Coenwulf of Mercia - Background and Sources

Background and Sources

For most of the eighth century, Mercia was dominant among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the river Humber. Æthelbald, who came to the throne in 716, had established himself as the overlord of the southern Anglo-Saxons by 731. He was assassinated in 757, and was briefly succeeded by Beornred, but within a year Offa ousted Beornred and took the throne for himself. Offa's daughter Eadburh married Beorhtric of Wessex in 789, and Beorhtric became an ally thereafter. In Kent, Offa intervened decisively in the 780s, and at some point became the overlord of East Anglia, whose king, Æthelred, was beheaded at Offa's orders in 794.

Offa appears to have moved to eliminate dynastic rivals to the succession of his son, Ecgfrith. According to a contemporary letter from Alcuin of York, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade at Charlemagne's court as one of his chief advisors, "the vengeance of the blood shed by the father has reached the son"; and Alcuin adds "This was not a strengthening of the kingdom, but its ruin." Offa died in July 796, and Ecgfrith succeeded, but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf came to the throne. The surviving sources do not record whether Ecgfrith died of natural causes or was assassinated, though Alcuin's letter seems to imply the latter.

A significant corpus of letters dates from the period, especially from Alcuin, who corresponded with kings, nobles and ecclesiastics throughout England. Letters between Coenwulf and the papacy also survive. Another key source for the period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle was a West Saxon production, however, and is sometimes thought to be biased in favour of Wessex. Charters dating from Coenwulf's reign have survived; these were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land. A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the Ismere Diploma, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere of the Hwicce, is described as a "subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald's.