Bretwaldaship
About 731, Bede, a Northumbrian monk and chronicler, wrote a work called the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The work was not primarily a secular history, but Bede provides much information about the history of the Anglo-Saxons, including a list early in the history of seven kings who, he said, held "imperium" over the other kingdoms south of the Humber. The usual translation for "imperium" is "overlordship". Bede names Ceawlin as the second on the list, although he spells it "Caelin", and adds that he was "known in the speech of his own people as Ceaulin". Bede also makes it clear that Ceawlin was not a Christian—Bede mentions a later king, Æthelberht of Kent, as "the first to enter the kingdom of heaven".
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in an entry for the year 827, repeats Bede's list, adds Egbert of Wessex, and also mentions that they were known as "bretwalda", or "Britain-ruler". A great deal of scholarly attention has been given to the meaning of this word. It has been described as a term "of encomiastic poetry", but there also is evidence that it implied a definite role of military leadership.
Bede says that these kings had authority "south of the Humber", but no doubt the span of control, at least of the earlier bretwaldas, likely was less than this. In Ceawlin's case the range of control is hard to determine accurately, but Bede's inclusion of Ceawlin in the list of kings who held imperium, and the list of battles he is recorded as having won, indicate an energetic and successful leader who, from a base in the upper Thames valley, dominated much of the surrounding area and held overlordship over the southern Britons for some period. Despite Ceawlin's military successes, the northern conquests he made could not always be retained: Mercia took much of the upper Thames valley, and the north-eastern towns won in 571 were among territory subsequently under the control of Kent and Mercia at different times.
Bede's concept of the power of these overlords also must be regarded as the product of his eighth-century viewpoint. When the Ecclesiastical History was written, Æthelbald of Mercia dominated the English south of the Humber, and Bede's view of the earlier kings was doubtless strongly coloured by the state of England at that time. For the earlier bretwaldas, such as Ælle and Ceawlin, there must be some element of anachronism in Bede's description. It also is possible that Bede only meant to refer to power over Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, not the native Britons.
Ceawlin is the second king in Bede's list. All the subsequent bretwaldas followed more or less consecutively, but there is a long gap, perhaps fifty years, between Ælle of Sussex, the first bretwalda, and Ceawlin. The lack of gaps between the overlordships of the later bretwaldas has been used to make an argument for Ceawlin's dates matching the later entries in the Chronicle with reasonable accuracy. According to this analysis, the next bretwalda, Æthelberht of Kent, must have been already a dominant king by the time Pope Gregory the Great wrote to him in 601, since Gregory would have not written to an underking. Ceawlin defeated Æthelberht in 568 according to the Chronicle. Æthelberht's dates are a matter of debate, but recent scholarly consensus has his reign starting no earlier than 580. The 568 date for the battle at Wibbandun is thought to be unlikely because of the assertion in various versions of the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List that Ceawlin's reign lasted either seven or seventeen years. If this battle is placed near the year 590, before Æthelberht has established himself as a powerful king, then the subsequent annals relating to Ceawlin's defeat and death may be reasonably close to the correct date. In any case, the battle with Æthelberht is unlikely to have been more than a few years on either side of 590. The gap between Ælle and Ceawlin, on the other hand, has been taken as supporting evidence for the story told by Gildas in De Excidio of a peace lasting a generation or more following a Briton victory at Mons Badonicus.
Æthelberht of Kent succeeds Ceawlin on the list of bretwaldas, but the reigns may overlap somewhat: recent evaluations give Ceawlin a likely reign of 581–588, and place Æthelberht's accession near to the year 589, but these analyses are no more than scholarly guesses. Ceawlin's eclipse in 592, probably by Ceol, may have been the occasion for Æthelberht to rise to prominence; Æthelberht very likely was the dominant Anglo-Saxon king by 597. Æthelberht's rise may have been earlier: the 584 annal, even if it records a victory, is the last victory of Ceawlin's in the Chronicle, and the period after that may have been one of Æthelberht's ascent and Ceawlin's decline.
Read more about this topic: Ceawlin Of Wessex