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{{Short description|King of Wessex from 685 to 688}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name        = Cædwalla
| image       = Cædwalla in Barnard Chichester mural (full body).jpg
| caption     = Imaginary depiction from the 1500s
| succession  = [[King of Wessex]]
| reign       = 685–688
| predecessor = [[Centwine of Wessex|Centwine]]
| successor   = [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]]
| spouse      = Cynethryth
| birth_date  = c. 659
| death_date  = 20 April {{Death year and age|689|659}}, Rome, Italy
| father      = [[Coenberht]]
| house       = [[House of Wessex|Wessex]]
}}

'''Cædwalla''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|æ|d|ˌ|w|ɔː|l|ə}}; {{c.}} 659 – 20 April 689) was the [[King of Wessex]] from approximately 685 until he [[Abdication|abdicated]] in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh [[Cadwallon (disambiguation)|Cadwallon]]. He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and attacked the [[South Saxons]], killing their king, [[Æthelwealh]], in what is now [[Sussex]]. Cædwalla was unable to hold the South Saxon territory, however, and was driven out by Æthelwealh's [[ealdorman|ealdormen]]. In either 685 or 686, he became King of Wessex. He may have been involved in suppressing rival dynasties at this time, as an early source records that Wessex was ruled by [[Ecgberht, King of Wessex#Subregulus|underkings]] until Cædwalla.

After his accession, Cædwalla returned to Sussex and won the territory again. He also conquered the [[Isle of Wight]], gained control of [[Surrey]] and the [[kingdom of Kent]], and in 686 he installed his brother [[Mul of Kent|Mul]] as king of Kent. Mul was burned in a Kentish revolt a year later, and Cædwalla returned, possibly ruling Kent directly for a period.

Cædwalla was wounded during the conquest of the Isle of Wight, and perhaps for this reason he abdicated in 688 to travel to Rome for [[baptism]]. He reached Rome in April 689 and was baptised by [[Pope Sergius I]] on the Saturday before [[Easter]], dying ten days later on 20 April 689. He was succeeded by [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]].

== Sources ==
A major source for [[Kingdom of the West Saxons|West Saxon]] events is the ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'', written about 731 by [[Bede]], a [[Northumbria]]n monk and chronicler. Bede received a good deal of information relating to Cædwalla from Bishop [[Daniel of Winchester]]; Bede's interest was primarily in the [[Christianisation of the West Saxons]], but in relating the history of the church he sheds much light on the West Saxons and Cædwalla.<ref name=Yorke_128>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=128–130}}.</ref> The contemporary ''[[Vita Sancti Wilfrithi]]'' or ''Life of St Wilfrid'' (by [[Stephen of Ripon]], but often misattributed to [[Eddius Stephanus]]) also mentions Cædwalla.<ref name=Blackwell_428>"Stephen of Ripon" in ''Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England''.</ref> Another useful source is the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', a set of [[annals]] assembled in Wessex in the late 9th-century, probably at the direction of King [[Alfred the Great]]. Associated with the ''Chronicle'' is a list of kings and their reigns, known as the [[West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List]]''.''<ref name=Yorke_128 /><ref>David N. Dumville, 'The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex', ''Peritia'', 4 (1985), 21–66.</ref> There are also six surviving charters, though some are of doubtful authenticity. Charters were documents drawn up to record grants of land by kings to their followers or to the church and provide some of the earliest documentary sources in England.<ref name=ASP>{{cite web |url=http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=C%E6dwalla#charters |title=Anglo-Saxons.net 
|access-date=4 July 2007}}</ref>

== West Saxon territory in the 680s ==
[[Image:British seventh century kingdoms.svg|thumb|right|The kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] in the late 7th century]]

