Ceolwulf I was the King of
Mercia
Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...
, a kingdom of
Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...
, from 821 until his deposition in 823. He was the brother of
Coenwulf, his predecessor, and was deposed by
Beornwulf.
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury (; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a gifted historical scholar and a ...
declared that, after CÅ“nwulf: "the kingdom of the Mercians declining, and if I may use the expression, nearly lifeless, produced nothing worthy of historical commemoration." Actually, Mercia did have a moment of glory that William was unaware of. Indicating the year 822, the ''
Annales Cambriae'' states: "The fortress of
Degannwy (in
Gwynedd
Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...
) is destroyed by the Saxons and they took the
kingdom of Powys into their own control."
A later charter depicts a disturbed state of affairs during Ceolwulf's reign: "After the death of Cœnwulf, king of the Mercians, many disagreements and innumerable disputes arose among leading persons of every kind—kings, bishops, and ministers of the churches of God—concerning all manner of secular affairs". In 823, sometime after 26 May, on which date he granted land to Archbishop
Wulfred in exchange for a gold and silver vessel, Ceolwulf was overthrown. His replacement was Beornwulf, whose pedigree is not known.
Ceolwulf ruled Kent directly—in his two charters, he is styled as "King of the Mercians and of the men of Kent".
Family
Ceolwulf was the son of
Cuthberht of Mercia and the brother of
Coenwulf of Mercia
Coenwulf (; also spelled Cenwulf, Kenulf, or Kenwulph; ) was the List of monarchs of Mercia, king of Mercia from December 796 until his death in 821. He was a descendant of King Pybba of Mercia, Pybba, who ruled Mercia in the early 7th century. ...
(d. 821) and
Cuthred of Kent (d. 807).
Coenwulf ruled as king of Mercia from 796 until his death in 821. In 798 Coenwulf installed his brother Cuthred as king of Kent in 798. Cuthred ruled there until his death in 807, after which Kent reverted to Mercia. Upon Coenwulf's death in 821 he was succeeded by Ceolwulf.
The name of Ceolwulf's wife is not recorded; however, they had one known child, a daughter:
Ælfflæd of Mercia.
According to a tradition preserved at
Evesham
Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...
, Ceolwulf's daughter
Ælfflæd married
Wigmund, the son of
Wiglaf, King of Mercia (827–839). Wiglaf was succeeded by
Beorhtwulf
Beorhtwulf (, meaning "bright wolf"; also spelled ''Berhtwulf''; died 852) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 839 or 840 to 852. His ancestry is unknown, though he may have been connected to Beornwulf, who ruled Mercia in ...
and his son Berhtfrith sought to marry King Wigmund's widow so that he could become king. This was opposed by
Wigstan
Wigstan (, ; died c. 840 AD), also known as Saint Wystan, was the son of Wigmund of Mercia and Ælfflæd, daughter of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia.
History
Like many Mercians of the period very little is known about Wigstan. He was the son of W ...
, the son of Wigmund and Ælfflæd, and Berhtfrith slew Wigstan in 849. However, there is no record outside this Evesham tradition that Wigmund was ever king.
Alfred Smyth suggests that
Ceolwulf II, who became king following the Viking expulsion of King
Burgred in 874, may have been another son of Ælfflæd, and thus a grandson of Ceolwulf I.
See also
*
List of monarchs of Mercia
The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ceolwulf 01 Of Mercia
Mercian monarchs
9th-century English monarchs
823 deaths
Year of birth unknown
Dethroned monarchs