CEADWALLA (CAEDWALLA), RE DEL WESSEX

CEADWALLA (CAEDWALLA), king of the WESSEX. — A British warrior, leader of the Britons of Wales, whose life represents one of the moments in the struggle between the ancient possessors of the British soil and the Anglo-Saxon usurpers who organized the eparchy. 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 led to his being recognized as sovereign of this region upon the death of the king of Wessex, Centwine (686). A friend of St. Wilfrid, though still a pagan, he nonetheless benefited churches and monasteries in the land, until, in fulfillment of 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 attested by St. Bede, who read the inscription composed by Pope Sergius I. The text may be found in G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romae, II, I, Rome 1888, pp. 288-89.