Cynewulf from Wessex

Cynewulf (also Chuniulfus, Cyneuulf, Cynulf, Kynewulf, Kinewlf, Cenulf, Cenulfus etc .; † 786 ) was king of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex from 757 to 786 .

England in the time of Cynewulf

Life

family

Cynewulf is said to come from the House of Wessex , but this claim may have been made to legitimize his kingship. He belongs to a group of five West Saxon kings from the period between 726 and 802, whose indications of origin are to be viewed with skepticism.

Domination

Sigeberht succeeded the late Cuthred on the throne in 756 . Soon, however, complaints arose against his style of rule, so that Sigeberht was deposed from the West Saxon Witenagemot and resigned to rule over Hamtunscir ( Hampshire ); Cynewulf became the new King of Wessex. But even as Lord of Hampshire, Sigeberht met resistance. After he was charged with the murder of Ealdorman Cumbra, his last follower, he was evicted from the country by Cynewulf. He fled to the Weald on the border between the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex . There he was murdered after 757 by a swineherd who wanted to avenge Ealdorman Cumbra near Pryfetesflodan (Privett, Hampshire).

It appears that Æthelbald of Mercia was able to exercise some degree of authority over Wessex during the time of the civil turmoil in Wessex, as he was able to give land in Wiltshire to the West Saxon abbot of Malmesbury Abbey in 757 . One of the witnesses to the charter was King Cynewulf of Wessex. Wiltshire was a disputed area between Mercia and Wessex. According to another reading, it was about the return of "occupied" areas and the recognition of Cynewulf as the rightful king by Æthelbald. In the same year Æthelbald was slain by his bodyguard, so that there was a period of turmoil in Mercia, which Cynewulf took advantage of to gain complete independence for Wessex.

He presumably also regained control of Cookham Monastery and parts of Berkshire . He was also able to annex areas north of the River Avon in the kingdom of Hwicce , which borders on the north-west and is dependent on Mercia . To Offa (757-796), the new king of Mercia, he initially maintained good relations. Cynewulf was a Church benefactor. He donated lands to monasteries in Somerset , Dorset, and Wiltshire , but there is also an example of keeping estates claimed by the Church for himself. He waged several wars against the British Cornwall and at least a donation of land to the Church was to support these campaigns through the prayers of the monks. With a native of Wessex Mainz Bishop Lull (754-786) he was in correspondence. He promoted the stalled development of the port and trading town of Hamwic ( Southampton ) and probably initiated the minting of coins there.

In 772, in Sussex, Cynewulf attended a meeting between the Kings Offa of Mercia and Ecgberht II of Kent and the South Saxon nobles defeated by Offa. Offa could dispose of land in Sussex at its own discretion. The former kings Oswald (fl. 772), Osmund (fl. 758 / 765–772), Ælfwald (fl. 765–780) and Oslac (fl. 765–780) only contributed to a charter that they signed as witnesses still the title Dux or Ealdorman . The subject of the meeting was likely the further fate of Sussex as a province controlled by Mercia. A charter by Cynewulf from the year 778 is one of the earliest evidence of land transfers, the beneficiary of which is not the church but a layman, in this case his comes ( follower ) and minister (servant, helper) Bica.

In 779 the battle between Offa and Cynewulf broke out at Bænesingtun (Benson in Oxfordshire ). Cynewulf had to withdraw and subsequently also lost Cookham (Berkshire) and areas of the northeastern border region. In 781, as a result of the Brentford Synod, he had to cede the monastery in Bath and areas on both sides of the River Avon to Offa. Despite these territorial losses, Cynewulf seems to have continued to rule as a fully independent king in his slightly reduced realm. Despite these conflicts took Cynewulf and Offa 786 together in the Synod of Canterbury with legate of Pope I. Hadrian part. In 786, Cyneheard, a brother of the deposed Sigeheard, sought royal dignity himself. He attacked Cynewulf in Merentun (presumably Marton near Grafton in Wiltshire ). Both fell in this fight. Cynewulf was buried in Winchester and Beorhtric was his successor.

swell

• anonymous: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , online in Project Gutenberg (English)
• Æthelweard : Chronica

literature

• 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)
• Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain) , Continuum, 1995, ISBN 978-0-718-51856-1 .
• DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings , Routledge, London-New York 2000, ISBN 978-0415242110 .
• Dorothy Whitelock : English Historical Documents 500-1041 , Vol 1, Routledge, London 1995 (2nd ed.), ISBN 978-0-415-14366-0 .

Web links

Wikisource: Bright's Anglo-Saxon Reader / Cynewulf and Cyneheard  - Sources and full texts (Old English)

• Heather Edwards: Cynewulf (paid registration required). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2011
• Cynewulf 4 in Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)
• Cynewulf in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy

Remarks

1. ^ ^{A b} Simon Keynes: Kings of the West Saxons . In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1 , pp. 511-514.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Heather Edwards: Cynewulf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   (paid registration required). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2011
3. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 754
4. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 755. see: Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 146.
5. ↑ Charter S96
6. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 113.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain) , Continuum, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7185-1856-1 , pp. 62-63.
8. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 141.
9. ↑ Charter S108
10. ^ Simon Keynes: Kings of the South Saxons . In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1 , pp. 509-510.
11. ↑ Charter S264
12. ↑ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain) , Continuum, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7185-1856-1 , pp. 245-246.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sigeberht	King of Wessex 757–786	Beorhtric