide
s, and make a payment of 120 pounds to the king. Wulfred is recorded to have agreed to these terms, but in the event the conflict continued well past Coenwulf's death, with an apparently final agreement between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter Cwoenthryth reached in 826 or 827. However, Wulfred officiated at the consecration of Coenwulf's brother and heir, Ceolwulf, on 17 September 822, so it is evident that some accommodation had been reached by that time. Wulfred had probably resumed his archiepiscopal duties earlier that year.
format established under Offa
and his contemporaries. His very first coins are very similar to the heavy coinage of Offa's last three years, and since the mints at Canterbury
and in East Anglia
were under the control of Eadbert Praen and Eadwald respectively, these earliest pennies must be the product of the London
mint. Before 798 the new tribrach type appeared, with a design consisting of three radial lines meeting at the centre. The tribrach design was introduced initially at London alone but soon spread to Canterbury after it was reconquered from the rebels. It was not struck in East Anglia, but there are tribrach pennies in the name of Cuthred, sub-king of Kent. Around 805 a new portrait coinage was introduced to all three of the southern mints. After around 810 a range of reverse designs was introduced, though several were common to many or all of the moneyer
s. From this date there is also evidence of a new mint, at Rochester in Kent.
A recent development in the coinage of Coenwulf came with the discovery in 2001 of a gold coin bearing the name Coenwulf at Biggleswade
in Bedfordshire
, England, on a footpath beside the River Ivel
. The 4.33 g (0.15 oz) mancus
, worth about 30 silver pennies, is only the eighth known Anglo-Saxon gold coin dating to the mid-to-late Anglo-Saxon period. The coin's inscription, "DE VICO LVNDONIAE", indicates that it was minted in London. Initially sold to American collector Allan Davisson for £230,000 at an auction
held by Spink auction house in October of that year, the British Government subsequently put in place an export ban in the hope of saving it for the British public. In February 2006 the coin was bought by the British Museum
for £357,832 with the help of funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund
and The British Museum Friends
making it the most expensive British coin purchased until then, though the price was exceeded the following July by the third-known example of a Double Leopard
. It is now on display in the museum's money gallery.
A charter of 799 records a wife of Coenwulf's named Cynegyth; the charter is forged but this detail is possibly accurate. Ælfthryth is more reliably established as Coenwulf's wife, again from charter evidence; she is recorded on charters dated between 804 and 817. Coenwulf's daughter, Cwoenthryth, survived him and inherited the monastery at Winchcombe
which Coenwulf had established as part of the patrimony of his family. Cwoenthryth subsequently was engaged in a long dispute with Archbishop Wulfred over her rights to the monastery. Coenwulf also had a son, Cynehelm, who later became known as a saint, with a cult dating from at least the 970s. According to Alfred the Great
's biographer, the Welsh monk and bishop, Asser
, Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, was descended from Coenwulf through her mother, Eadburh, though Asser does not say which of Coenwulf's children Eadburh descends from.
Coenwulf died in 821 at Basingwerk near Holywell
, Flintshire
, probably while making preparations for a campaign against the Welsh that took place under his brother and successor, Ceolwulf
, the following year. A mid-eleventh-century source asserts that Cynehelm briefly succeeded to the throne while still a child, and was then murdered by his tutor Æscberht at the behest of Cwoenthryth. This version of events "bristles with historical problems", according to one historian, and it is also possible that Cynehelm is to be identified with an ealdorman who is found witnessing charters earlier in Coenwulf's reign, and who appears to have died by about 812. The opinion of historians is not unanimous on this point: Simon Keynes
has suggested that the ealdorman is unlikely to be the same person as the prince, and that Cynehelm therefore may well have survived to the end of his father's reign. Regardless of interpretation of Cynehelm's legend, there does appear to have been dynastic discord early in Ceolwulf's reign: a document from 825 says that after the death of Coenwulf "much discord and innumerable disagreements arose between various kings, nobles, bishops and ministers of the Church of God on very many matters of secular business".