In the late 7th century, the West Saxons occupied an area in the west of southern England, though the exact boundaries are difficult to define.<ref name=Yorke_135>For a discussion of 7th century West Saxon expansion, see {{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=135–138}}.</ref> To their west was the native British kingdom of [[Dumnonia]], in what is now [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]]. To the north were the [[Mercia]]ns, whose king, [[Wulfhere of Mercia|Wulfhere]], had dominated southern England during his reign. In 674 he was succeeded by his brother, [[Æthelred of Mercia|Æthelred]], who was less militarily active than Wulfhere had been along the frontier with Wessex, though the West Saxons did not recover the territorial gains Wulfhere had made.<ref name=Kirby_115>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|pp=115–116}}.</ref> To the southeast was the kingdom of the [[South Saxons]], in what is now Sussex; and to the east were the [[Kingdom of Essex|East Saxons]], who controlled [[London]].<ref name=Blair_RBaEE_204>The general topography of the 7th century kingdoms is given in map form in {{Harvnb|Hunter Blair|1966|p=209}}.</ref>

Not all the locations named in the ''Chronicle'' can be identified, but it is apparent that the West Saxons were fighting in north [[Somerset]], south [[Gloucestershire]], and north [[Wiltshire]], against both British and Mercian opposition. To the west and south, evidence of the extent of West Saxon influence is provided by the fact that [[Cenwalh of Wessex|Cenwalh]], who reigned from 642 to 673, is remembered as the first Saxon patron of [[Sherborne Abbey]], in [[Dorset]]; similarly, [[Centwine of Wessex|Centwine]] (676–685) is the first Saxon patron of [[Glastonbury Abbey]], in Somerset. Evidently, these monasteries were in West Saxon territory by then. [[Exeter]], to the west, in Devon, was under West Saxon control by 680, since [[Boniface]] was educated there at about that time.<ref name=Yorke_135 />

== Ancestry ==
A number of the early kings of Wessex had Celtic names, which may indicate [[Celtic Britons|Brythonic]] ancestry.<ref name=Yorke_138>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=138–139}}.</ref> Cædwalla's name ultimately derives from the [[Proto-Celtic]] *''Katu-welnā-mnos'', meaning "The One Who (-mnos) Leads (welnā-) into Battle (katu-)". However, the form "Cædwalla" appears to be a Saxon variant of "[[Cadwallon (disambiguation)|Cadwallon]]", a contemporary [[Welsh language|Welsh]] name.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crystal |first1=David |title=The story of English in 100 words |date=2011 |publisher=Profile |location=London |isbn=9781846684289 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiB6qzEv4a8C&q=his+is+a+distinctly+welsh+name |access-date=31 August 2022}}</ref>

Bede states that Cædwalla was a "daring young man of the royal house of the Gewissæ", and gives his age at his death in 689 as about thirty, making the year of his birth about 659.<ref name=Bede_275>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book V, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 275.</ref> "[[Gewisse]]", a tribal name, is used by Bede as an equivalent to "West Saxon": the [[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies|West Saxon genealogies]] trace back to one "Gewis", an eponymous ancestor.<ref name=Kirby_48>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|pp=48, 223}}.</ref> According to the ''Chronicle'', Cædwalla was the son of [[Coenberht]], and was descended via [[Ceawlin]] from [[Cerdic of Wessex|Cerdic]], the first of the Gewisse to land in England.<ref name=Swanton_38>{{Harvnb|Swanton|1996|p=38}}.</ref><ref name=Yorke_133>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|p=133}}.</ref> However, it appears that the many difficulties and contradictions in the regnal list are caused partly by the efforts of later scribes to demonstrate that each king on the list was descended from Cerdic; thus Cædwalla's genealogy must be treated with caution.<ref name=Yorke_130>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=130–131}}.</ref>

== First campaign in Sussex ==
The first mention of Cædwalla is in the ''Life of St Wilfrid,'' in which he is described as an exiled nobleman in the forests of [[Chiltern Hills|Chiltern]] and [[Forest of Andred|Andred]].<ref name=Kirby_119>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=119}}.</ref> It was not uncommon for a 7th-century king to have spent time in exile before gaining the throne; [[Oswald of Northumbria]] is another prominent example.<ref name=Campbell_TAS_56>{{Harvnb|Campbell|John|Wormald|1991|p=56}}.</ref> According to the ''Chronicle'', it was in 685 that Cædwalla "began to contend for the kingdom".<ref name=Swanton_38 /> Despite his exile, he was able to put together enough military force to defeat and kill [[Æthelwealh of Sussex|Æthelwealh]], the king of Sussex. He was, however, soon expelled by [[Berthun]] and [[Andhun]], Æthelwealh's [[ealdorman|ealdormen]], "who administered the country from then on", possibly as kings.<ref name=Bede_230>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Ch. 15, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 230.</ref>

