Cædwalla (; 659 – 20 April 689) was the
King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he
abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh
Cadwallon. He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and attacked the
South Saxons, killing their king,
Æthelwealh, in what is now
Sussex
Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
. Cædwalla was unable to hold the South Saxon territory, however, and was driven out by Æthelwealh's
ealdormen. In either 685 or 686, he became King of Wessex. He may have been involved in suppressing rival dynasties at this time, as an early source records that Wessex was ruled by
underkings until Cædwalla.
After his accession, Cædwalla returned to Sussex and won the territory again. He also conquered the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
, gained control of
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
and the
kingdom of Kent
The Kingdom of the Kentish (; ), today referred to as the Kingdom of Kent, was an Early Middle Ages, early medieval kingdom in what is now South East England. It existed from either the fifth or the sixth century AD until it was fully absorbed i ...
, and in 686 he installed his brother
Mul as king of Kent. Mul was burned in a Kentish revolt a year later, and Cædwalla returned, possibly ruling Kent directly for a period.
Cædwalla was wounded during the conquest of the Isle of Wight, and perhaps for this reason he abdicated in 688 to travel to Rome for
baptism
Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
. He reached Rome in April 689 and was baptised by
Pope Sergius I on the Saturday before
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
, dying ten days later on 20 April 689. He was succeeded by
Ine.
Sources
A major source for
West Saxon events is the ''
Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', written about 731 by
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
, a
Northumbria
Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland.
The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...
n monk and chronicler. Bede received a good deal of information relating to Cædwalla from Bishop
Daniel of Winchester; Bede's interest was primarily in the
Christianisation of the West Saxons, but in relating the history of the church he sheds much light on the West Saxons and Cædwalla.
[.] The contemporary ''
Vita Sancti Wilfrithi
The ''Vita Sancti Wilfrithi'' or ''Life of St Wilfrid'' (spelled "Wilfrid" in the modern era) is an early 8th-century hagiographic text recounting the life of the Northumbrian bishop, Wilfrid. Although a hagiography, it has few miracles, while i ...
'' or ''Life of St Wilfrid'' (by
Stephen of Ripon, but often misattributed to
Eddius Stephanus) also mentions Cædwalla.
["Stephen of Ripon" in ''Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England''.] Another useful source is 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 ...
'', a set of
annals
Annals (, from , "year") are a concise history, historical record in which events are arranged chronology, chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record.
Scope
The nature of the distinction betw ...
assembled in Wessex in the late 9th-century, probably at the direction of King
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...
. Associated with the ''Chronicle'' is a list of kings and their reigns, known as the
West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List''.''
There are also six surviving charters, though some are of doubtful authenticity. Charters were documents drawn up to record grants of land by kings to their followers or to the church and provide some of the earliest documentary sources in England.
West Saxon territory in the 680s
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.
[For a discussion of 7th century West Saxon expansion, see .] To their west was the native British kingdom of
Dumnonia, in what is now
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
and
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
. To the north were the
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 ...
ns, 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.
[.] 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
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
[The general topography of the 7th century kingdoms is given in map form in .]
Not all the locations named in the ''Chronicle'' can be identified, but it is apparent that the West Saxons were fighting in north
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, south
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
, and north
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, 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
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
; similarly,
Centwine (676–685) is the first Saxon patron of
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction.
The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...
, in Somerset. Evidently, these monasteries were in West Saxon territory by then.
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
, to the west, in Devon, was under West Saxon control by 680, since
Boniface was educated there at about that time.
Ancestry
A number of the early kings of Wessex had Celtic names, which may indicate
Brythonic ancestry.
[.] Cædwalla's name ultimately derives from the
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the hypothetical ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed throu ...
*''Katu-welnā-mnos'', meaning "The One Who (-mnos) Leads (welnā-) into Battle (katu-)". However, the form "Cædwalla" appears to be a Saxon variant of "
Cadwallon", a contemporary
Welsh name.
Bede states that Cædwalla was a "daring young man of the royal house of the Gewissæ", and gives his age at his death in 689 as about thirty, making the year of his birth about 659.