Coenwulf was the last of a series of Mercian kings, beginning with Penda in the early 7th century, to exercise dominance over most or all of southern England. The years after his death saw Mercia's position weaken, however; and the battle of Ellendun in 825 firmly established Egbert of Wessex
as the dominant king south of the Humber.
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
from December 796 to 821. He was a descendant of a brother of King Penda
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
, who had ruled Mercia in the middle of the 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith was a King of Mercia who briefly ruled in the year 796. He was the son and heir of King Offa of Mercia and his wife Cynethryth. In 787, Offa had Ecgfrith crowned as co-ruler. He succeeded his father in July 796, but despite Offa's efforts to secure his son's succession, it is recorded...
, the son of Offa
Offa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
; Ecgfrith only reigned for five months, with Coenwulf coming to the throne in the same year that Offa died. In the early years of Coenwulf's reign he had to deal with a revolt in Kent, which had been under Offa's control. Eadberht Præn
Eadberht III Præn
Eadberht III Præn was the King of Kent from 796 to 798. His brief reign was the result of a rebellion against the hegemony of Mercia, and it marked the last time that Kent existed as an independent kingdom....
returned from exile in Francia to claim the Kentish throne and Coenwulf was forced to wait for papal support before he could intervene. When Pope Leo
Pope Leo III
Pope Saint Leo III was Pope from 795 to his death in 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him as Roman Emperor....
agreed to anathematize Eadberht, Coenwulf invaded and retook the kingdom; Eadberht was taken prisoner, and was blinded and had his hands cut off. Coenwulf also appears to have lost control of the kingdom of East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
during the early part of his reign, as an independent coinage appears under King Eadwald. Coenwulf's coinage reappears in 805 indicating that the kingdom was again under Mercian control. Several campaigns of Coenwulf's against the Welsh are recorded, but only one conflict with Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
, in 801, though it is likely that Coenwulf continued to support the opponents of the Northumbrian king Eardwulf
Eardwulf of Northumbria
Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scene of dynastic strife between several noble families, and, in 790, the...
.
Coenwulf came into conflict with Archbishop
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
Wulfred
Wulfred
Wulfred was an Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Nothing is known of his life prior to 803, when he attended a church council, but he was probably a nobleman from Middlesex. He was elected archbishop in 805 and spent his time in office reforming the clergy of his cathedral...
of Canterbury over the issue of whether laypeople could control religious houses such as monasteries. The breakdown in the relationship between the two eventually reached the point where the archbishop was unable to exercise his duties for at least four years. A partial resolution was reached in 822 with Coenwulf's successor, King Ceolwulf
Ceolwulf I of Mercia
Ceolwulf I was King of Mercia and Kent, from 821 to 823. He was the brother of Cœnwulf, his predecessor, and was deposed by Beornwulf.-External links:* http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+186...
, but it was not until about 826 that a final settlement was reached between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter, Cwoenthryth, who had been the main beneficiary of Coenwulf's grants of religious property.
He was succeeded by his brother, Ceolwulf; a post-Conquest legend claims that his son Cynehelm was murdered to gain the succession. Within two years Ceolwulf had been deposed and the kingship passed permanently out of Coenwulf's family. Coenwulf was the last king of Mercia to exercise substantial dominance over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Within a decade of his death, the rise of Wessex had begun, under King Egbert, and Mercia never recovered its former position of power.
Background and sources
For most of the eighth century, Mercia was dominant among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the river Humber. Æthelbald, who came to the throne in 716, had established himself as the overlord of the southern Anglo-Saxons by 731. He was assassinated in 757, and was briefly succeeded by Beornred, but within a year OffaOffa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
ousted Beornred and took the throne for himself. Offa's daughter Eadburh
Eadburh
Eadburh , also spelled Eadburg, was the daughter of King Offa of Mercia and Queen Cynethryth. Married to King Beorhtric of Wessex, Asser's Life of Alfred the Great tells how she accidentally killed her husband by poison. She fled to Francia, where she is said to have been offered the chance of...
married Beorhtric of Wessex
Beorhtric of Wessex
Beorhtric was the King of Wessex from 786 to 802.In 786, Cynewulf, king of Wessex, was killed by the exiled noble Cyneheard, brother of the former King Sigeberht. Beorhtric's successful bid for the throne was supported by Offa, king of the Mercians against Egbert...
in 789, and Beorhtric became an ally thereafter. In Kent, Offa intervened decisively in the 780s, and at some point became the overlord of East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, whose king, Æthelred
Æthelred I of East Anglia
Æthelred I was a semi-historical eighth-century king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. It is thought that he ruled for some time between 760 and 790 and held East Anglia during the overlordship of Offa of Mercia...
