Ceolwulf II of Mercia

On anthroponymic grounds, Ceolwulf is thought to belong to the C dynasty of Mercian kings, a family which claimed descent from Pybba of Mercia. The C dynasty, beginning with Coenwulf, may have had ties to the ruling family of Hwicce in south-west Mercia.The tie to Pybba was through an unknown son named Cenwalh. Pybba's daughter married Cenwalh of Wessex. Later genealogists may have turned a son by marriage into a son of the blood; Woolf, pp. 151–152. The alternative is that the relationship is contrived and the C dynasty descended from the royal house of the Hwicce; Zalockyj, p. 228.

Ceolwulf's immediate ancestry is unknown, but he is thought to be a descendant of Ceolwulf I through his daughter Ælfflæd. Ælfflæd was first married to Wigmund, son of King Wiglaf, and then to Beorhtfrith, son of King Beorhtwulf. Far from being "an unwise king's thane", it is clear that Ceolwulf was a descendant of previous kings. A number of thegns who witnessed charters under Burgred witnessed charters under Ceolwulf, and his charters were witnessed by Mercian bishops, testifying to his acceptance in Mercia.Walker, pp. 59–60, 208, Table 1; Zaluckiyj, p. 236, fig. 3, & p.247, sets out the theory whereby Ceolwulf is taken to be a younger brother of Wigstan of Mercia.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle offers the following account of Ceolwulf:

This year went the army [i.e., the Great Heathen Army] from the Kingdom of Lindsey to Repton, and there took up their winter-quarters, drove the king [of Mercia], Burgred, over sea, when he had reigned about two and twenty winters, and subdued all that land. He then went to Rome, and there remained to the end of his life. And his body lies in the church of Sancta Maria, in the school of the English nation. And the same year they gave Ceolwulf, an unwise king's thane, the Mercian kingdom to hold; and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages, that it should be ready for them on whatever day they would have it; and he would be ready with himself, and with all those that would remain with him, at the service of the army.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. James Ingram, sub anno 874.

The Chronicle was compiled on the orders of Alfred the Great, brother-in-law of King Burgred. This account is considered to be biased and politically motivated, written with a view of strengthening the claims of Alfred and Edward the Elder to the overlordship of Mercia, evidenced by a 2015 find of Anglo-Saxon Imperial coins dated to around 879, near Leominster, presumed to have been buried by retreating Vikings.{{cite web |url=https://www.newsweek.com/viking-treasure-rewrite-history-stolen-metal-detectorists-convicted-1473484|title=MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF VIKING TREASURE THAT COULD REWRITE HISTORY STOLEN, METAL DETECTORISTS CONVICTED |date=22 November 2019 |publisher=Newsweek |access-date=24 November 2019 |quote=An example of a rare two emperor coin, hinting at a previously-unknown alliance between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia.}} The coins depict both Ceolwulf as a king as well as Alfred, leading some experts to indicate that the two were equals.Walker, pp. 59–60; Yorke, p. 123.{{cite news|title=Watlington Hoard: Saxon and Viking treasure from the time of Alfred the Great discovered in Oxfordshire field|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/watlington-hoard-saxon-and-viking-treasure-from-the-time-of-alfred-the-great-discovered-in-a6768421.html|work=The Independent|date=10 December 2015}} According to Gareth Williams of the British Museum, "these coins enable us to reinterpret our history at a key moment in the creation of England as a single kingdom."{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-50461860 |title=Detectorists stole Viking hoard that 'rewrites history' |date=21 November 2019 |work=BBC News |access-date=24 November 2019 |quote="These coins enable us to re-interpret our history at a key moment in the creation of England as a single kingdom," according to Gareth Williams, curator of early medieval coins at the British Museum.}} 

Ceolwulf's kingdom is presumed to have been reduced to the northern and western parts of Mercia.Walker, p. 73.

In 878, King Rhodri Mawr of Gwynedd was killed in battle against the English. As Alfred was then occupied fighting the Vikings, and Mercia traditionally claimed hegemony over Wales, the English leader was probably Ceolwulf. In 881 Rhodri's sons defeated the Mercians at the Battle of the Conwy, a victory described in Welsh annals as "revenge of God for Rhodri". The Mercian leader was Edryd Long-Hair, almost certainly Ceolwulf's successor as Mercian ruler, Æthelred.Charles Edwards, pp. 487-91

File:Coin of King Ceolwulf II of Mercia, Two-Emperor type, minted 874-75.jpg

Three types of penny have been found which were issued in Ceolwulf's name. The bulk of them were minted at London and of the type designated as Cross-and-Lozenge, which was also in use by King Alfred of Wessex.[http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=person&id=CeolwulfIIofMercia Sean Miller, "Ceolwulf II, king of Mercia."]. See [http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/emc/emc_search_reply.php Early Medieval Corpus of Coin Finds and the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041130033614/http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/emc/emc_search_reply.php |date=2004-11-30 }} Ceolwulf's coinage appears to be closely related to that of Alfred of Wessex, and it has been suggested on this basis that the two kings co-operated against the Vikings.Yorke, p. 123.

