686-7. Cædwalla of Wessex and Mul ravage Kent and Isle of Wight
Cædwalla's brother Mul set up as king of Kent, but burnt shortly afterwards
Cædwalla ravages Kent again
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 686 Cædwalla (king of Wessex) and Mul (his brother) ravaged Kent and the Isle of Wight, and that in 687 Mul was burnt in Kent with twelve others, and Cædwalla ravaged Kent again. No mention is made in the Chronicle of Mul's rule of Kent, but a charter of the Kentish monastery of Minster-in-Thanet (S 10) notes that Mul granted an estate as king of Kent.
It seems likely that the attack of 686 resulted in Mul being placed on the Kentish throne, where he ruled for a year or so until the people of Kent rose up and burnt him alive (the "twelve others" were presumably Mul's West Saxon advisors). The Chronicle notes that in 694 the people of Kent made terms with Ine, the king of Wessex after Cædwalla, and paid him 30,000 pence for the burning of Mul.
It is possible that the Chronicle's reference to Cædwalla and Mul ravaging the Isle of Wight in 686 refers to the same event as Bede's remark that Cædwalla captured the Isle of Wight after he became king (HE, iv.16). It might equally refer to a second battle: Bede notes that Cædwalla was in hiding in the mainland territory of the Jutes (southern Hampshire) because of wounds sustained during the fighting, so the conquest of the Isle of Wight was clearly not a walkover.