Cuthred

views updated

Cuthred (d. 756), king of Wessex (c.740–56). When Cuthred succeeded, King Æthelbald of Mercia dominated the southern English kingdoms. In 743 the two kings are recorded as combining against the Welsh, whom Cuthred was fighting again some ten years later. In 750 Cuthred successfully put down the rebellion of Æthelhun, a ‘presumptuous ealdorman’, who apparently went on to fight for his king in 752, when Cuthred defeated Æthelbald at Burford, the site of which is uncertain. This victory apparently brought independence to Wessex for a while, but it seems to have reverted to Mercian dependency soon after Cuthred's death in 756.

Audrey MacDonald