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Chapter 11, Ceolwulf I and Queen Sisuile I (606-625)
Ceolwulf I came to the throne much like his father and predecessor, Cynemær “Ironside”: aged 16 and from a period of regency rule. The Nedlaksip dynasty was smaller than ever and scattered across Britannia through marriage. Two main branches lived in Mercia, Ceolwulf’s and the Jarls of Lancaster, who had traditionally been Nedalskips, descending back to King Eadbeald’s II brother. Ceolwulf thus resolved to attempt to live longer and increase his branch of the Nedalskip family while at the same time increasing the power of his Mercian Kingdom.
In order to do both of these aims the young Ceolwulf plotted to gain Sisuile of Leinister (the most powerful of the Irish Kingdoms) as his wife – unfortunately she had just married a petty Irish nobleman by the name of Ualtar. Ceolwulf I did not let this phase him, for not only did he find Sisuile very attractive, but she would be useful in holding the country together for she was a very capable diplomat.
Rheged has been renamed Elmet on this picture, this is because someone usurped the crown of Rheged (the ruler also held the title King of Elmet) and decided to make Elmet the primary title. Not sure why but it changed back to Rheged not too long after.
King Ceolwulf set to work bribing and persuading the people close to Sisuile’s husband in order to arrange his untimely demise. By October 607 a plan had been formulated and some mercenaries hired to ambush Lord Ualtar disguised as highwaymen to conceal Mercian involvement.
The Irish lord was caught and killed and Sisuile greived for a moment as a widow. Within a week Ceolwulf proposed a marriage between him and Sisuile to the King of Leinister and High King of Ireland, Duncan “the Great”. The Irish king accepted and Ceolwulf had won both a capable wife and a powerful ally across the Irish Sea.
In 608 the Cumbrian Jarldom which had broke from Mercia back in 596 was finally snuffed out as Northumbria overran Setantia. In response Ceolwulf ordered a Mercian invasion of Deva in order to bring that region back into the Kingdom. No casualties were taken and Deva surrendered and an independent Cumbria was no-more.
Having had a good two years to start his reign and being decently popular with the ruling Jarls of Mercia Ceolwulf was able to increase crown authority from virtually none outside of his demesne to a reasonable level, being able to demand more taxes and levies from his vassals.
Times were good in Mercia, but over the English Channel the Frankish Kingdom was beset by a War of Two Brothers as King Ludger I attempted to hold the throne from High Lord Hunold, a would be usurper. Ceolwulf did not act on the Frankish issue straight away, but made a note to influence the next ruler, for an alliance with the Frankish Empire would be helpful, as it had been against Cantia back in the reign of Cynemær “Ironside”.
On the 31st July 609 Sisuile gave birth to the next Nedalskip ruler and heir to Mercia, Sæwæld. The security of the Nedalskip line of Ceolwulf was now assured. Ceolwulf was a pretty lustful man however and in January 610 he also fathered a bastard daughter by the name of Godgifu to his lover Leofcwen.
The year of 610 was filled with intrigue. Word reached the court of Ceolwulf that his peaceful reign would be shattered by the ambition of his vassal, High Lady Ælthryth of Lindsey who plotted with others to gain independence from Mercia.
Ceolwulf would not allow this and rather than facing a costly civil war plotted with his supporters to “remove” High Lady Ælthryth from power via an organised accident. The year passed and Ceolwulf fell ill with a strong fever. The King was left out of governance for most of 611 as Queen Sisuile governed in his stead. Growing up in a world of powerful men in Ireland and Mercia had taught Sisuile to be a strong woman and she was very much capable of holding her own in the male dominated political world of the 7th Century.
The Illness passed however and by November 611 Ceolwulf had recovered. News reached the King that High Lady Ælthryth intended to launch her independence bid in the new year: Ceolwulf and his co-conspirators would have to act quickly in order to avoid a conflict. Fortunately a minor noble by the name of Ricbhert (a huscarl in service to Ælthryth) approached the King on the 21st of November with the idea of derailing the High Lady’s carriage over a gorge, where she would fall to her death. Ceolwulf approved and the plan was put into action. Thus for the second time in Ceolwulf’s 5 year reign he had disposed of an adversary through the act of intrigue and espionage.
After wrapping up the civil war problem well Ceolwulf began to look beyond Mercia’s borders, to the south. The Kingdom of Cantia had been shaken badly over the last few decades. Despite gaining land in East Anglia they had lost the rich and populous lands of Wessex and their Kingdom was divided. Seeing an opportunity to weaken an old rival and keep the upcoming Kingdom of West Seaxe from growing too strong Ceolwulf declared war on Cantia to take the border province of Venta.
On the 11th June 612 the Battle of White Horse Vale (image of the famed white horse below) decided the brief war and was a crushing Mercian victory. King Ceolwulf personally led his troops to victory on the battlefield.