[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book V, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 275.] "
Gewisse", a tribal name, is used by Bede as an equivalent to "West Saxon": the
West Saxon genealogies trace back to one "Gewis", an eponymous ancestor.
[.] According to the ''Chronicle'', Cædwalla was the son of
Coenberht, and was descended via
Ceawlin from
Cerdic, the first of the Gewisse to land in England.
[.][.] However, it appears that the many difficulties and contradictions in the regnal list are caused partly by the efforts of later scribes to demonstrate that each king on the list was descended from Cerdic; thus Cædwalla's genealogy must be treated with caution.
[.]
First campaign in Sussex
The first mention of Cædwalla is in the ''Life of St Wilfrid,'' in which he is described as an exiled nobleman in the forests of
Chiltern and
Andred.
[.] It was not uncommon for a 7th-century king to have spent time in exile before gaining the throne;
Oswald of Northumbria is another prominent example.
[.] According to the ''Chronicle'', it was in 685 that Cædwalla "began to contend for the kingdom".
Despite his exile, he was able to put together enough military force to defeat and kill
Æthelwealh, the king of Sussex. He was, however, soon expelled by
Berthun and
Andhun, Æthelwealh's
ealdormen, "who administered the country from then on", possibly as kings.
[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Ch. 15, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 230.]
The
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
and the
Meon valley in what is now eastern
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
had been placed under Æthelwealh's control by Wulfhere;
[.] the ''Chronicle'' dates this to 661, but according to Bede it occurred "not long before"
Wilfrid's mission to the South Saxons in the 680s, which implies a rather later date. Wulfhere's attack on
Ashdown, also dated by the ''Chronicle'' to 661, may likewise have actually happened later. If these events happened in the early 680s or not long before, Cædwalla's aggression against Æthelwealh would be explained as a response to Mercian pressure.
Another indication of the political and military situation may be the division in the 660s of the West Saxon
see at
Dorchester-on-Thames; a new see was established at
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
, very near to the South Saxon border. Bede's explanation for the division is that Cenwalh grew tired of the
Frankish speech of the bishop at Dorchester,
[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, pp. 153–155.] but it is more likely that it was a response to the Mercian advance, which forced West Saxon expansion, such as Cædwalla's military activities, west, south, and east, rather than north.
Cædwalla's military successes may be the reason that at about this time the term "West Saxon" starts to be used in contemporary sources, instead of "Gewisse". It is from this time that the West Saxons began to rule over other Anglo-Saxon peoples.
Accession and reign
In 685 or 686, Cædwalla became king of the West Saxons after
Centwine, his predecessor, retired to a monastery.
Bede gives Cædwalla a reign of two years,
[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book V, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, pp. 275–276.] ending in 688, but if his reign was less than three years then he may have come to the throne in 685. The ''West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List'' gives his reign a length of three years, with one variant reading of two years.
According to Bede, before Cædwalla's reign, Wessex was ruled by underkings, who were conquered and removed when Cædwalla became king.
[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Ch. 12, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 224.] This has been taken to mean that Cædwalla himself ended the reign of the underkings, though Bede does not directly say this. Bede gives the death of Cenwalh as the start of the ten-year period in which the West Saxons were ruled by these underkings; Cenwalh is now thought to have died in about 673, so this is slightly inconsistent with Cædwalla's dates. It may be that Centwine, Cædwalla's predecessor as king of the West Saxons, began as a co-ruler but established himself as sole king by the time Cædwalla became king.
[.][.] It may also be that the underkings were another dynastic faction of the West Saxon royal line, vying for power with Centwine and Cædwalla; the description of them as "underkings" may be due to a partisan description of the situation by Bishop Daniel of Winchester, who was Bede's primary informant on West Saxon events.
[.] It is also possible that not all the underkings were deposed. There is a King Bealdred, who reigned in the area of Somerset and West Wiltshire, who is mentioned in two land-grants, one dated 681 and the other 688, though both documents have been treated as spurious by some historians.
Further confusing the situation is another land-grant, thought to be genuine,
showing Ine's father, Cenred, still reigning in Wessex after Ine's accession.
