Berhtwald

Who was Berhtwald?

Berhtwald was the ninth Archbishop of Canterbury in England. The medieval writer Bede claims that he served as the Abbot of Glastonbury, and documentary evidence names Berhtwald as abbot at Reculver before his election as archbishop. Berhtwald begins the first continuous series of native-born Archbishops of Canterbury, although there had been previous Anglo-Saxon archbishops, they had not succeeded each other until Berhtwald's reign.

Berhtwald's period as archbishop coincided with the end of Wilfrid's long struggle to regain the Bishopric of York, and the two-year delay between Theodore's death and Berhtwald's election may have been due to efforts to select Wilfrid for Canterbury. After his election, Berhtwald went to Gaul for consecration and then presided over two councils that attempted to settle the Wilfrid issue, finally succeeding at the second council in 705. Berhtwald also was the recipient of the first surviving letter close in Western Europe.