The [[Isle of Wight]] and the [[River Meon|Meon valley]] in what is now eastern [[Hampshire]] had been placed under Æthelwealh's control by Wulfhere;<ref name=Kirby_120>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=120}}.</ref> the ''Chronicle'' dates this to 661, but according to Bede it occurred "not long before" [[Wilfrid]]'s mission to the South Saxons in the 680s, which implies a rather later date. Wulfhere's attack on [[Berkshire Downs|Ashdown]], also dated by the ''Chronicle'' to 661, may likewise have actually happened later. If these events happened in the early 680s or not long before, Cædwalla's aggression against Æthelwealh would be explained as a response to Mercian pressure.<ref name=Kirby_115 />

Another indication of the political and military situation may be the division in the 660s of the West Saxon [[episcopal see|see]] at [[Dorchester-on-Thames]]; a new see was established at [[Winchester]], very near to the South Saxon border. Bede's explanation for the division is that Cenwalh grew tired of the [[Franks|Frankish]] speech of the bishop at Dorchester,<ref name=Bede_153>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, pp. 153–155.</ref> but it is more likely that it was a response to the Mercian advance, which forced West Saxon expansion, such as Cædwalla's military activities, west, south, and east, rather than north.<ref name=Yorke_135 /> Cædwalla's military successes may be the reason that at about this time the term "West Saxon" starts to be used in contemporary sources, instead of "Gewisse". It is from this time that the West Saxons began to rule over other Anglo-Saxon peoples.<ref name=Yorke_135 />

== Accession and reign ==
In 685 or 686, Cædwalla became king of the West Saxons after [[Centwine of Wessex|Centwine]], his predecessor, retired to a monastery.<ref name=Yorke_135 /> Bede gives Cædwalla a reign of two years,<ref name="Bede_275–276">Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book V, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, pp. 275–276.</ref> ending in 688, but if his reign was less than three years then he may have come to the throne in 685. The ''West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List'' gives his reign a length of three years, with one variant reading of two years.<ref name=Kirby_120 />

According to Bede, before Cædwalla's reign, Wessex was ruled by underkings, who were conquered and removed when Cædwalla became king.<ref name=Bede_224>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Ch. 12, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 224.</ref> This has been taken to mean that Cædwalla himself ended the reign of the underkings, though Bede does not directly say this. Bede gives the death of Cenwalh as the start of the ten-year period in which the West Saxons were ruled by these underkings; Cenwalh is now thought to have died in about 673, so this is slightly inconsistent with Cædwalla's dates. It may be that Centwine, Cædwalla's predecessor as king of the West Saxons, began as a co-ruler but established himself as sole king by the time Cædwalla became king.<ref name=Yorke_145>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=145–146}}.</ref><ref name=Kirby_51>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|pp=51–52}}.</ref> It may also be that the underkings were another dynastic faction of the West Saxon royal line, vying for power with Centwine and Cædwalla; the description of them as "underkings" may be due to a partisan description of the situation by Bishop Daniel of Winchester, who was Bede's primary informant on West Saxon events.<ref name=Kirby_53>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=53}}.</ref> It is also possible that not all the underkings were deposed. There is a King Bealdred, who reigned in the area of Somerset and West Wiltshire, who is mentioned in two land-grants, one dated 681 and the other 688, though both documents have been treated as spurious by some historians.<ref name=ASP_S236>{{cite web |url=http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+236 |title=Anglo-Saxons.net S 236 |access-date=4 July 2007}}</ref><ref name=ASP_S1170>{{cite web |url=http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+1170 |title=Anglo-Saxons.net S 1170 |access-date=4 July 2007}}</ref> Further confusing the situation is another land-grant, thought to be genuine,<ref name=ASP_S45>{{cite web |url=http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+45 |title=Anglo-Saxons.net S 45 |access-date=4 July 2007}}</ref> showing Ine's father, Cenred, still reigning in Wessex after Ine's accession.<ref name=Kirby_120 />

