642. Cynegils of Wessex dies (?)
Cenwealh, Cynegils's son, succeeds to Wessex

Bede notes that Cenwealh refused the Christian faith which his father had accepted (HE, iii.7), and goes on to relate how he lost his earthly kingdom as well. He had been married to Penda's sister, and when he cast her aside Penda drove him into exile for three years (645-8). He took refuge at the court of Anna of the East Angles, and became a Christian there. After Cenwealh's restoration, a Frankish bishop called Agilbert who had been studying in Ireland came to the West Saxon court, and was pressed to stay on as bishop for the West Saxons. (The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dates Agilbert's appointment to 650.) This arrangement continued for many years, until Cenwealh appointed a new bishop at Winchester, where he ordered that a minster be built (see entry on 660), and Agilbert retired to Gaul.

The name of Penda's sister, Cenwealh's earlier wife, is not recorded. He later married a woman called Seaxburh, about whom very little is known, but she ruled the West Saxons for a year after his death in 672. He fought battles in 652 (perhaps a civil strife), 658 (against the Britons), and 661 (against Wulfhere of Mercia). He seems to have shared his authority with Cuthred, son of his brother Cwichelm (see entry on 648), and also with Cenberht, father of Cædwalla, who is called King Cenberht in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle when it notes his death in 661. Bede reports that Cenwealh suffered heavy losses at the hands of his enemies, and it was this which led him to ask Agilbert to come back as bishop of the West Saxons, which led to Agilbert sending his nephew Leuthere (HE, iii.7); the only record of these losses in the Chronicle is the note of Wulfhere of Mercia's raid on Ashdown in 661, but this might well have been part of a prolonged campaign.

August 5, 642. Battle of Maserfelth: Penda of Mercia kills Oswald of Northumbria
Oswine succeeds to Deira, Oswiu succeeds to Bernicia

Described at Bede, HE, iii.9.

645. Penda of Mercia drives Cenwealh of Wessex into exile for three years
Cenwealh takes refuge with Anna of the East Angles, and becomes Christian

Bede associates Cenwealh's exile with his repudiation of his wife, Penda's sister, and notes that Cenwealh spent three years at the court of Anna of the East Angles, and became a Christian there (HE, iii.7). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle repeats some of this under the year 658, and also tracks Cenwealh's exile, noting that he was exiled in 645, baptized in 646, and granting land near Ashdown in Berkshire (i.e., back in power in Wessex) in 648.

648. Cenwealh of Wessex grants Ashdown to nephew Cuthred

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that in 648, Cenwealh gave to his kinsman Cuthred (son of his brother Cwichelm) 3,000 hides of land near Ashdown. This grant is worth mentioning because 3,000 hides would probably be a small kingdom: according to Bede, Mercia in the 650s totalled only 12,000 hides (HE, iii.24). In the Chronicle's note of the grant of Ashdown we should probably see Cenwealh admitting Cuthred to some kind of subkingship or joint kingship, just as Cwichelm seems to have been seen as a king (by the Northumbrians at least) in his father Cynegils's reign.(Bede, HE, ii.9, and see entry on 626). No more is known of Cuthred until the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records his death in 661, when Wulfhere of Mercia was harrying Ashdown.

August 20, 651. Oswine of Deira killed, on orders of Oswiu of Bernicia
Oswiu of Bernicia succeeds to all Northumbria

Bede notes (HE, iii.14) that Oswiu of Bernicia could not live at peace with Oswine of Deira. The reasons are not given, but the causes of dissension increased so greatly that Oswiu resolved to make an end of Oswine, and they both raised armies. Oswine, realising that his was much the smaller army, decided to avoid the battle and wait for a better time. He disbanded his forces and went to hide in the home of a lord called Hunwold. Hunwold, unfortunately for Oswine, betrayed him to Oswiu, who ordered the killing of the Deiran king, a sentence carried out by the reeve Æthlewine at a place near Gilling. Bede adds that Eanflæd, Oswiu's queen, later ordered that a monastery be built there, to say prayers for both the murdered Oswine and Oswiu who had ordered the killing.

Bede adds that Oswiu's rule over all Northumbria was very troubled (laboriosissime), involving attacks by the Mercians and by his son Alhfrith and nephew Æthelwald (HE, iii.14). Æthelwald was able to grant some land to St Cedd in Deira after 651, and may have held the whole Deiran sub-kingdom (Bede, HE, iii.23, is ambiguous); but he was probably removed after his involvement in the battle of Winwæd in 655, when he was supposed to be helping the Mercian Penda against his uncle Oswiu, but in the event sat out the battle in a place of safety (Bede, HE, iii.24). His life expectancy after thus betraying two major lords would be short regardless of which of them caught up with him first, and he disappears from the record.

