The Battle of ''Posentesbyrg'' (''Posentes byrg'') was fought in AD 661 between the
West Saxons
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
under
Cenwalh
Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 642 to c. 645 and from c. 648 until his death, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', in c. 672.
Penda and Anna
Bede states that Cenwalh was the son of the King Cynegils baptis ...
and the
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ye ...
ns under
Wulfhere
Wulfhere or Wulfar (died 675) was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of North ...
. It was a victory for the Mercians and Cenwalh was forced to relinquish the territory he had gained from the Britons in Somerset. The exact modern location of the battle is uncertain.
Saxon conquest of Eastern and Central Somerset
In 658 Cenwalh's West Saxons met the Britons for a climactic battle at
Peonnum. The Saxons were victorious, and Cenwalh advanced west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett, annexing eastern and central Somerset. Geoffrey Ashe suggests that Cenwalh's ultimate goal may have been gaining control over the valuable Glastonbury Abbey. Cenwalh's fledgling kingdom in Somerset was probably ruled from Glastonbury but his tenure there was brief. Wulfhere of Mercia ousted him in AD 661 having defeated him at the Battle of ''Posentesbyrg''.
Location
The battle site is usually considered to have been Pontesbury, based on the similarity of the name and its translation by
Æthelweard,
Ingram and others. There is no other place-name in Britain which bears any resemblance, but Cenwalh fighting at Pontesbury makes little sense in the context of him establishing a kingdom in Somerset. If the battle was in Shropshire, for an unknown reason he marched his army considerably more than a hundred miles to the north, leaving his embryonic Somerset kingdom vulnerable.
David Cooper posits that the battle was actually fought at
Ponter's Ball, an ancient embankment about a mile to the south-east of Glastonbury Tor. Almost a mile in length, this defensive dyke is aligned north-to-south and crosses a piece of raised ground which, in the seventh century, provided the only access by land to the Isle of Glastonbury. ''Posentes'' does not translate. Cooper suggests that it may be the name of a chief, corrupted to Ponter's on modern maps, and that 'ball' is a corruption of the Old English ''balc'', which translates as a balk, beam, bank or ridge.
[Cooper, David: ''Badon and the Early Wars for Wessex, circa 500 to 710'' (2018: Pen & Sword Books) pp. 209-217.]
See also
*
History of Somerset
Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and ot ...
*
Timeline of the Anglo-Saxon invasion and takeover of Britain
The Timeline of conflict in Anglo-Saxon Britain is concerned with the period of history from just before the departure of the Roman Army, in the 4th century, to just after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
The information is mainly derived ...
References
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