, was beheaded at Offa's orders in 794.
Offa appears to have moved to eliminate dynastic rivals to the succession of his son, Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith was a King of Mercia who briefly ruled in the year 796. He was the son and heir of King Offa of Mercia and his wife Cynethryth. In 787, Offa had Ecgfrith crowned as co-ruler. He succeeded his father in July 796, but despite Offa's efforts to secure his son's succession, it is recorded...
. According to a contemporary letter from Alcuin of York, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade at Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
's court as one of his chief advisors, "the vengeance of the blood shed by the father has reached the son"; and Alcuin adds "This was not a strengthening of the kingdom, but its ruin." Offa died in July 796, and Ecgfrith succeeded, but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf came to the throne. The surviving sources do not record whether Ecgfrith died of natural causes or was assassinated, though Alcuin's letter seems to imply the latter.
A significant corpus of letters dates from the period, especially from Alcuin, who corresponded with kings, nobles and ecclesiastics throughout England. Letters between Coenwulf and the papacy also survive. Another key source for the period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
, a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle was a West Saxon
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
production, however, and is sometimes thought to be biased in favour of Wessex. Charters
Anglo-Saxon Charters
Anglo-Saxon charters are documents from the early medieval period in Britain which typically make a grant of land or record a privilege. The earliest surviving charters were drawn up in the 670s; the oldest surviving charters granted land to the Church, but from the eighth century surviving...
dating from Coenwulf's reign have survived; these were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land. A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma
Ismere Diploma
The Ismere Diploma is a charter of 736, in which Aethelbald of Mercia grants ten hides of land near Ismere to Cyneberht, his "venerable companion", for the foundation of a coenubium ....
, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere
Oshere
Oshere, King of Hwicce, possibly jointly with his presumed brother Osric, and with Æthelmod, Æthelheard, Æthelweard, Æthelberht, and Æthelric.He appears to have issued a charter in 680 ....
of the Hwicce
Hwicce
The Hwicce were one of the peoples of Anglo-Saxon England. The exact boundaries of their kingdom are uncertain, though it is likely that they coincided with those of the old Diocese of Worcester, founded in 679–80, the early bishops of which bore the title Episcopus Hwicciorum...
, is described as a "subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald's.
Mercia and southern England at Ecgfrith's death
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ecgfrith only reigned for 141 days. Offa is known to have died in 796, on either 26 July or 29 July, so Ecgfrith's date of death is either 14 December or 17 December of the same year. Coenwulf succeeded Ecgfrith as king. Coenwulf's father's name was Cuthberht, who may have been the same person as an ealdorman of that name who witnessed charters during the reign of Offa. Coenwulf is also recorded as witnessing charters during Offa's reign. According to the genealogy of Mercian kings preserved in the Anglian collectionAnglian collection
The Anglian collection is a collection of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and regnal lists. These survive in four manuscripts; two of which now reside in the British Library...
Coenwulf was descended from a brother of Penda
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
's named Cenwealh of whom there is no other record. It is possible that this refers to Cenwealh of Wessex, who was married to (and later repudiated) a sister of Penda's.
Coenwulf's kin may have been connected to the royal family of the Hwicce
Hwicce
The Hwicce were one of the peoples of Anglo-Saxon England. The exact boundaries of their kingdom are uncertain, though it is likely that they coincided with those of the old Diocese of Worcester, founded in 679–80, the early bishops of which bore the title Episcopus Hwicciorum...