Alhfrith is associated with his father in rule at the time of the battle of Winwæd and in the preliminaries which led to the council of Whitby in 664 (Bede, HE, iii.24-5). On two other occasions, Alhfrith is explicitly called king (HE, iii.28 and v.9), though this is presumably still under Oswiu's overall authority: where HE, iii.28 says that King Alhfrith sent Wilfrid to be consecrated in Gaul, Stephen's Life of Bishop Wilfrid associates this decision with both kings (chapter 12). Though Bede mentions that Alhfrith attacked his father Oswiu (HE, iii.14), no details of any lasting disagreement have survived: it is true that Oswiu started out on the Irish side of the Easter question, whereas Alhfrith, a student of Wilfrid's, was on the Roman side, but this will have been resolved by the Synod of Whitby in 664. It is assumed that a disagreement escalated to blows some time after 664, the time of the last datable reference to Alhfrith and a point at which he is still acting in harmony with his father, but what that disagreement was remains a mystery.

652. Cenwealh of Wessex fights at Bradford-on-Avon

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes only that Cenwealh fought at Bradford, without mentioning whom Cenwealh was fighting or who won. Æthelweard, in his Latin version of the Chronicle, notes that it was a civil war, and the location of Bradford makes it plausible that this was a fight between Cenwealh and Cuthred. (Bradford is west of Ashdown, and may well have been within the 3,000 hides near Ashdown that Cenwealh granted Cuthred in 648.) William of Malmesbury in the 12th century does not clearly refer to this battle, but he mentions two battles Cenwealh fought against the British, one at Vortigern's burg and one at Penne (GRA, i.19.2): the battle at Penne is clearly Cenwealh's fight against the British in 658 (at Peonnan), and it may be that the fight at Vortigern's burg is a confused reference to the fight in 652 (but see 665 for another possibility).

R. Mynors and others, William of Malmesbury: Gesta Regum Anglorum (Oxford: 1998)

653. Penda of Mercia makes his son Peada king of the Middle Angles
Peada accepts Christianity from Oswiu of Northumbria and marries Alhflæd

Bede notes that Penda of Mercia installed his worthy son Peada on the throne of the kingdom of the Middle Angles (HE, iii.21). Peada then went to Oswiu of Northumbria, and asked for the hand of his daughter Alhflæd. Oswiu would only consent on condition that Peada become Christian, which he promptly did. Bede adds that Oswiu's son Alhfrith, who was also Peada's friend and brother-in-law (Alhfrith had married Peada's sister Cyneburh), earnestly encouraged Peada to accept the new faith. In his chronological summary (HE, v.24), Bede dates the conversion of the Middle Angles under Peada to 653, and this is followed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Peada's alliance with the Northumbrians looks like a clever political move, because he was allowed to keep southern Mercia as a kinsman of Oswiu after the Mercian defeat at Winwæd in 655. However, if there is any truth to the rumour that his Northumbrian wife was responsible for his murder the following year (see entry on 655), this was clearly a mixed blessing.

c.653. Sigiberht of Essex accepts Christianity from Oswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu sends Cedd to preach to the East Saxons

Bede says that the conversion of the East Saxon king Sigiberht took place at about the same time as that of Peada of the Middle Angles (HE, iii.22). Bede adds that Sigiberht (sometimes called Sigiberht "the Good"), was the successor of another Sigiberht, called "the Small". This Sigiberht "the Small" presumably succeeded to the East Anglian kingdom some time after the deaths of the three sons of Sæberht in about 616; if there were other intervening kings, their names have not survived.

Bede notes that Sigiberht ["the Good"] often visited Oswiu in Northumbria, and that Oswiu for a long time argued that he should accept the faith. It is likely, though Bede does not mention this, that political overlordship was being urged on Sigiberht as well, and that this might not have been so unwelcome for a small southern kingdom in the glory days of Penda of Mercia. At any rate, Sigeberht, won over finally by arguments and supported by the consent of his friends, finally believed in the new faith. He then (like Edwin of Northumbria before him) called a meeting of his followers to hear their views; when they all agreed to accept the faith, he was baptized with them by Bishop Finan at the Northumbrian royal estate Ad Murum (perhaps Wallbottle?).

