Cenred (Mercia)

Britain in the 7th century

Cenred (also: Coenred, Coinred, Kenred) was king of the Anglo-Saxon Empire of Mercia in the years 704–709 .

Cenred was a son of King Wulfhere , but when he died in 675 he was apparently still too young for a successor, so that first Wulfheres brother Æthelred became king. For the year 702, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Cenred had become "King of the Southumbrians" without the exact meaning of the title being clear, but indicating a sub-kingdom of Cenred. In 704 Cenred succeeded his uncle Æthelred as king, who retired to Bardney Abbey . Around 707, Cenred had to repel attacks from its Welsh neighbors. In 709 Cenred, like alsthelred five years before him, resigned as king and went on a pilgrimage to Rome , where he was accompanied, among others, by King Offa of Essex and Bishop Ecgwine of Worcester . In Rome, Pope Constantine I made him a monk, while Æthelred's son Ceolred succeeded him in Mercia . Little is known about Cenred's further life as a monk, and the year of his death is also uncertain.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DP Kirby, The Earliest English Kings , p. 108
2. ↑ ASC D , see 702
3. ↑ ASC A , see 704
4. ^ FM Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England , p. 203; n. 1
5. ^ St. Egwin in Catholic Encyclopedia
6. ^ B. Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England , p. 174
7. ↑ Beda, HE , II, 20
8. ^ B. Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England , p. 105

literature

swell

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: MS A v. 3 , Janet Bately (Ed.), Brewer, Rochester (NY) 1986, ISBN 0-85991-103-9 .
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: MS D v. 6 , GP Cubbin (Ed.), Brewer, Cambridge 1996, ISBN 0-85991-467-4 .
• Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Pople , B. Colgrave & RAB Mynors (Eds.), Clarendon, Oxford 1969, ISBN 0-19-822202-5 .

Secondary literature

• Steven Basset (Ed.): The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms , Leicester University Press, Leicester 1989, ISBN 0-7185-1317-7 .
• James Campbell et al. (Ed.): The Anglo-Saxons , Phaidon, London 1982, ISBN 0-7148-2149-7 .
• David P. Kirby: The Earliest English Kings. Unwin Hyman, London et al. 1991, ISBN 0-04-445691-3 .
• Frank M. Stenton: Anglo-Saxon England , 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford 1971, ISBN 0-19-280139-2 .
• Barbara Yorke : Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 . PDF (6.2 MB)

predecessor	Office	successor
Æthelred	King of Mercien 704–709	Ceolred