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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Coenwulf
| image = Coenwulf, King of Mercia, gold mancus; struck 796–821 AD (obverse).png
| caption
| succession = [[List of monarchs of Mercia|King of Mercia]]▼
| reign = 796–821▼
▲| succession = [[List of monarchs of Mercia|King of Mercia]]
| predecessor = [[Ecgfrith of Mercia|Ecgfrith]]
▲| reign = 796–821
|
|
| burial_place = [[Winchcombe Abbey]]
|
| father = [[Cuthberht of Mercia|Cuthberht]]▼
▲| issue = [[Cynehelm]]<br />[[Cwenthryth|Cwoenthryth]]
| mother =
▲| father = [[Cuthberht of Mercia|Cuthberht]]
|
|
| death_date = 821▼
| death_place = [[Basingwerk Abbey|Basingwerk]], [[Flintshire]]▼
▲| death_date = 821
| religion = Christian▼
▲| death_place = [[Basingwerk Abbey|Basingwerk]], [[Flintshire]]
▲| religion = Christian
}}
'''Coenwulf''' ({{IPA-ang|ˈkøːnwuɫf|lang}}; also spelled '''Cenwulf''', '''Kenulf''', or '''Kenwulph'''; {{
Coenwulf came into conflict with [[Archbishop of Canterbury|Archbishop]] [[Wulfred]] of Canterbury over the issue of whether laypeople could control religious houses such as monasteries. The breakdown in the relationship between the two eventually reached the point where the archbishop was unable to exercise his duties for at least four years. A partial resolution was reached in 822 with Coenwulf's successor, King [[Ceolwulf I of Mercia|Ceolwulf]], but it was not until about 826 that a final settlement was reached between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter, [[Cwoenthryth]], who had been the main beneficiary of Coenwulf's grants of religious property.
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Coenwulf was unwilling to take military action in Kent without acknowledgement from [[Pope Leo III]] that Eadberht was a pretender. The basis for this assertion was that Eadberht had reportedly been a priest, and as such had given up any right to the throne.<ref name=Kirby_178/> Coenwulf wrote to the Pope and asked Leo to consider making London the seat of the southern archbishopric, removing the honour from Canterbury; it is likely that Coenwulf's reasons included the loss of Mercian control over Kent.<ref name=Kirby_178/><ref name=EHD_204>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', 204, p. 791.</ref> Leo refused to agree to moving the archiepiscopate to London, but in the same letter he agreed that Eadberht's previous ordination made him ineligible for the throne:<ref name=EHD_205>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', 205, p. 793.</ref>
This authorisation from the Pope to proceed against Eadberht was delayed until 798, but once it was received Coenwulf took action.<ref name=Kirby_178/> The Mercians captured Eadberht, put out his eyes and cut off his hands,<ref name=Yorke_121>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 121.</ref> and led him in chains to Mercia, where according to later tradition he was imprisoned at Winchcombe, a religious house closely affiliated with Coenwulf's family.<ref name=Story_142>Story, ''Carolingian Connections'', p. 142.</ref> By 801 at the latest Coenwulf had placed his brother, [[Cuthred of Kent|Cuthred]], on the throne of Kent.<ref name=Kirby_179/> Cuthred ruled until the time of his death in 807, after which Coenwulf took control of Kent in name as well as fact.<ref name=Yorke_32>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 32.</ref> Coenwulf styled himself "King of the Mercians and the Province of Kent" (''rex Merciorum atque provincie Cancie'') in a charter dated 809.<ref name=S_164>{{cite web | url = http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+164 | title = Anglo-Saxons.net: S 164 | publisher = Sean Miller|access-date=2 February 2008}}</ref>
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A gold coin bearing the name Coenwulf was discovered in 2001 at [[Biggleswade]] in [[Bedfordshire]], England, on a footpath beside the [[River Ivel]]. The {{Convert|4.33|g|abbr=on}} [[mancus]], worth about 30 silver pennies, is only the eighth-known Anglo-Saxon gold coin dating to the mid-to-late Anglo-Saxon period.
The coin's inscription, "DE VICO LVNDONIAE", indicates that it was minted in London.<ref>EMC Number 2004.167, Early Medieval Corpus, Fitzwilliam Museum. Now British Museum
It has seen little or no circulation, as it was probably lost shortly after it was issued.
The similarity to a coin of [[Charlemagne]] inscribed ''vico Duristat'' has been taken to suggest that the two coins reflect a rivalry between the two kings, although it is unknown which coin has priority.<ref>
*Gareth Williams, ''Early Anglo-Saxon Coins'' (2008), 43–45.
