Ceadwalla (Caedwalla), King of Wessex

CEADWALLA (Caedwalla), King of Wessex. - A warrior of British race, chief of the Britons of Wales, whose life represents one of the moments in the struggle between the ancient possessors of British soil and the Anglo-Saxon usurpers who organized themselves into the heptarchy. He sought to reconquer the domains that his great-grandfather had lost in 519 following the Anglo-Saxon invasion. He began by occupying the neighboring kingdom of Essex, whose king he killed; his valor brought it about that upon the death of the king of Wessex, Centwine, he was recognized as sovereign of this region as well (686). A friend of St. Wilfrid, although still a pagan, he benefited the churches and monasteries of the country, until, following a vow, he renounced the kingdom and came to Rome to venerate the Chair of St. Peter. Having received Baptism on the night of Easter in 688, he died a few days later still wearing the white garment of the neophyte, and was buried in the portico of the old basilica of St. Peter, as St. Bede attests, who read the epitaph dictated by Pope Sergius I. Its text is found in G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones chr. urbis Romae, II, 1, Rome 1888, pp. 288-89.