Coenwulf (; also spelled Cenwulf, Kenulf, or Kenwulph; ) was the king of Mercia from December 796 until his death in 821. He was a descendant of King Pybba, who ruled Mercia in the early 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith, the son of Offa; Ecgfrith only reigned for five months, and Coenwulf ascended the throne in the same year that Offa died. In the early years of Coenwulf's reign he had to deal with a revolt in Kent, which had been under Offa's control. Eadberht Præn returned from exile in Francia to claim the Kentish throne, and Coenwulf was forced to wait for papal support before he could intervene. When Pope Leo III agreed to anathematise Eadberht, Coenwulf invaded and retook the kingdom; Eadberht was taken prisoner, was blinded, and had his hands cut off. Coenwulf also appears to have lost control of the kingdom of East Anglia during the early part of his reign, as an independent coinage appears under King Eadwald. Coenwulf's coinage reappears in 805, indicating that the kingdom was again under Mercian control. Several campaigns of Coenwulf's against the Welsh are recorded, but only one conflict with Northumbria, in 801, though it is likely that Coenwulf continued to support the opponents of the Northumbrian king Eardwulf.
Coenwulf came into conflict with Archbishop Wulfred of Canterbury over the issue of whether laypeople could control religious houses such as monasteries. The breakdown in the relationship between the two eventually reached the point where the archbishop was unable to exercise his duties for at least four years. A partial resolution was reached in 822 with Coenwulf's successor, King Ceolwulf, but it was not until about 826 that a final settlement was reached between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter, Cwoenthryth, who had been the main beneficiary of Coenwulf's grants of religious property.
Coenwulf was succeeded by his brother, Ceolwulf; a post-Conquest legend claims that his son Cynehelm was murdered to gain the succession. Within two years Ceolwulf had been deposed, and the kingship passed permanently out of Coenwulf's family. Coenwulf was the last king of Mercia to exercise substantial dominance over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Within a decade of his death, the rise of Wessex had begun under King Egbert, and Mercia never recovered its former position of power.
Background and sources For most of the 8th century, Mercia was dominant among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the river Humber. Æthelbald, who came to the throne in 716, had established himself as the overlord of the southern Anglo-Saxons by 731.Simon Keynes, "Mercia", in Lapidge et al., Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 306. He was assassinated in 757, and was briefly succeeded by Beornred, but within a year Offa ousted Beornred and took the throne for himself. Offa's daughter Eadburh married Beorhtric of Wessex in 789, and Beorhtric became an ally thereafter.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 210. In Kent, Offa intervened decisively in the 780s,Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 167. and at some point became the overlord of East Anglia, whose king, Æthelred, was beheaded on Offa's orders in 794.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 64.
Offa appears to have moved to eliminate dynastic rivals to the succession of his son, Ecgfrith. According to a contemporary letter from Alcuin of York, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade as a chief advisor at Charlemagne's court,Lapidge, "Alcuin of York", in Lapidge et al., "Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England", p. 24. "the vengeance of the blood shed by the father has reached the son"; Alcuin added, "This was not a strengthening of the kingdom, but its ruin."Letter of Alcuin to Mercian ealdorman Osbert, tr. in Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 787 Offa died in July 796. Ecgfrith succeeded him but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf came to the throne.Simon Keynes, "Coenwulf", in Lapidge et al., Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 111.
A significant corpus of letters dates from the period, especially from Alcuin, who corresponded with kings, nobles, and ecclesiastics throughout England. Letters between Coenwulf and the papacy also survive.See the exchange of letters between Coenwulf and Pope Leo III in Whitelock, English Historical Documents, 204 and 205, pp. 791–794. Another key source for the period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle was a West Saxon production, however, and is sometimes thought to be biased in favour of Wessex.Campbell, Anglo-Saxon State, p. 144. Charters dating from Coenwulf's reign have survived; these were documents granting land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land.Hunter Blair, Roman Britain, pp. 14–15.Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 95–98. A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere of the Hwicce, is described as a "subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald.Whitelock, English Historical Documents, 67, pp. 453–454.
Mercia and southern England at Ecgfrith's death According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ecgfrith only reigned for 141 days.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 50. Offa is known to have died in 796, on either 26 July or 29 July, so Ecgfrith's date of death is either 14 December or 17 December of the same year. Coenwulf succeeded Ecgfrith as king. Coenwulf's father's name was Cuthberht, who may have been the same person as an ealdorman of that name who witnessed charters during the reign of Offa.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 118. Coenwulf is also recorded as witnessing charters during Offa's reign.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 120. According to the genealogy of Mercian kings preserved in the Anglian collection Coenwulf was descended from a brother of Penda named Cenwealh, of whom there is no other record. It is possible that this refers to Cenwealh of Wessex, who was married to (and later repudiated) a sister of Penda.Williams, Kingship and Government, p. 29.