Once on the throne, Cædwalla attacked the South Saxons again, this time killing Berthun, and "the province was reduced to a worse state of subjection".<ref name=Bede_230 /> He also conquered the Isle of Wight, which was still an independent [[paganism|pagan]] kingdom, and set himself to kill every native on the island, resettling it with his own people, though Bede states that the natives remained a majority on the island. [[Arwald]], the king of the Isle of Wight, left his two young brothers as heirs. They fled the island, but were found at [[South Stoneham|Stoneham]], in [[Hampshire]], and killed on Cædwalla's orders, though he was persuaded by a priest to let them be baptised before they were executed. Bede also mentions that Cædwalla was wounded; he was recovering from his wounds when the priest found him to ask permission to baptise the princes.<ref name=Bede_230_2>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Ch. 16, from Sherley-Price's translation, pp. 230–232.</ref>

In a charter of 688, Cædwalla grants land at [[Farnham]] for a [[minster (church)|minster]],<ref name=ASP_S235>{{cite web |url=http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+235 |title=Anglo-Saxons.net S 235 |access-date=4 July 2007}}</ref> so it is evident that Cædwalla controlled Surrey. He also invaded Kent, in 686, and may have founded a monastery at [[Hoo St Werburgh|Hoo]], northeast of [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], between the [[Medway]] and the [[Thames]]. He installed his brother, [[Mul of Kent|Mul]], as king of Kent, in place of its king [[Eadric of Kent|Eadric]]. In a subsequent Kentish revolt, Mul was "burned" along with twelve others, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Cædwalla responded with a renewed campaign against Kent, laying waste to its land and leaving it in a state of chaos.  He may have ruled Kent directly after this second invasion.<ref name=Kirby_121>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=121}}.</ref>

== Christianity ==
[[Image:Barnard Chichester mural.png|thumb|right|upright=1.2|A 16th-century mural by Lambert Barnard in [[Chichester Cathedral]], depicting Cædwalla granting land to Saint [[Wilfrid]]]]

Cædwalla was unbaptised when he came to the throne of Wessex, and remained so throughout his reign, but though he is often referred to as a pagan this is not necessarily the most apt description; it may be that he was already Christian in his beliefs but delayed his baptism to a time of his choice.<ref name=Stenton_2>This suggestion is made in {{Harvnb|Stenton|1971|p=70 note}}. For an example of a modern historian referring to Cædwalla unequivocally as a pagan, see {{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=118}}.</ref> He was clearly respectful of the church, with charter evidence showing multiple grants to churches and for religious buildings.<ref name=ASP /> When Cædwalla first attacked the South Saxons, Wilfrid was at the court of King Æthelwealh, and on Æthelwealh's death Wilfrid attached himself to Cædwalla;<ref name=Kirby_120 /> the ''Life of Wilfrid'' records that Cædwalla sought Wilfrid out as a spiritual father.<ref name=Kirby_119 /> Bede states that Cædwalla vowed to give a quarter of the Isle of Wight to the church if he conquered the island and that Wilfrid was the beneficiary when the vow was fulfilled; Bede also says that Cædwalla agreed to let the heirs of Arwald, the king of the Isle of Wight, be baptised before they were executed.<ref name=Bede_230_2 /> Two of Cædwalla's charters were grants of land to Wilfrid,<ref name=ASP /> and there is also subsequent evidence that Cædwalla worked with Wilfrid and [[Eorcenwald]], a bishop of the East Saxons, to establish an ecclesiastical infrastructure for Sussex.<ref name=Yorke_56>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|p=56}}.</ref> However, there is no evidence that Wilfrid exerted any influence over Cædwalla's secular activities or his campaigns.<ref name=Kirby_117>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=117}}.</ref>

Wilfrid's association with Cædwalla may have benefited him in other ways: the ''Life of Wilfrid'' asserts that the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Theodore of Tarsus|Theodore]], expressed a wish that Wilfrid succeed him in that role, and if this is true it may be a reflection of Wilfrid's association with Cædwalla's southern overlordship.<ref name=Kirby_121 />