, a subkingdom of Mercia around the lower river Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
. It appears that Coenwulf's family were powerful, but they were not of recent Mercian royal lineage. A letter of Alcuin's to the people of Kent in 797 laments that "scarcely anyone is found now of the old stock of kings". Eardwulf of Northumbria
Eardwulf of Northumbria
Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scene of dynastic strife between several noble families, and, in 790, the...
had, like Coenwulf, gained his throne in 796: Alcuin's meaning is not clear, but it may be that he intended it as a slur on Eardwulf or Coenwulf or on both. Alcuin certainly held negative views of Coenwulf, regarding him as a tyrant, and criticizing him for putting aside one wife and taking another. Alcuin wrote to a Mercian nobleman to ask him to greet Coenwulf peaceably "if it is possible to do so", implying uncertainty about Coenwulf's policy towards the Carolingians.
Coenwulf's early reign was marked by a breakdown in Mercian control in southern England. In East Anglia, King Eadwald minted coins at about this time, implying that he was no longer subject to Mercia. A charter of 799 seems to show that Wessex and Mercia were estranged for some time before that date, though the charter is not regarded as undoubtedly genuine. In Kent, an uprising began, probably starting after Ecgfrith's death, though it has been suggested that it began much earlier in the year, before Offa's death. The uprising was led by Eadberht Præn
Eadberht III Præn
Eadberht III Præn was the King of Kent from 796 to 798. His brief reign was the result of a rebellion against the hegemony of Mercia, and it marked the last time that Kent existed as an independent kingdom....
, who had been an exile at Charlemagne's court: Eadberht's cause almost certainly had Carolingian support. Eadberht became king of Kent, and Æthelheard
Æthelhard
Æthelhard was a Bishop of Winchester then an Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Appointed by King Offa of Mercia, Æthelhard had difficulties with both the Kentish monarchs and with a rival archiepiscopate in southern England, and was deposed around 796 by King Eadberht III Præn of Kent...
, the archbishop of Canterbury at that time, fled his see; it is likely that Christ Church, Canterbury was sacked.
Reign
Pope Leo III
Pope Saint Leo III was Pope from 795 to his death in 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him as Roman Emperor....
that Eadberht was a pretender. The basis for this assertion was that Eadberht had reportedly been a priest, and as such had given up any right to the throne. Coenwulf wrote to the Pope and asked Leo to consider making London the seat of the southern archbishopric, removing the honour from Canterbury; it is likely that Coenwulf's reasons included the loss of Mercian control over Kent. Leo refused to agree to moving the archiepiscopate to London, but in the same letter he agreed that Eadberht's previous ordination made him ineligible for the throne:
And concerning that letter which the most reverend and holy Æthelheard sent to us ... as regards that apostate cleric who mounted to the throne ... we excommunicate and reject him, having regard to the safety of his soul. For if he should still persist in that wicked behaviour, be sure to inform us quickly, that we may [write to] princes and all people dwelling in the island of Britain, exhorting them to expel him from his most wicked rule and procure the safety of his soul.
This authorization from the Pope to proceed against Eadberht was delayed until 798, but once it was received Coenwulf took action. The Mercians captured Eadberht, put out his eyes and cut off his hands, and led him in chains to Mercia, where according to later tradition he was imprisoned at Winchcombe, a religious house closely affiliated with Coenwulf's family. By 801 at the latest Coenwulf had placed his brother, Cuthred
Cuthred of Kent
Cuðred was a King of Kent .After the revolt of Kent under Eadberht III Præn was defeated in 798 by Cœnwulf, he established Cuðred as a client king...
, on the throne of Kent. Cuthred ruled until the time of his death in 807, after which Coenwulf took control of Kent in name as well as fact. Coenwulf styled himself "King of the Mercians and the Province of Kent" (rex Merciorum atque provincie Cancie) in a charter dated 809.