Simon Keynes and the numismatist Mark Blackburn initially suggested that in about 875, Alfred was the sole recognised ruler in London, while Ceolwulf's involvement would have come about only towards the end of his reign, 879.Keynes, "King Alfred and the Mercians." pp. 12-19, and Blackburn, "The London Mint during the Reign of Alfred." pp. 116-120. However, in 1998, the same year that their discussion was published, another Cross-and-Lozenge penny struck in Ceolwulf's name came to light, which appears to be contemporary with Alfred's earliest coinage.Mark Blackburn revisits the issue in his "Alfred's coinage reforms in context." In Alfred the Great. Papers from the Eleventh Century Conference, ed. T. Reuter and D. Hinton. Aldershot, 2003. 199-215.

In 2015, a metal-detectorist uncovered a hoard of Viking Age coins, jewellery and silver ingots near Watlington, Oxfordshire. The find, dating to the late 870s, included thirteen examples of the rare ‘Two Emperors’ penny which depict Alfred and Ceolwulf seated side by side.{{Cite web |title=WATLINGTON HOARD |url=https://www.ashmolean.org/watlington-hoard |access-date=20 December 2023 |website=ashmolean.org |publisher=Ashmolean Museum}}

• Kings of Mercia family tree

{{reflist|2}}

• Blackburn, M.A.S. "The London Mint during the Reign of Alfred." In Kings, Currency, and Alliances. History and Coinage of Southern England in the Ninth Century, ed. M.A.S. Blackburn and D.N. Dumville. Studies in Anglo-Saxon History 9. Woodbridge, 1998. 105-23.
• {{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Charles-Edwards|title=Wales and the Britons 350–1064|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-821731-2}}
• Keynes, Simon. "King Alfred and the Mercians." In Kings, Currency, and Alliances. History and Coinage of Southern England in the Ninth Century, ed. M.A.S. Blackburn and D.N. Dumville. Studies in Anglo-Saxon History 9. Woodbridge, 1998. 1-45.
• {{Cite book|first=D. P. |last =Kirby|title=The Earliest English Kings|publisher=Routledge|edition=Revised|year=2000|isbn=0-415-24211-8}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia |first=Sean|last =Miller | publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title= Ceolwulf II (fl. 874–879), king of the Mercians| year = 2004 | url =http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39145?docPos=1 | access-date= 13 August 2012|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39145 }} {{ODNBsub}}
• {{Cite book|last=Walker|first=Ian|title=Mercia and the Making of England|publisher= Sutton|location=Stroud|year=2000|isbn= 0-7509-2131-5}}
• {{Cite encyclopedia|author-link=Ann Williams (historian)|last=Williams|first= Ann|title=Ceolwulf II, king of Mercia 874-879|year=1991|editor= Ann Williams |editor2=Alfred P. Smyth |editor3=D. P. Kirby |encyclopedia=A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain|publisher= Seaby}}
• Woolf, Alex, "Pictish Matriliny reconsidered," in The Innes Review, volume XLIX, no. 2 (Autumn 1998). ISSN 0020-157X
• Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby, 1990. {{ISBN|1-85264-027-8}}
• Zaluckij, Sarah, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England. Logaston: Logaston Press, 2001. {{ISBN|1-873827-62-8}}

• {{cite book|first=Alfred P.|last=Smyth|author-link=Alfred P. Smyth|title=King Alfred the Great|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|year=1995|isbn=0-19-822989-5}}

• {{PASE|2397|Ceolwulf 11}}
• [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=find&type=charter&page=&archive=&kingdom=Mercia&king=Ceolwulf+II+%28of+Mercia%29&sawyer=&text=&display=JUST_BLURB Charters of Ceolwulf II]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041130033614/http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/emc/emc_search_reply.php Coins of Ceolwulf II]
• Anglo-Saxon charters:
• [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+215 S 215 (AD 875)]
• [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+216 S 216 (AD 875)]
• [http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+361 S 361 (dated AD 900]

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{{s-bef|before=Burgred}}

{{s-ttl|title=King of Mercia|years=874 – c. 879}}

{{s-aft|after=Aethelred|as=Lord of the Mercians}}

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{{Kings of Mercia}}

{{Viking Invasion of England}}

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Category:9th-century deaths

Category:Anglo-Saxon warriors

Category:Mercian monarchs

Category:9th-century English monarchs

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:Year of death uncertain