Cynegils | Anglo-Saxon Ruler, West Saxon King, Mercian War | Britannica (original) (raw)

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Cynegils (died 643) was the king of the West Saxons, or Wessex, in England and the first to be converted to Christianity.

With his son Cwichelm (d. 636), Cynegils defeated the advancing Britons at Bampton in Oxfordshire in 614, and Cwichelm sought to arrest the growing power of the Northumbrian king Eadwine by procuring his assassination. The attempt, however, failed, and in 626 the West Saxons were defeated in battle and forced to own Eadwine’s supremacy.

Cynegils’ next struggle was with Penda of Mercia at Cirencester in 628. There again he was defeated in battle, and he was quite probably compelled to surrender a portion of his kingdom to Mercia. Cynegils was converted to Christianity and was baptized in 635 at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, where he founded a bishopric. He was succeeded as king by his son Cenwalh.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.