Coenwulf's kin may have been connected to the royal family of the Hwicce, a subkingdom of Mercia around the lower river Severn.Sarah and John Zaluckyj, "Decline", in Zaluckyj and Zaluckyj, Mercia, p. 228. It appears that Coenwulf's family were powerful, but they were not of recent Mercian royal lineage.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 177. A letter written by Alcuin to the people of Kent in 797 laments that "scarcely anyone is found now of the old stock of kings".Story, Carolingian Connections, p. 145. Eardwulf of Northumbria had, like Coenwulf, gained his throne in 796, so Alcuin's meaning is not clear, but it may be that he intended it as a slur on Eardwulf or Coenwulf or on both.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 156. Alcuin certainly held negative views of Coenwulf, regarding him as a tyrant and criticising him for putting aside one wife and taking another. Alcuin wrote to a Mercian nobleman to ask him to greet Coenwulf peaceably "if it is possible to do so", implying uncertainty about Coenwulf's policy towards the Carolingians.
Coenwulf's early reign was marked by a breakdown in Mercian control in southern England. In East Anglia, King Eadwald minted coins at about this time, implying that he was no longer subject to Mercia.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 178. A charter of 799 seems to show that Wessex and Mercia were estranged for some time before that date, though the charter is not regarded as undoubtedly genuine.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 179 and n. 122, p. 184. In Kent, an uprising began, probably starting after Ecgfrith's death, though it has been suggested that it began much earlier in the year, before Offa's death.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 183, n. 8, quoting Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury The uprising was led by Eadberht Præn, who had been an exile at Charlemagne's court: Eadberht's cause almost certainly had Carolingian support.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 185. Eadberht became king of Kent, and Æthelheard, the archbishop of Canterbury at that time, fled his see; it is likely that Christ Church, Canterbury was sacked.
Reign
Coenwulf was unwilling to take military action in Kent without acknowledgement from Pope Leo III that Eadberht was a pretender. The basis for this assertion was that Eadberht had reportedly been a priest, and as such had given up any right to the throne. Coenwulf wrote to the Pope and asked Leo to consider making London the seat of the southern archbishopric, removing the honour from Canterbury; it is likely that Coenwulf's reasons included the loss of Mercian control over Kent.Whitelock, English Historical Documents, 204, p. 791. Leo refused to agree to moving the archiepiscopate to London, but in the same letter he agreed that Eadberht's previous ordination made him ineligible for the throne:Whitelock, English Historical Documents, 205, p. 793.
This authorisation from the Pope to proceed against Eadberht was delayed until 798, but once it was received Coenwulf took action. The Mercians captured Eadberht, put out his eyes and cut off his hands,Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 121. and led him in chains to Mercia, where according to later tradition he was imprisoned at Winchcombe, a religious house closely affiliated with Coenwulf's family.Story, Carolingian Connections, p. 142. By 801 at the latest Coenwulf had placed his brother, Cuthred, on the throne of Kent. Cuthred ruled until the time of his death in 807, after which Coenwulf took control of Kent in name as well as fact.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 32. Coenwulf styled himself "King of the Mercians and the Province of Kent" (rex Merciorum atque provincie Cancie) in a charter dated 809.
Offa's domination of the kingdom of Essex was continued by Coenwulf. King Sigeric of Essex left for Rome in 798, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 56. presumably abdicating the throne in favour of his son, Sigered. Sigered appears on two charters of Coenwulf's in 811 as king (rex) of Essex, but his title is reduced thereafter, first to subregulus, or subking, and thereafter to dux or ealdorman.Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 51.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 305.
The course of events in East Anglia is less clear, but Eadwald's coinage ceased, and new coinage issued by Coenwulf began by about 805, so it is likely that Coenwulf forcibly re-established Mercian dominance there.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 179. The resumption of friendly relations with Wessex under Beorhtric received a setback when Beorhtric died and the throne of Wessex passed to Egbert, who, like Eadberht, had been an exile at Charlemagne's court.Sarah and John Zaluckyj, "Decline", in Zaluckyj & Zaluckyj, Mercia, p. 232. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that on the same day that Egbert came to the throne, an ealdorman of the Hwicce named Æthelmund led a force across the Thames at Kempsford but was defeated by the men of Wiltshire under the leadership of Weohstan, also an ealdorman.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, pp. 58–59. Egbert may also have had a claim on the Kentish throne, according to the Chronicle, but he made no move to recover it during Coenwulf's reign.Kirby, Earliest English Kings, p. 189. Egbert appears to have been independent of Mercia from the beginning of his reign, and Wessex's independence meant that Coenwulf was never able to claim the overlordship of the southern English that had belonged to Offa and Æthelbald. He did, however, claim the title of "Emperor" on one charter, the only Anglo-Saxon king to do so before the 10th century.Patrick Wormald, "The Age of Offa and Alcuin", in Campbell et al. The Anglo-Saxons, p. 101.