Sigiberht returned to Essex, and asked Oswiu to send him teachers to convert his people. Oswiu summoned Cedd from the kingdom of the Middle Angles, and sent him and another priest to preach to the East Saxons. Cedd travelled through the whole kingdom, and after his work prospered he was made a bishop by Bishop Finan in Lindisfarne. Cedd built churches throughout the kingdom, but the two most important were at Bradwell-on-Sea and Tilbury, where he gathered Christians and taught them to observe the discipline of a Rule. (Parts of St Peter's church in Bradwell still date back to the 7th century.)

653?664. Sigiberht of Essex murdered by his kinsmen
Swithhelm succeeds to Essex

Bede notes that for a long time after Sigiberht's conversion all was well, but that Sigiberht was eventually murdered by his own kinsmen, for being too ready to pardon his enemies (HE, iii.22). This death cannot be dated, but was presumably some years after the conversion in about 653, and before the death of Sigiberht's successor Swithhelm in about 664. Bede notes that Swithhelm was the son of Seaxbald, and Seaxbald was perhaps the (otherwise unnamed) third son of Sæberht (see Yorke, p. 52).

Bede adds that Swithhelm was baptised by Cedd in East Anglia, sponsored by King Æthelwold of East Anglia (q.v.). The fact that Swithhelm received Christianity from a neighbouring king and not with the rest of the East Saxon nobility under Sigiberht may suggest that Swithhelm started his reign as a pagan, but it might equally be that he was in exile in East Anglia during Sigiberht's reign.

B. Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (London: 1990)

654. Penda of Mercia kills Anna of the East Angles
Æthelhere, Anna's brother, succeeds to East Anglia

Bede notes that Anna was slain by Penda (HE, iii.18), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides the date 654. It may be that Anna had protested or attacked when Penda made his son Peada ruler of the Middle Angles in 653, or perhaps Penda anticipated that Anna would attack and moved first. Bede notes that Æthelhere was Anna's brother and successor (HE, iii.24), though he died at the battle of Winwæd in 655.

November 15, 655. Battle of Winwæd: Oswiu of Northumbria kills Penda of Mercia

This battle, described at Bede, HE, iii.24, was to be the final settling of scores between the Northumbrians and Penda of Mercia.

November 15, 655. Æthelhere of East Anglia dies
Æthelwold, Æthelhere's brother, succeeds to East Anglia (?)

Bede notes Æthelhere's fall among the thirty royal ealdormen who were supporting Penda at Winwæd (HE, iii.24). The Colgrave-Mynors translation gives the impression that Æthelhere of the East Angles was the cause of the war, but another possible reading which seems more plausible would attribute auctor ipse belli ("the cause of the war himself") to Penda rather than to Æthelhere, and this is the reading followed by Whitelock (EHD, p.693).

We know from Bede (HE, iii.22) that Æthelwold, another brother of Anna and Æthelhere, ruled the East Angles at some point after Anna (and, presumably, Æthelhere) and that during his reign he stood sponsor to the baptism of Swithhelm of the East Saxons. Swithhelm died c.664, and we know that a nephew of Anna and Æthelhere and Æthelwold, Ealdwulf, started ruling in 662/3, so it seems reasonable to assume that Æthelwold ruled 655-662/3, though there is no hard evidence for these dates.

Since Oswiu of Northumbria ruled directly over part of Mercia in 655-8, and Æthelhere of East Anglia was acting as an ally of the Mercians in 655, it may be that Oswiu sent some of his ealdormen to rule over East Anglia for a time as well. Another possibility, since Oswiu had married Edwin's daughter Eanflæd (HE, iii.15) and Æthelwold's brother was married to one of Edwin's grand-nieces (see entry on 662/3), is that Oswiu allowed Æthelwold to rule over the East Angles because of their kinship, just as he allowed Peada to rule over part of Mercia because he was a kinsman.

655-8. Oswiu of Northumbria is overlord of the Mercians

Bede notes (HE, iii.24) that after the battle of Winwæd, Oswiu of Northumbria ruled over Mercia, as well as the rest of the southern kingdoms, for three years. He gave the kingdom of Southern Mercia into the keeping of Penda's son Peada, because he was a kinsman, and sent Northumbrian ealdormen to control Northern Mercia. Peada was murdered in the spring of 656, apparently with the treacherous involvement of his wife, and then presumably the Northumbrian ealdorman took over all of Mercia.