*John Blair, ''Building Anglo-Saxon England'' (2018), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qng9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA230
Initially sold to American collector Allan Davisson for £230,000 at an auction held by [[Spink auction house]] in 2004, the British Government subsequently put in place an export ban in the hope of saving it for the British public.<ref name=BBC_1>"Ancient coin could fetch £150,000", BBC.</ref><ref name=NYT_1>Healey, "Museum Buying Rare Coin to Keep It in Britain".</ref> In February 2006 the coin was bought by the [[British Museum]] for £357,832 with the help of funding from the [[National Heritage Memorial Fund]] and [[The British Museum Friends]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1593837&partId=1 |title=Coenwulf mancus |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2006 |website=[[British Museum]]}}</ref> making it the most expensive British coin purchased until then, though the price was exceeded the following July by the third-known example of a [[Florin (English coin)|Double Leopard]].<ref name=BBC_3>"Rare Coin Breaks Auction Record", BBC.</ref>
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A charter of 799 records a wife of Coenwulf named Cynegyth; the charter is forged, but this detail is possibly accurate.<ref name=S_156>{{cite web | url = http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+156 | title = Anglo-Saxons.net: S 156 | publisher = Sean Miller|access-date=2 February 2008}}</ref><ref name=BF_42>Pauline Stafford, "Political Womena", in Brown & Farr, ''Mercia'', p. 42, n. 5.</ref> Ælfthryth is more reliably established as Coenwulf's wife, again from charter evidence; she is recorded on charters dated between 804 and 817.<ref name="PASE_Ælfthryth_3">Ælfthryth 3, PASE.</ref> Coenwulf's daughter, [[Cwoenthryth]], survived him and inherited the monastery at [[Winchcombe]] which Coenwulf had established as part of the patrimony of his family.<ref name="Yorke_118-9">Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', pp. 118–119.</ref> Cwoenthryth subsequently was engaged in a long dispute with Archbishop Wulfred over her rights to the monastery.<ref name=Kirby_187/> Coenwulf also had a son, [[Saint Kenelm|Cynehelm]], who later became known as a saint, with a cult dating from at least the 970s.<ref name=Thacker_8>Thacker, "Kings, Saints and Monasteries", p. 8.</ref> According to [[Alfred the Great]]'s biographer, the Welsh monk and bishop, [[Asser]], Alfred's wife Ealhswith was descended from Coenwulf through her mother, Eadburh, though Asser does not say which of Coenwulf's children Eadburh descends from.<ref name=Kirby_212>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p. 212.</ref>
Coenwulf died in 821 at [[Basingwerk]] near [[Holywell, Flintshire|Holywell]], [[Flintshire]], probably while making preparations for a campaign against the Welsh that took place under his brother and successor, [[Ceolwulf I of Mercia|Ceolwulf]], the following year.<ref name=Stenton_230>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 230.</ref> Coenwulf's body was moved to [[Winchcombe]] where it was buried in St Mary's Abbey<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xksjPqoqVbcC&pg=PA166 | title=Religion and Literature in Western England, 600–800| isbn=978-0521673426| last1=Sims-Williams| first1=Patrick| date=2005| publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> (later known as [[Winchcombe Abbey]]). A mid-11th-century source asserts that Cynehelm briefly succeeded to the throne while still a child and was then murdered by his tutor Æscberht at the behest of Cwoenthryth. This version of events "bristles with historical problems", according to one historian, and it is also possible that Cynehelm is to be identified with an ealdorman who is found witnessing charters earlier in Coenwulf's reign, and who appears to have died by about 812.<ref name=Thacker_8/><ref name=Yorke_119>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 119.</ref> The opinion of historians is not unanimous on this point: [[Simon Keynes]] has suggested that the ealdorman is unlikely to be the same person as the prince and that Cynehelm therefore may well have survived to the end of his father's reign.<ref name=BEASE_111/> Regardless of interpretation of Cynehelm's legend, there does appear to have been dynastic discord early in Ceolwulf's reign: a document from 825 says that after the death of Coenwulf "much discord and innumerable disagreements arose between various kings, nobles, bishops and ministers of the Church of God on very many matters of secular business".<ref name=Kirby_188/>
Coenwulf was the last of a series of Mercian kings, beginning with Penda in the early 7th century, to exercise dominance over most or all of southern England. In the years after his death, Mercia's position weakened, and the [[battle of Ellendun]] in 825 firmly established [[Egbert of Wessex]] as the dominant king south of the Humber.<ref>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', pp. 104–105, 112, 122.</ref>
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===Primary sources===
* {{cite book|last1= Keynes|first1= Simon|author-link= Simon Keynes|last2= Lapidge|author-link2= Michael Lapidge|first2= Michael|title= Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources|year= 2004|publisher= Penguin Classics|isbn= 978-0-14-044409-4|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/alfredgreatasser0000asse |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Bede|author-link= Bede|title= Ecclesiastical History of the English People|translator= [[Leo Sherley-Price]]|others= Revised by [[R.E. Latham]]|editor= D.H. Farmer|location= London|publisher= Penguin|year= 1991|isbn= 978-0-14-044565-7|title-link= Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum |ref=none}}
* {{PASE|5605|Ælfthryth 3|access-date=2008-02-09 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Swanton|first= Michael|title= The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|year= 1996| location=New York|publisher= Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-92129-9 |ref=none}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coenwulf Of Mercia}}
[[Category:8th-century births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:821 deaths]]
[[Category:Mercian monarchs]]
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