Offa's domination of the kingdom of Essex
Kingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
was continued by Coenwulf. King Sigeric of Essex
Sigeric of Essex
Sigeric of Essex was a King of Essex, and a son of Saelred of Essex, reigning from 758 until he abdicated in 798, makes a pilgrimage to Rome, and enters Roman monastery. Like his predecessors, he was not an independent ruler, but a dependent of the Kingdom of Mercia....
left for Rome in 798, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, presumably abdicating the throne in favour of his son, Sigered
Sigered of Essex
Sigered of Essex was the last king of Essex from 798 to 825. The son of Sigeric of Essex, Sigered became king when his father abdicated the throne....
. Sigered appears on two charters of Coenwulf's in 811 as king (rex) of Essex, but his title is reduced thereafter, first to subregulus, or subking, and thereafter to dux or ealdorman
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
.
Kempsford
Kempsford is a small village in Gloucestershire, England. RAF Fairford is located near the village, as is Fairford itself.The first Kempsford Literary Festival takes place between Friday 12th and Saturday 14th March 2010...
but was defeated by the men of Wiltshire under the leadership of Weohstan, also an ealdorman. Egbert may also have had a claim on the Kentish throne, according to the Chronicle, but he made no move to recover it during Coenwulf's reign. Egbert appears to have been independent of Mercia from the beginning of his reign, and Wessex's independence meant that Coenwulf was never able to claim the overlordship of the southern English that had belonged to Offa and Æthelbald. He did, however, claim the title of "Emperor" on one charter; the only Anglo-Saxon king to do so before the 10th century.
In 796 or 797 the Welsh engaged Mercian forces at Rhuddlan
Rhuddlan
Rhuddlan is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire , in north Wales. It is situated to the south of the coastal town of Rhyl and overlooks the River Clwyd. The town gave its name to the Welsh district of Rhuddlan from 1974 to 1996...
. By 798 Coenwulf was in a position to invade in return, killing Caradog ap Meirion
Caradog ap Meirion
Caradog ap Meirion was King of Gwynedd . This era in the history of Gwynedd was not notable, and given the lack of reliable information available, serious histories of Wales, such that as by Davies, do not mention Caradog, while that of Lloyd mentions his name only in a footnote quoting the year...
, the King of Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...
. A civil war in Gwynedd in the 810s ended with the succession of Hywel ap Caradog in 816 or 817, and Coenwulf invaded again, this time ravaging Snowdonia
Snowdonia
Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...
and taking control of Rhufuniog, a small Welsh territory near Rhos
Rhos
Rhos may refer to the following places in Wales:*Rhos, Neath Port Talbot a village in Neath Port Talbot, Wales*Rhos-on-Sea , a village on the outskirts of Colwyn Bay, north Wales...
. It is not clear if the Mercians were involved in a battle recorded in Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
in 817 or 818, but the following year Coenwulf and his army devastated Dyfed
Dyfed
Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was created on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe...
.
The Northumbrian king, Æthelred
Æthelred I of Northumbria
Æthelred was king of Northumbria from 774 to 779 and again from 788 or 789 until his murder in 796. He became king after Alhred was deposed...
, was assassinated in April 796, and less than a month later his successor, Osbald
Osbald of Northumbria
Osbald was a king of Northumbria during 796. He was a friend of Alcuin, a monk from York who often sent him letters of advice.Osbald was a violent man and most likely a murderer as modern records suggest. On 9 January AD 780, he killed Bearn, the son of King Ælfwald by burning him to death at...
, was deposed in favour of Eardwulf
Eardwulf of Northumbria
Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scene of dynastic strife between several noble families, and, in 790, the...
. Eardwulf had Alhmund
Alcmund of Derby
Alcmund of Derby or of Lilleshall, also spelt Ealhmund, Alhmund, Alkmund, or Alchmund was son of Alhred of Northumbria. After more than twenty years in exile among the Picts as a result of Northumbrian dynastic struggles, he returned with an army...
killed in 800; Alhmund was the son of King Alhred of Northumbria
Alhred of Northumbria
Alhred or Alchred was king of Northumbria from 765 to 774. He had married Osgifu, either the daughter of Oswulf, granddaughter of Eadberht Eating, or Eadberht's daughter, and was thus related by marriage to Ecgbert, Archbishop of York...
