Cenberht () (died 661) was a king in the lands of the
West Saxons
The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886.
The Anglo-Saxons beli ...
.
Cenberht was said to be the son of
Cedda
Cedda (alternatively Cadda or Chad) was the second son of Cuthwine and consequently a member of the House of Wessex family tree, Wessex family. He was born c. 590 and his death date is unknown. He had one recorded son, Coenberht, the father of ...
(or Cadda), about whom nothing is recorded, and the grandson of Cutha. It is thought that Cutha is the same person as
Cuthwine
Cuthwine (born c. 565), was a member of the House of Wessex, the son of Ceawlin of Wessex, King Ceawlin of Wessex. Cuthwine's father Ceawlin was deposed from the throne of Wessex in 592 by his nephew Ceol. Therefore, Cuthwine never inherited th ...
, also found in West Saxon genealogies. He was thus, according to later genealogies, a third cousin of King
Cenwalh of Wessex
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.
Penda and Anna
Bede states that Cenwalh was the son of the King Cynegils ba ...
. The later King
Caedwalla and his brother
Mul were said to be sons of Cenberht.
The ''
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 ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...
'' for the year 661 reports that both Cuthred, son of King
Cwichelm Cwichelm is a masculine English given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Cwichelm of Wessex (died 636), Prince of Wessex
* Cwichhelm (bishop) (died after 678), Bishop of Rochester
{{given name
English masculine given names
Masculine ...
, and Cenberht died in that year. This is the sole report of Cenberht in an early source, but based on the pattern of shared rulership among the West Saxons in this period, it is presumed that Cenberht shared power with Cenwalh in a junior role, either as a junior king or as sub-king of some part of Wessex.
[Kirby, p.49; Yorke, p. 145. Yorke notes that, in the case of Cenberht's contemporary Cuthred, it is very likely that he ruled some part of ]Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
, but no such information is available for Cenberht.
See also
*
House of Wessex family tree
This is a list of monarchs of the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) until 886 AD. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure.
The names are given in modern English f ...
Notes
References
* Kirby, D.P., ''The Earliest English Kings.'' London: Unwin Hyman, 1991.
*
Yorke, Barbara, ''Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England.'' London: Seaby, 1990.
External links
* {{PASE, 2376, Cenberht 1
661 deaths
West Saxon monarchs
Year of birth unknown
House of Wessex