Cenred of Wessex

Who is Cenred of Wessex?

Cenred of Wessex was a member of the House of Wessex and a member of the direct male line from Cynric to Egbert. It is possible that Cenred ruled alongside his son Ine for a period. There is weak evidence for joint kingships, and stronger evidence of subkings reigning under a dominant ruler in Wessex, not long before his time. Ine acknowledges his father's help in his code of laws, and there is also a surviving land-grant that indicates Cenred was still reigning in Wessex after Ine's accession.

His father was Ceolwald of Wessex. Cenred had at least two other children: Ingild, the great-grandfather of Ealhmund of Kent, and the great-great grandfather of Egbert; and Cuthburh, who married Aldfrith of Northumbria, and became abbess of Wimborne. There may also have been another daughter who was married to Aethelfrith of Wessex, but this claim may have been substantiated to further Æthelheard of Wessex's claim to the throne.