Cynethryth
Encyclopedia
Cynethryth was the wife of Offa of Mercia
and mother of Ecgfrith of Mercia
. Cynethryth is the only Anglo-Saxon
Queen consort
in whose name coin
age was definitely issued.
—Cynewise, Cyneburh, and Cyneswith—which may indicate that she was a descendant of Penda.
Unlike the relations of Æthelbald, Offa's predecessor, which had been condemned by the church, the marriage of Offa and Cynethryth was entirely conventional and met with the approval of the church hierarchy. In a letter to Cynethryth and Offa's son Ecgfrith, Alcuin
advises him to follow the example of his parents, including his mother's piety. Elsewhere Alcuin refers to Cynethryth as "controller of the Royal household".
The date of Offa and Cynethryth's marriage is not known, but it was not until after the birth of Ecgfrith
that Cynethryth began to witness charter
s. She first witnessed a charter dated 770, along with Ecgfrith
and Ælfflæd
. By 780 she is Cyneðryð Dei gratia regina Merciorum (Cynethryth, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Mercians).
It has been suggested that Cynethryth's coin
age was in emulation of the Byzantine Empress Irene
, who ruled during this time through her son, Constantine VI. The imagery employed, however, does not follow that on Irene's coinage, but that used on coins of late Roman empresses, just as the image used on Offa's coins show him as a late Roman emperor. It has been suggested that the coins were minted for donations by Cynethryth to the Church, but their similarity to the general issues suggests otherwise. This coinage is unique in Anglo-Saxon England, and indeed in Western Europe in this period.
Cynethryth is associated with her husband in charters
and is said to have been a patron of Chertsey Abbey
. Pope Adrian I
, when elevating Higbert
's Bishopric of Lichfield
to an Archbishopric, wrote to Offa and Cynethryth jointly.
Her children with Offa, besides Ecgfrith
, included at least four daughters:
In the legend of Æthelberht II of East Anglia, a daughter of Offa named Ælfthryth—or Alfrida
—appears, but there is no firm evidence for her existence.
, to have incited Offa to the killing of Æthelberht, King of East Anglia, at the royal residence of Sutton, near Hereford
, or to have had her servants kill him.
of the monastery
at Cookham
and also had charge of the church at Bedford
where her late husband was interred. She was certainly alive in 798 when a dispute over church lands with Æthelhard
, Archbishop of Canterbury
, was settled at the Synod of Clofesho.
Offa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
and mother of Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith was a King of Mercia who briefly ruled in the year 796. He was the son and heir of King Offa of Mercia and his wife Cynethryth. In 787, Offa had Ecgfrith crowned as co-ruler. He succeeded his father in July 796, but despite Offa's efforts to secure his son's succession, it is recorded...
. Cynethryth is the only Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
Queen consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
in whose name coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
age was definitely issued.
Origins and marriage
Nothing certain is known of Cynethryth's origins. Her name recalls the wife and daughters of King PendaPenda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
—Cynewise, Cyneburh, and Cyneswith—which may indicate that she was a descendant of Penda.
Unlike the relations of Æthelbald, Offa's predecessor, which had been condemned by the church, the marriage of Offa and Cynethryth was entirely conventional and met with the approval of the church hierarchy. In a letter to Cynethryth and Offa's son Ecgfrith, Alcuin
Alcuin
Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York...
advises him to follow the example of his parents, including his mother's piety. Elsewhere Alcuin refers to Cynethryth as "controller of the Royal household".
Queen of the Mercians
Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith was a King of Mercia who briefly ruled in the year 796. He was the son and heir of King Offa of Mercia and his wife Cynethryth. In 787, Offa had Ecgfrith crowned as co-ruler. He succeeded his father in July 796, but despite Offa's efforts to secure his son's succession, it is recorded...
that Cynethryth began to witness charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
s. She first witnessed a charter dated 770, along with Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith was a King of Mercia who briefly ruled in the year 796. He was the son and heir of King Offa of Mercia and his wife Cynethryth. In 787, Offa had Ecgfrith crowned as co-ruler. He succeeded his father in July 796, but despite Offa's efforts to secure his son's succession, it is recorded...
and Ælfflæd
Ælfflæd of Mercia
Ælfflæd was a daughter of Offa of Mercia and Cynethryth.She may have witnessed a charter with her father, mother, and brother Ecgfrith in the 770s, and again in 787 with her mother, father, brother, and two sisters; here she is described as virgo—unmarried.It is possible that she was the...
. By 780 she is Cyneðryð Dei gratia regina Merciorum (Cynethryth, by the Grace of God, Queen of the Mercians).