, who had reigned from 765 to 774. Alhmund's death was regarded as a martyrdom, and his cult subsequently developed at Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
, in Mercian territory, perhaps implying Mercian involvement in Northumbrian politics at the time. Coenwulf gave hospitality to Eardwulf's enemies, who had been exiled from Northumbria, and consequently Eardwulf invaded Mercia in 801. The invasion was inconclusive, however, and peace was arranged on equal terms. Coenwulf may also have been behind the coup in 806 that led to Eardwulf losing his throne, and it is likely that he continued to give support to Eardwulf's enemies after Eardwulf's return in 808.
Relations with the church
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
, was the new archdiocese's first and only archbishop.
Two versions of the events that led to the creation of the new archdiocese appear in the form of an exchange of letters in 798 between Coenwulf and Pope Leo III
Pope Leo III
Pope Saint Leo III was Pope from 795 to his death in 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him as Roman Emperor....
. Coenwulf asserted in his letter that Offa wanted the new archdiocese created out of enmity for Jaenberht, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the division; but Leo responded that the only reason the papacy agreed to the creation was because of the size of the kingdom of Mercia. Both Coenwulf's and Leo's comments are partisan, as each had their own reasons for representing the situation as they did: Coenwulf was entreating Leo to make London the sole southern archdiocese, while Leo was concerned to avoid the appearance of complicity with the unworthy motives Coenwulf imputed to Offa. Coenwulf's desire to move the southern archbishopric to London would have been influenced by the situation in Kent, where Archbishop Æthelheard
Æthelhard
Æthelhard was a Bishop of Winchester then an Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Appointed by King Offa of Mercia, Æthelhard had difficulties with both the Kentish monarchs and with a rival archiepiscopate in southern England, and was deposed around 796 by King Eadberht III Præn of Kent...
had been forced to flee by Eadberht Præn. Coenwulf would have wished to retain control over the archiepiscopal seat, and at the time he wrote to the pope Kent was independent of Mercia.
Æthelheard, who had succeeded Jaenberht in 792, had been the abbot of a monastery at Louth
Louth, Lincolnshire
Louth is a market town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds", it is situated where the ancient trackway Barton Street crosses the River Lud, and has a total resident population of 15,930.The Greenwich...
in Lindsey
Kingdom of Lindsey
Lindsey or Linnuis is the name of a petty Anglo-Saxon kingdom, absorbed into Northumbria in the 7th century.It lay between the Humber and the Wash, forming its inland boundaries from the course of the Witham and Trent rivers , and the Foss Dyke between...
. On 18 January 802 Æthelheard received a papal privilege that re-established his authority over all the churches in the archdiocese of Lichfield as well as those of Canterbury. Æthelheard held a council at Clovesho on 12 October 803 which finally stripped Lichfield of its archiepiscopal status. However, it appears that Hygeberht had already been removed from his office; a Hygeberht attended the council of Clovesho as the head of the Church in Mercia, but signed as an abbot.
Archbishop Æthelheard died in 805 and was succeeded by Wulfred
Wulfred
Wulfred was an Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Nothing is known of his life prior to 803, when he attended a church council, but he was probably a nobleman from Middlesex. He was elected archbishop in 805 and spent his time in office reforming the clergy of his cathedral...
. Wulfred was given freedom to mint coins that did not name Coenwulf on the reverse, probably indicating that Wulfred was on good terms with the Mercian king. In 808 there was evidently a rift of some kind: a letter from Pope Leo to Charlemagne mentioned that Coenwulf had not yet made peace with Wulfred. After this no further discord is mentioned until 816, when Wulfred presided over a council which attacked lay control of religious houses. The council, held at Chelsea, asserted that Coenwulf did not have the right to make appointments to nunneries and monasteries, although both Leo and his predecessor, Pope Hadrian I, had granted Offa and Coenwulf the right to do so. Coenwulf had recently appointed his daughter, Cwoenthryth, to the position of abbess of Minster-in-Thanet
Minster-in-Thanet
Minster-in-Thanet, also known as Minster, is a village and civil parish in the Thanet District of Kent, England. The village is situated to the west of Ramsgate and to the north east of Canterbury; it lies just south west of Kent International Airport and just north of the River Stour...