Once on the throne, Cædwalla attacked the South Saxons again, this time killing Berthun, and "the province was reduced to a worse state of subjection".
He also conquered the Isle of Wight, which was still an independent
pagan kingdom, and set himself to kill every native on the island, resettling it with his own people, though Bede states that the natives remained a majority on the island.
Arwald, the king of the Isle of Wight, left his two young brothers as heirs. They fled the island, but were found at
Stoneham, in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
, and killed on Cædwalla's orders, though he was persuaded by a priest to let them be baptised before they were executed. Bede also mentions that Cædwalla was wounded; he was recovering from his wounds when the priest found him to ask permission to baptise the princes.
[Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Ch. 16, from Sherley-Price's translation, pp. 230–232.]
In a charter of 688, Cædwalla grants land at
Farnham
Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...
for a
minster,
so it is evident that Cædwalla controlled Surrey. He also invaded Kent, in 686, and may have founded a monastery at
Hoo, northeast of
Rochester, between the
Medway
Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...
and the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...
. He installed his brother,
Mul, as king of Kent, in place of its king
Eadric. In a subsequent Kentish revolt, Mul was "burned" along with twelve others, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Cædwalla responded with a renewed campaign against Kent, laying waste to its land and leaving it in a state of chaos. He may have ruled Kent directly after this second invasion.
[.]
Christianity
Cædwalla was unbaptised when he came to the throne of Wessex, and remained so throughout his reign, but though he is often referred to as a pagan this is not necessarily the most apt description; it may be that he was already Christian in his beliefs but delayed his baptism to a time of his choice.
[This suggestion is made in . For an example of a modern historian referring to Cædwalla unequivocally as a pagan, see .] He was clearly respectful of the church, with charter evidence showing multiple grants to churches and for religious buildings.
When Cædwalla first attacked the South Saxons, Wilfrid was at the court of King Æthelwealh, and on Æthelwealh's death Wilfrid attached himself to Cædwalla;
the ''Life of Wilfrid'' records that Cædwalla sought Wilfrid out as a spiritual father.
Bede states that Cædwalla vowed to give a quarter of the Isle of Wight to the church if he conquered the island and that Wilfrid was the beneficiary when the vow was fulfilled; Bede also says that Cædwalla agreed to let the heirs of Arwald, the king of the Isle of Wight, be baptised before they were executed.
Two of Cædwalla's charters were grants of land to Wilfrid,
and there is also subsequent evidence that Cædwalla worked with Wilfrid and
Eorcenwald, a bishop of the East Saxons, to establish an ecclesiastical infrastructure for Sussex.
[.] However, there is no evidence that Wilfrid exerted any influence over Cædwalla's secular activities or his campaigns.
[.]
Wilfrid's association with Cædwalla may have benefited him in other ways: the ''Life of Wilfrid'' asserts that the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
,
Theodore, expressed a wish that Wilfrid succeed him in that role, and if this is true it may be a reflection of Wilfrid's association with Cædwalla's southern overlordship.
Abdication, baptism and death
In 688, Cædwalla
abdicated and went on a
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
to Rome, possibly because he was dying of the wounds he had suffered while fighting on the Isle of Wight.
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
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
, where he gave money for the foundation of a church, and is also recorded at the court of
Cunincpert, king of the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...
, in what is now
northern Italy
Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...
.
[.] In Rome, he was baptised by
Pope Sergius I on the Saturday before
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
(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 Basilica. 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".
[.]
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.
[.]
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
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price ( blood money), was a precept in some historical legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, ...
. Ine appears to have retained control of Surrey, but did not recover Kent.
[.] No king of Wessex was to venture so far east until
Egbert, over a hundred years later.
[.]
See also
*
House of Wessex family tree
Notes
References
Primary sources
*
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
, ''
Ecclesiastical History of the English People.'' Translated by
Leo Sherley-Price, revised
R. E. Latham, ed. D.H. Farmer. London: Penguin, 1990.
*
Secondary sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caedwalla of Wessex
650s births
689 deaths
7th-century English monarchs
Burials at St. Peter's Basilica
Anglo-Saxon warriors
West Saxon monarchs
Monarchs who abdicated
House of Wessex