Ceolwald may have been

King of Mercia The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...

around 716 AD. King

Ceolred of Mercia Ceolred (died 716) was King of Mercia from 709 to 716. Mercia at the end of the 7th century By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years ...

, a grandson of

Penda Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theor ...

, died in 716. Most Mercian king-lists have Ceolred succeeded by Æthelbald, who was not a descendant of Penda. However, one version of the

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire, England, situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Bles ...

lists has Ceolred succeeded by Ceolwald. From the similarity of their names, Ceolwald is thought to have been Ceolred's brother, and thus the last of Penda's direct descendants to have ruled in Mercia. Ceolwald can only have been king for a short time as Æthelbald appears to have become king in the year of Ceolred's death.

References

* Kirby, D.P., ''The Earliest English Kings.'' London: Unwin Hyman, 1991. * Yorke, Barbara, ''Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England.'' London: Seaby, 1990. {{Kings of Mercia Mercian monarchs 8th-century English monarchs House of Icel

See also

References