Early Life
Little is known of Berhtwald's ancestry or his early life, but he was born around the middle of the seventh century. Bede claims that Cenwalh, King of Wessex appointed Berhtwald as the first Anglo-Saxon Abbot of Glastonbury in 667, on the advice of his friend, Benedict Biscop. Bede also mentions a grant of land, around Meare, that Berhtwald received from the king some four years later. By 679, he was made abbot of the monastery at Reculver in Kent, and a charter dated May 679 names Berhtwald as abbot. This charter, from Hlothere, King of Kent, is the earliest surviving original Anglo-Saxon charter.
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