657. Foundation of Whitby

658. Northumbrian ealdormen expelled from Mercia
Wulfhere, Penda's son, succeeds to Mercia

Bede notes (HE, iii.24) that three years after Winwæd the ealdormen of the Mercians, named as Immin, Eafa, and Eadberht, rebelled against King Oswiu, expelled his ealdormen, and set up Penda's young son Wulfhere as king in their stead.

Wulfhere was no more content to stay within the bounds of Mercia than his father Penda had been, and large parts of Southumbrian England fell under his sway. In 661 Wulfhere conquered the Isle of Wight and the province of the Meonware in Hampshire and gave them as baptismal gifts to Æthelwealh of the South Saxons, which implies he was in a position of authority over the South Saxons. In the same year he harried the West Saxons (see entry on 661), and Bede's comment that Cenwealh suffered serious losses at the hands of his enemies (HE, iii.7) suggests we have only a very incomplete account of West Saxon / Mercian relations for the period. Mercian encroachment on West Saxon territory is confirmed by the fact that after Dorchester-on-Thames was abandoned as a West Saxon see it served as a Mercian bishopric instead (see entry on 660). Wulfhere's control over the East Saxons is made explicit c.664, when Bede notes the East Saxon kings are under Wulfhere's overlordship and shortly afterwards when Wulfhere sells Wine the see of London, which had been the East Saxon capital. The kings of the Hwicce witness charters as sub-kings of Wulfhere in the 670s (see entry on c.670-c.790), and Lindsey seems also to have been under Wulfhere's control until he lost it to Ecgfrith of Northumbria in a battle towards the end of his reign (see entry on c.627-731 for Lindsey, and 670?675 for the battle with Ecgfrith). A charter of 672?674 (S 1165) shows that Wulfhere was also the overlord of Surrey in the 670s, though Ecgberht of Kent (664-73) had controlled Surrey at some earlier point. In the last year of his reign, Wulfhere fought Æscwine of the West Saxons (see entry on 675). He died in 675.

658. Cenwealh of Wessex puts the Britons to flight in Somerset

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that Cenwealh fought the Britons at Peonnan, and drove them in flight as far as the Parrett (in Somerset). Peonnan remains unidentified, as pen (British for "a hill") is very common in west country place-names: arguments have been advanced for Penselwood (near the Wiltshire-Somerset border), Pinhoe (Devon), and Penn (near Yeovil; see further Yorke, p.53).

B. Yorke, Wessex in the Early Middle Ages (London: 1995)

660. West Saxon see transferred to Winchester

Bede tells that the see of Winchester arose when Cenwealh of Wessex grew tired of Agilbert's "barbarous speech" and divided the kingdom into two dioceses, appointing to the new episcopal seat at Winchester a bishop called Wine, who had also been consecrated in Gaul but who spoke the king's own language. Bede records that Agilbert retired in high dudgeon to Gaul, where he ended his days as bishop of Paris (HE, iii.7), though he was in Northumbria for the Synod of Whitby in 664.

Since Agilbert had had ten years to learn to speak West Saxon (the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes his arrival in 650), and since Cenwealh later appointed Agilbert's nephew Leuthere with no apparent aural ill effects (HE, iii.7), Bede's explanation for the move of the diocese to Winchester is not entirely convincing. It is more likely that Mercian expansion brought Dorchester-on-Thames dangerously close to the Mercian border: Wulfhere was raiding Ashdown (and would have passed Dorchester on the way) in 661, and at some point after the West Saxon departure, Dorchester was briefly a Mercian bishopric (see Yorke, Wessex, p.172).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes under Cenwealh's accession that he had a minster at Winchester built and dedicated to St Peter. (This would become known as the Old Minster after the foundation of the New Minster in 901, and would be demolished in 1093 after the construction of the Norman cathedral.) One late manuscript of the Chronicle puts the foundation in 648, but as Barbara Yorke argues, this is probably part of later Winchester mythology (by which Cenwealh was carrying out his father's wishes and founded the church at the earliest possible moment, which would be his return from exile, newly Christian, in 648), and it is suspicious that the date does not appear before the late 11th century (see Yorke, "Foundation", pp.77-8). It seems more likely that the minster was built c.660, when the West Saxon bishopric was moved to Winchester.

M. Biddle (ed.), Winchester in the Early Middle Ages: An Edition and Discussion of the Winton Domesday, Winchester Studies, 1 (Oxford: 1976) [pp.306-8 give a brief history of the Old Minster]

B. Yorke, "Foundation of the Old Minster, Winchester", Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society 38 (1982), pp.75-83

B. Yorke, Wessex in the Early Middle Ages (London: 1995)