Origins of Christian Wessex
Whenever Cenwealh returned to power, his Bishop in Dorchester-on-Thames was the Frank Agilbert. Bede states:
At length the king, who understood none but the language of the Saxons, grown weary of that bishop's barbarous tongue, brought into the province another bishop of his own nation, whose name was Wini, who had been ordained in France; and dividing his province into two dioceses, appointed this last his episcopal see in the city of Winchester, by the Saxons called Wintancestir.
The new diocese of Winchester, in lands formerly belonging to the Jutes, thereafter confined to the Isle of Wight, lay in the heart of the future Wessex. The ravaging of Ashdown by Penda's son Wulfhere c. 661, in the original lands of the Gewisse, suggests that this movement was brought about by sustained Mercian pressure on the Saxons.
Wulfhere advanced as far south as the Isle of Wight, and detached the Meon valley from Cenwealh's kingdom, giving it to his godson Æthelwalh, King of the South Saxons. At around this time, the Mercian prince Frithuwold was ruling Surrey and Berkshire. Wulfhere's defeat at the hands of Ecgfrith in 674 freed the southern kingdoms from Mercian control, and Wulfhere was defeated the following year by the West Saxons led by Æscwine.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a battle between Cenwealh and the Britons in its entry for 658: "Here Cenwealh fought at Peonnum against the Wealas and caused them to flee as far as the Parret". The advance into the British south-west is obscure, but Cenwealh's relations with the Britons were not uniformly hostile. He is reported to have endowed the British monastery at Sherborne, in Dorset, while the early Anglo-Saxon missionary Saint Boniface is said to have been born in Crediton, Devon, and educated at a formerly British monastery near Exeter.
Whether Cenwealh ruled alone in Wessex is uncertain. Earlier kings appear to have shared rulership, and Cenberht, father of the future King Caedwalla, may have ruled together with Cenwealh rather than being merely a sub-king.
In 665–668 Cenwealh quarreled with Bishop Wini, who sought refuge with the Mercian king Wulfhere, which D.P. Kirby takes to be a sign of Wulfhere's influence. By this time, the Bishop at Dorchester was the Mercian-backed Ætla, and Thame was a possession of Wulfhere's.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cenwalh died in the 672, and was succeeded by his widow, Seaxburh, who held power for about a year.
Read more about this topic: Cenwalh Of Wessex
Famous quotes containing the words origins of, origins and/or christian:
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“I wouldn’t take the Pope too seriously. He’s a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.”
—Muriel Spark (b. 1918)