== Abdication, baptism and death ==
In 688, Cædwalla [[abdication|abdicated]] and went on a [[pilgrimage]] to Rome, possibly because he was dying of the wounds he had suffered while fighting on the Isle of Wight.<ref name=Yorke_135 /> Cædwalla had not been [[baptism|baptised]], and Bede states that he wished to "obtain the particular privilege of receiving the cleansing of baptism at the shrine of the blessed Apostles". He stopped in Francia at [[Samer]], near [[Calais]], where he gave money for the foundation of a church, and is also recorded at the court of [[Cunipert|Cunincpert]], king of the [[Lombards]], in what is now [[northern Italy]].<ref name=Stenton_70>{{Harvnb|Stenton|1971|pp=2–7}}.</ref> In Rome, he was baptised by [[Pope Sergius I]] on the Saturday before [[Easter]] (according to Bede) taking the baptismal name [[Saint Peter|Peter]], and died not long afterwards, "still in his white garments". He was buried in [[St Peter's Basilica]]. Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History'' and the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' agree that Cædwalla died on 20 April, but the latter says that he died seven days after his baptism, although the Saturday before Easter was on 10 April that year. The epitaph on his tomb described him as "King of the Saxons".<ref name=Bede_275 /><ref name=Swanton_40>{{Harvnb|Swanton|1996|pp=40–41}}.</ref>

Cædwalla's departure in 688 appears to have led to instability in the south of England. [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]], Cædwalla's successor, abdicated in 726, and the ''West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List'' says that he reigned for thirty-seven years, implying his reign began in 689 instead of 688. This could indicate an unsettled period between Cædwalla's abdication and Ine's accession. The kingship also changed in Kent in 688, with [[Oswine of Kent|Oswine]], who was apparently a Mercian client, taking the throne; and there is evidence of East Saxon influence in Kent in the years immediately following Cædwalla's abdication.<ref name=Kirby_122>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=122}}.</ref>

In 694, Ine extracted compensation of 30,000 pence from the Kentishmen for the death of Mul; this amount represented the value of an [[aetheling]]'s life in the Saxon system of [[Weregild]]. Ine appears to have retained control of Surrey, but did not recover Kent.<ref name=Kirby_124>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=124}}.</ref> No king of Wessex was to venture so far east until [[Egbert of Wessex|Egbert]], over a hundred years later.<ref name=Kirby_192>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|p=192}}.</ref>

== See also ==
* [[House of Wessex family tree]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
{{Refbegin}}

=== Primary sources ===
* [[Bede]], ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]].'' Translated by [[Leo Sherley-Price]], revised [[R. E. Latham]], ed. D.H. Farmer. London: Penguin, 1990. {{ISBN|0-14-044565-X}}
* {{citation |last=Swanton |first=Michael |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle |year=1996 |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-92129-5}}

=== Secondary sources ===
* {{citation |last=Bloxham |first=Donald |title=The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies |year=2010 |location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-923211-6}}
* {{citation |last1=Campbell |first1=James |last2=John |first2=Eric |last3=Wormald |first3=Patrick |name-list-style=amp |title=The Anglo-Saxons |year=1991 |location=London |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-014395-5}}
* {{citation |last=Hunter Blair |first=Peter |title=Roman Britain and Early England: 55 B.C.&nbsp;– A.D. 871 |year=1966 |location=New York |publisher=Norton |isbn=0-393-00361-2}}
* {{citation |last=Kirby |first=D. P. |title=The Earliest English Kings |year=1992 |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-09086-5 }}
* {{citation |last=Lapidge |first=Michael |title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England |year=1999 |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=0-631-22492-0}}
* {{citation |last=Stenton |first=Frank M. |author-link=Frank Stenton |title=Anglo-Saxon England |year=1971 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-821716-1}}
* {{citation |last=Yorke |first=Barbara |title=Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England |year=1990 |location=London |publisher=Seaby |isbn=1-85264-027-8}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* {{PASE|7926|Cædwalla 1}}

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 title=[[List of monarchs of Wessex|King of Wessex]]|
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{{Kings of Wessex}}
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[[Category:650s births]]
[[Category:689 deaths]]
[[Category:7th-century English monarchs]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon warriors]]
[[Category:West Saxon monarchs]]
[[Category:Monarchs who abdicated]]
[[Category:House of Wessex]]