. Leo died in 816, and his successor, Stephen IV
Pope Stephen IV
Pope Stephen IV was Pope from June 816 to January 817.He succeeded Leo III, whose policies favoring clergy over lay aristocracy he did not continue. Immediately after his consecration he ordered the Roman people to swear fidelity to the Frankish king Louis the Pious, to whom he went personally in...
, died the following January; the new pope, Paschal I
Pope Paschal I
Pope Saint Paschal I was pope from January 25, 817 to February 11, 824. A native of Rome and son of Bonosus, he was raised to the pontificate by the acclamation of the clergy, shortly after the death of Pope Stephen IV, and before the sanction of the emperor Louis the Pious had been obtained - a...
confirmed Coenwulf's privileges but this did not end the dispute. In 817 Wulfred witnessed two charters in which Coenwulf granted land to Deneberht
Denebeorht
Denebeorht was a medieval Bishop of Worcester.He was consecrated about 799. He died in 822.-References:* Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961...
, bishop of Worcester, but there is no further record of Wulfred acting as archbishop for the rest of Coenwulf's reign. One account records that the quarrel between Wulfred and Coenwulf led to Wulfred's being deprived of his office for six years, with no baptisms taking place during that time, but this may have been an exaggeration, with four years being the more likely term of the suspension.
In 821, the year of Coenwulf's death, a council was held in London at which Coenwulf threatened to exile Wulfred if the archbishop did not surrender an estate of 300 hide
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
s, and make a payment of 120 pounds to the king. Wulfred is recorded to have agreed to these terms, but in the event the conflict continued well past Coenwulf's death, with an apparently final agreement between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter Cwoenthryth reached in 826 or 827. However, Wulfred officiated at the consecration of Coenwulf's brother and heir, Ceolwulf, on 17 September 822, so it is evident that some accommodation had been reached by that time. Wulfred had probably resumed his archiepiscopal duties earlier that year.
Coinage
The coinage of Coenwulf follows the broad silver pennyPenny
A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.-Etymology:...
format established under Offa
Offa
Offa may refer to:Two kings of the Angles, who are often confused:*Offa of Angel , on the continent*Offa of Mercia , in Great BritainA king of Essex:*Offa of Essex A town in Nigeria:* Offa, Nigeria...
and his contemporaries. His very first coins are very similar to the heavy coinage of Offa's last three years, and since the mints at Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
and in East Anglia
Kingdom of the East Angles
The Kingdom of East Anglia, also known as the Kingdom of the East Angles , was a small independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom that comprised what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens...
were under the control of Eadbert Praen and Eadwald respectively, these earliest pennies must be the product of the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
mint. Before 798 the new tribrach type appeared, with a design consisting of three radial lines meeting at the centre. The tribrach design was introduced initially at London alone but soon spread to Canterbury after it was reconquered from the rebels. It was not struck in East Anglia, but there are tribrach pennies in the name of Cuthred, sub-king of Kent. Around 805 a new portrait coinage was introduced to all three of the southern mints. After around 810 a range of reverse designs was introduced, though several were common to many or all of the moneyer
Moneyer
A moneyer is someone who physically creates money. Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They became most prominent in the Roman Republic, continuing into the empire.-Roman Republican moneyers:...
s. From this date there is also evidence of a new mint, at Rochester in Kent.
A recent development in the coinage of Coenwulf came with the discovery in 2001 of a gold coin bearing the name Coenwulf at Biggleswade
Biggleswade
Biggleswade is a market town and civil parish located on the River Ivel in Bedfordshire, England. It is well served by transport routes, being close to the A1 road between London and the North, as well as having a railway station on the main rail link North from London .-Geography:Located about 40...
in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, England, on a footpath beside the River Ivel
River Ivel
The River Ivel is a river in the east of England. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse.-Course of the Ivel:The river Ivel rises just north of Baldock in Hertfordshire, but most of its course lies within Bedfordshire. It flows through Stotfold, Arlesey, Henlow, Langford, Biggleswade, Sandy and...
