Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/433



Ceadwalla and Ine had caused the loss of the Mercian territory beyond the Thames, together probably with Essex and London. Ceolred made a vigorous attempt to win back the supremacy of the south, and in 715 led his army into Wessex. He was met by Ine at Wodnesbeorg, probably Wanborough, where a battle was fought so fiercely that none could tell which side suffered the greater loss (. 724); it is evident, however, that the invasion failed. Ceolred was jealous of his cousin Æthelbald, and persecuted him so that he was forced to flee from the kingdom. The good intentions Ceolred had when he sent for Wilfrith seem by this time to have disappeared, for he greatly oppressed the church and did much evil to monasteries and nunneries. In 716, as he was feasting with his nobles, he was suddenly seized with madness, and so died, his end, according to St. Boniface, being the work of the evil spirit that possessed him. His widow, Werburh, is said to have lived until 782. Ceolred was buried at Lichfield. On his death Æthelbald was chosen king.

[Bæda's Historia Eccles. v. 19 (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 704, 715, 716; Eddius's Vita Wilfridi, cap. 63, ap. Historians of York, p. 96 (Rolls Series); Florence of Worcester (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Henry of Huntingdon, Mon. Hist. Brit.; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils and Eccles. Docs. iii. 281, 355, and 356, with letter of St. Boniface from Jaffé, No. 59, given in a shortened form by William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, i. 80 (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Vita S. Guthlaci, Mabillon Acta SS. sæc. iii. 1. 271; Kemble's Codex Dipl. i. 72; Green's Making of England, 392.] 

CEOLRIC or CEOL (d. 597), king of the West Saxons, was the son of Cutha, the brother of Ceawlin. After his victory over his uncle Ceawlin [q. v.] at Wodnesbeorg in 592 he reigned for five years. At his death in 597 he left a son, Cynegils [q. v.] He was succeeded by his brother, Ceolwulf, who reigned until 611, when, at his death, Cynegils succeeded to the throne.

[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Florence of Worcester, i. 9, 256, 271 (Eng. Hist. Soc.); William of Malmesbury, i. c. 17, 18.] 

CEOLWULF (d. 764), king of the Northumbrians, was the son of Cutha (A.-S. Chron. an. 731;, De Dunelm. Eccl.), and the brother of Coenred, king of the Northumbrians. On the death of Coenred in 718, Osric succeeded to the throne. Before he died he appointed Ceolwulf as his successor, who accordingly began his reign on 9 May 729. His chief claim to remembrance is that Bæda dedicated his 'Historia Ecclesiastica' to him ('gloriosissimo regi Ceoluuolpho') in a prefatory letter in which he says that he has sent him his book that he may read and test it and have it transcribed, and speaks of the king's delight in the study of the Scriptures, in history, and especially in the records of famous Englishmen. Bæda ends his history with an account of the flourishing state of the kingdom of Northumbria in 731, noticing the large number of men of all ranks who at that time retired from the world to adopt a monastic life. It seems, however, as though a strong party in Northumbria disliked the increase of the ecclesiastical power, and was impatient of the rule of the studious king, for the next year an insurrection broke out, and Ceolwulf was seized and tonsured. He was restored to the throne the same year, the tonsure thus forced upon him being held therefore to be no impediment to the resumption of the kingly office. As Bishop Acca [q. v.] was banished at this time, it has been suggested that the troubles in Northumbria may have been connected with some change in the arrangement of the northern dioceses. Ceolwulf made his cousin Ecgberht bishop of York in 734, and Bæda, writing to Ecgberht, reminds him that he would find the king a ready helper in the ecclesiastical reforms he was urging on him, and especially in the increase of the episcopate. Ceolwulf resigned the throne in 737, and became a monk of Lindisfarne. He richly endowed the monastery with treasures and lands. From the time of his entrance into the house the monks were allowed to drink wine or beer instead of water or milk. He died in 764 (, 760, A.-S. Chron.), and was buried at Lindisfarne. His body was afterwards translated to Norham, where miracles are said to have been wrought at his tomb; his head was preserved among the relics deposited in the church of St. Cuthbert at Durham. Ceolwulf has a place in the calendar, his day being 15 Jan.

[Bæda's Hist. Eccl. prolog. v. 23. Epistola ad Ecgberctum ap. Op. Hist. Minora, p. 214 (Eng. Hist. Soc.); Anglo-Saxon Chron.; Symeon de Dunelm. Ecclesia, col. 7, 9, de Sto Cuthberto, col. 70, de Gestis Regum, col. 100, 106. Twysden; William of Malmesbury, i. 64; Raine's History of North Durham, p. 68; Dixon and Raine, Fasti Ebor. 94.] 

CERDIC (d. 534), king of the West Saxons, bore the title of ealdorman when in 495 he and his son, Cynric, came over to Britain, and landed probably at the mouth of the Itchin, at a spot afterwards called Cerdics-ora. The invaders were attacked on the day they landed. According to Henry of Huntingdon, whose history of these events,