With Mercia secured and Cantia subdued for the time being Ceolwulf once again looked over the Channel, to Frankia. The old Frankish ruler Ludger had been overthrown and killed by his younger brother Hunold. Though still the Frankish Kingdom was unstable, wracked by civil war. Visigoth raiders returned to plague the southern Frankish holdings and chaos reigned. Hunold was powerful, but he was not the only man claiming lordship over the Franks. Ludger’s son (also called Ludger) and Lord of the Channel Islands was opposing Hunold for the crown and was the main faction in the civil war. Ceolwulf thought that if he were to support Ludger in his bid for the throne then he could claim alliance with him and have the Franks as a powerful ally against the southern Saxon Kingdoms. Thus in December 613 Ludger wed Princess Cynewynn of Mercia, King Ceolwulf’s sister. Ceolwulf thus established an alliance with Ludger the would be usurper and after preparing his huscarls entered the war on his side.
Setting sail for Frankia the Mercian huscarls left England for the first time, arriving on the shores of Cherbourg on the 17th of January 614. Though Ceolwulf had sent a mere 500 men the act of sending his standing and personal troops so far from home to fight for his brother-in-law endeared him to the Frankish lord and his bid for the throne continued with fresh enthusiasm. The Mercians marched with a small allied force south to Mortain where they relieved the siege on the town after a brief skirmish on the 4th of February, losing 8 of their number. Though a tiny skirmish the losses at Mortain marked the first time men of Mercia serving under command of House Nedalskip died outside the British Isles and it went down in the annals of history.
Throughout the rest of 614 the Mercian huscarls fought alongside Ludger’s forces in many battles – large and small. By that December 158 of the men had been lost, fighting a foreign war that dragged on with no tangible benefit. 614 also saw the birth of Prince Cyneric, Ceolwulth’s second son – he would later become a problem to his older brother Sæwæld.
In 615 Prince Sæwæld was old enough (6) to begin his education. Though many nobles put forward their requests and reasons to tutor the boy it was Queen Sisuile who gained the wardship of her son. A devout Christian it is from Sisuile that Sæwæld gained his zealous faith from: and perhaps her Irish origins affected his own upbringing too, for Sæwæld adopted a similar hairstyle to that of his grandfather King Duncan of Ireland. Disaster struck in November 615 however as the usurper Ludger of the Channel Islands, pretender to the Frankish throne was struck down by a sudden and deadly fever. His war ended and the death of 158 Mercian huscarls in Frankia was now a complete waste. The huscarls returned to Mercia with less men, though perhaps a sense of pride for their victories and achievements far from home.
616 began as an uneventful year, though not in Anglia. In Cantian ruled East Anglia tensions were growing between the local lords (who were mostly Christian) and King Cynemær III of Cantia (who was a devout Norse Pagan) these tensions erupted into full scale revolt in the Summer and Elmham declared independence, with intention of joining with Anglia after the conflict. Ceolwulf saw this as a chance to weaken Cantia, which was still the main rival to Mercia amongst the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. Ceolwulf I rushed into battle with his army, rushed too eagerly perhaps and was caught by a loose spear, dieing a noble and glorious death at the Battle of Winchester on the 24th August 616. Killed at the age of 25 Ceolwulf appeared to be another victim of the Nedalskip curse, a King that died young and left an heir too young to rule thus needing a regency. However many did not consider the widow, Queen Sisuile…
Though Saxon culture dissaproved in general of powerful, ruling women a casual skim read over this history of Anglo-Saxon England will show that females could be very powerful in this age. In a period where ruling power was concentrated in the form of families/dynasties women were important in their own ways. Queen Sisuile was not your typical woman, born and raised in Leinister, Ireland she was naturally free spirited like many of her people and had grown up around powerful men. Married to Ceolwulf Nedalskip in 607AD she already had experience in governance during her husband’s illness in 611 where she basically ruled the country. Though the Mercian Jarls protested (much as they had done during her wardship of Sæwæld) Sisuile announced that she would rule as regent (and de-facto queen) until her son Sæwæld came of age when she would relinquish the throne. The early 7th century saw another first: a Queen on the throne of Mercia. The years of 616-625 was also a time where a Nedalskip did not de-facto rule in Mercia, for although Sisuile had married Ceolwulf she was still considered a member of House Midi, the Irish ruling dynasty.
Technicalities aside Mercia continued and the war with Cantia was not yet over. In October 616 Mercian armies invaded the core territory of Cantia for the first time, reaching as far as modern Canterbury. The winter forced our armies to abandon the attack however and the following year the death of the Earl of Elmham ended the war inconclusively: it was a massive insult to House Nedalskip for King Ceolwulf had died during the conflict. During the chaos of early 617 West Seaxe declared war on Mercia in order to claim the province of Ambra, a small borderland that was de-jure part of Wessex. Deeming the province unworthy of the loss of potentially thousands of Saxon lives (Wessex and Mercia were pretty big…) Sisuile surrendered it to the Kingdom of West Seaxe.