. The 4.33 g (0.15 oz) mancus
Mancus
Mancus was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin, a weight of gold of 4.25g , or a unit of account of thirty silver pence. This made it worth about a months wages for a skilled worker, such as a craftsman or a soldier...
, worth about 30 silver pennies, is only the eighth known Anglo-Saxon gold coin dating to the mid-to-late Anglo-Saxon period. The coin's inscription, "DE VICO LVNDONIAE", indicates that it was minted in London. Initially sold to American collector Allan Davisson for £230,000 at an auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
held by Spink auction house in October of that year, the British Government subsequently put in place an export ban in the hope of saving it for the British public. In February 2006 the coin was bought by the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
for £357,832 with the help of funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund
National Heritage Memorial Fund
The National Heritage Memorial Fund is a non-departmental public body set up under the National Heritage Act 1980 in memory of people who gave their lives for the United Kingdom....
and The British Museum Friends
The British Museum Friends
The British Museum Friends is a registered charitable organisation in the UK with close links to the British Museum, and was set up in 1968...
making it the most expensive British coin purchased until then, though the price was exceeded the following July by the third-known example of a Double Leopard
Florin (English coin)
The Florin or Double Leopard was an attempt in 1344 by English king Edward III to produce a gold coinage suitable for use in Europe as well as in England . It was 108 grains of nominal pure gold and had a value of six shillings The Florin or Double Leopard was an attempt in 1344 by English king...
. It is now on display in the museum's money gallery.
Family and succession
Winchcombe
Winchcombe is a Cotswold town in the local authority district of Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire, England. Its population according to the 2001 census was 4,379.-Early history:...
which Coenwulf had established as part of the patrimony of his family. Cwoenthryth subsequently was engaged in a long dispute with Archbishop Wulfred over her rights to the monastery. Coenwulf also had a son, Cynehelm, who later became known as a saint, with a cult dating from at least the 970s. According to Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
's biographer, the Welsh monk and bishop, Asser
Asser
Asser was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court...
, Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, was descended from Coenwulf through her mother, Eadburh, though Asser does not say which of Coenwulf's children Eadburh descends from.
Coenwulf died in 821 at Basingwerk near Holywell
Holywell
Holywell is the fifth largest town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying to the west of the estuary of the River Dee.-History:The market town of Holywell takes its name from the St Winefride's Well, a holy well surrounded by a chapel...
, Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
, probably while making preparations for a campaign against the Welsh that took place under his brother and successor, Ceolwulf
Ceolwulf I of Mercia
Ceolwulf I was King of Mercia and Kent, from 821 to 823. He was the brother of Cœnwulf, his predecessor, and was deposed by Beornwulf.-External links:* http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+186...
, the following year. A mid-eleventh-century source asserts that Cynehelm briefly succeeded to the throne while still a child, and was then murdered by his tutor Æscberht at the behest of Cwoenthryth. This version of events "bristles with historical problems", according to one historian, and it is also possible that Cynehelm is to be identified with an ealdorman who is found witnessing charters earlier in Coenwulf's reign, and who appears to have died by about 812. The opinion of historians is not unanimous on this point: Simon Keynes
Simon Keynes
Simon Douglas Keynes MA, PhD, Litt.D, FBA is the current Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge University.-Biography:...
has suggested that the ealdorman is unlikely to be the same person as the prince, and that Cynehelm therefore may well have survived to the end of his father's reign. Regardless of interpretation of Cynehelm's legend, there does appear to have been dynastic discord early in Ceolwulf's reign: a document from 825 says that after the death of Coenwulf "much discord and innumerable disagreements arose between various kings, nobles, bishops and ministers of the Church of God on very many matters of secular business".
Coenwulf was the last of a series of Mercian kings, beginning with Penda in the early 7th century, to exercise dominance over most or all of southern England. The years after his death saw Mercia's position weaken, however; and the battle of Ellendun in 825 firmly established Egbert of Wessex
Egbert of Wessex
Egbert was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent...
as the dominant king south of the Humber.