It has been suggested that Cynethryth's coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
age was in emulation of the Byzantine Empress Irene
Irene (empress)
Irene Sarantapechaina , known as Irene of Athens or Irene the Athenian was a Byzantine empress regnant from 797 to 802, having previously been empress consort from 775 to 780, and empress dowager and regent from 780 to 797. It is often claimed she called herself "basileus" , 'emperor'...
, who ruled during this time through her son, Constantine VI. The imagery employed, however, does not follow that on Irene's coinage, but that used on coins of late Roman empresses, just as the image used on Offa's coins show him as a late Roman emperor. It has been suggested that the coins were minted for donations by Cynethryth to the Church, but their similarity to the general issues suggests otherwise. This coinage is unique in Anglo-Saxon England, and indeed in Western Europe in this period.
Cynethryth is associated with her husband in charters
Charters
Charters is a surname and may refer to :* Ann Charters , American professor of English* Charlie Charters , former English rugby union official and sports marketing executive* Frank Charters, , English cricketer...
and is said to have been a patron of Chertsey Abbey
Chertsey Abbey
Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey.It was founded by Saint Erkenwald, later Bishop of London, in 666 AD and he became the first abbot. In the 9th century it was sacked by the Danes and refounded from Abingdon Abbey...
. Pope Adrian I
Pope Adrian I
Pope Adrian was pope from February 1, 772 to December 25, 795. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman.Shortly after Adrian's accession the territory ruled by the papacy was invaded by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and Adrian was compelled to seek the assistance of the Frankish king...
, when elevating Higbert
Higbert, Archbishop of Lichfield
Hygeberht was the Bishop of Lichfield from 779 until the elevation of Lichfield to an archbishopric some time after 787, during the reign of the powerful Mercian king Offa...
's Bishopric of Lichfield
Bishop of Lichfield
The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 4,516 km² of the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed...
to an Archbishopric, wrote to Offa and Cynethryth jointly.
Her children with Offa, besides Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Mercia
Ecgfrith was a King of Mercia who briefly ruled in the year 796. He was the son and heir of King Offa of Mercia and his wife Cynethryth. In 787, Offa had Ecgfrith crowned as co-ruler. He succeeded his father in July 796, but despite Offa's efforts to secure his son's succession, it is recorded...
, included at least four daughters:
- Æthelburh, in later life an abbessAbbessAn abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
- EadburhEadburhEadburh , also spelled Eadburg, was the daughter of King Offa of Mercia and Queen Cynethryth. Married to King Beorhtric of Wessex, Asser's Life of Alfred the Great tells how she accidentally killed her husband by poison. She fled to Francia, where she is said to have been offered the chance of...
, wife of Beorhtric of WessexBeorhtric of WessexBeorhtric was the King of Wessex from 786 to 802.In 786, Cynewulf, king of Wessex, was killed by the exiled noble Cyneheard, brother of the former King Sigeberht. Beorhtric's successful bid for the throne was supported by Offa, king of the Mercians against Egbert... - ÆlfflædÆlfflæd of MerciaÆlfflæd was a daughter of Offa of Mercia and Cynethryth.She may have witnessed a charter with her father, mother, and brother Ecgfrith in the 770s, and again in 787 with her mother, father, brother, and two sisters; here she is described as virgo—unmarried.It is possible that she was the...
, wife of Æthelred I of NorthumbriaÆthelred I of NorthumbriaÆthelred was king of Northumbria from 774 to 779 and again from 788 or 789 until his murder in 796. He became king after Alhred was deposed... - Æthelswith
In the legend of Æthelberht II of East Anglia, a daughter of Offa named Ælfthryth—or Alfrida
Alfrida
Ælfthryth is a saint, venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, as a virgin, and recluse, died c. 795. She was a daughter of King Offa of Mercia....
—appears, but there is no firm evidence for her existence.
Saint Æthelberht
She is said by some later chroniclers, such as Roger of WendoverRoger of Wendover
Roger of Wendover , probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century.At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell of Belvoir, but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of Henry III,...
, to have incited Offa to the killing of Æthelberht, King of East Anglia, at the royal residence of Sutton, near Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, or to have had her servants kill him.
Abbess of Cookham
After Offa's death in 796 Cynethryth entered religion. She was abbessAbbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
of the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
at Cookham
Cookham
Cookham is a village and civil parish in the north-easternmost corner of Berkshire in England, on the River Thames, notable as the home of the artist Stanley Spencer. It lies north of Maidenhead close to the border with Buckinghamshire...
and also had charge of the church at Bedford
Bedford
Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
where her late husband was interred. She was certainly alive in 798 when a dispute over church lands with Æthelhard
Æthelhard
Æthelhard was a Bishop of Winchester then an Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Appointed by King Offa of Mercia, Æthelhard had difficulties with both the Kentish monarchs and with a rival archiepiscopate in southern England, and was deposed around 796 by King Eadberht III Præn of Kent...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, was settled at the Synod of Clofesho.