Mercia’s territorial integrity was once again threatened when on the 20th November 617 King Hereweald I ascended to the throne of Anglia. Hereweald was the Jarl of Lindsey, and inherited the Anglian throne due to the death of the more immediate claimant via an “accident” a few weeks previous. The new King took Lindsey (which was in Mercia) with him, messing up the borders of the Nedalskip Kingdom.
This of course could not do and an immediate deceleration of war followed from Sisuile of Mercia in order to regain Lincoln. 10 days later the two sides first clashed at the battle of Gloucester, which resulted in a close win for Mercia. This was followed on the 9th January 618 by a much more decisive win at Towcester where over 1300 Anglians died for about 680 Mercians. The Anglians were then put on the back foot and a series of running battles across the Midlands and East Anglia continued until March, resulting in many minor Mercian victories. The Anglians held Lincoln until the Summer of 619 when finally after a victorious Mercian siege they were forced to let go. Lindsey thus became part of the royal demesne.
Over in Cantia the earls of Devon where rebelling anew, proclaiming their desire to rejoin Kernow or join with West-Seaxe, the more powerful and closer Anglo-Saxon power. It appeared that the Cantian Kingdom was now in terminal decline after nearly 200 years after being Anglo-Saxon England’s secondary (and occasionally arguably premier) power. By 630 Wessex and Kernow had divided most of Devon between them, but the province of Din Tagel remained a part of King Cynemaer III of Cantia’s royal demesne and both dared not risk and open war with the Cantian King for the moment.
620 saw an interesting event in North-Western Mercia – the first raid on Mercian lands by people from across the Irish Sea. Those people being the inhabitants of the Isle of Mann, who raided Lancastrian lands in Summer 620AD. Not content with allowing barbaric Britons to raid Saxon lands Queen Sisuile ordered the Mercian army down on the raiders and then a counter-invasion of Mann!
The Battle of Cair Lonan on the 6th of October was the second time in 6 years that Mercian forces had fought outside of Great Britain. The Battle was a victory and the Manx forces were dispersed into the hilly interior of Mann. Not wanting to occupy the island or fight a guerilla war against the natives the Mercians withdrew as quickly as they came, though the memory of Cair Lonan would live long in the minds of the Manx who would not raid the lands of Mercia ever again.
The onward march of progress continued and in 621 Lancaster finally converted to Christianity. Long a stronghold of the Cult of Gofannon, a major offshoot of the druidic Brythonic religion, the conversion of Lancaster was an important event and soon afterwards the East-Anglian and Cantian Anglian territories followed suit, abandoning the old Seaxneat Cults for Christianity.
Religious turmoil broke out in Lincoln in 622 however as Sisuile attempted to convert the populace of Lincoln less subtly: the court Theologian was mobbed and beat up in the streets in a highly embarrassing incident. The events of these years and the strong faith of his mother dealt young Sæwæld a highly zealous streak. Events came to a climax in 623 when Saint Vigilius arrived from Rome to gain more converts in Britannia. The zealous saint appealed to Queen Sisuile to set an example to others that the old pagan beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons were not welcome in the Christian Kingdom of Mercia by getting rid of the Pagan Earl Elfrith of Towcester. Sisuile agreed with the missionary and expelled the Earl from Mercia. Elfrith fled to Cantia, which was by now the only Anglo-Saxon country with Norse Paganism as its official religion – all the other Anglo-Saxon monarchs had converted to Christianity! Though the official religion of Kings Christians were not the majority everywhere in England and pagans were not uncommon among the nobility and the lower class – over in Ireland the country had embraced the new religion much more forcefully.
As Mercia remained at peace in 624 changes were occurring beyond the borders of the Kingdom. Northumbria spread into the Cumbric lands of the Britons of the Old North, though it met tough resistance from the locals in doing so. Over the sea in Frankia the age of civil war and visigothic invasions had finally come to a halt and Frankia was unified again. Over in a distant Eastern corner of the world the Battle of Badr was fought in March. Though only 84 men were killed this battle was the turning point for the development of a new, rather militant faith – Islam. The new faith would spread extremely quickly over the next century.
Back in Mercia the time for Queen Sisuile to rule as regent was over and her son Sæwæld Nedalskip came of age, becoming the next King of Mercia. Sisuile left her son to get on with it, retiring to a nunnery to live out the rest of her days and devoting her life to the worship of god. Sæwæld I became King as a “Charismatic Negotiator” a useful trait in a Kingdom famed for its civil wars and insubordinate vassals.