Wulfred
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Wulfred was Archbishop of Canterbury from 805 to 832.
Wulfred is believed to have come from Middlesex and was a member of a wealthy and important family with considerable landholdings in Middlesex and neighbouring regions. He was archdeacon of the community at Christ Church, Canterbury before the death of his predecessor Æthelhard. Under Wulfred's long archiepiscopacy considerable changes and reforms took place at Christ Church, which can be traced in the plentiful documentation that survives from this time. Wulfred used his very considerable personal wealth to fund the construction of new buildings, and reformed the community, possibly along the lines of Chrodegang's Regula canonicorum or perhaps on the rule of Benedict. The Christ Church scriptorium was also particularly active under Wulfred. In addition, Wulfred was the first archbishop to place his portrait on the pennies struck in his name which, unlike those of previous archbishops, never made reference to the ruling Mercian king.
One of the most important features of Wulfred's time as archbishop was the debate with Cenwulf, king of the Mercians, over lay control of monasteries. Such lordship had been customary for centuries, though in the half-century or so before Wulfred became archbishop the church had begun to assert episcopal control over monasteries. In England, this resistance was manifested in decrees made by synods at Clofesho in 803 and more especially at Chelsea in 816. Tensions over the Kentish houses of Reculver and Minster-in-Thanet reached such a point that Wulfred was deprived of authority by the king for a period of some years; six according to the document drawn up in 825 recording the - then victorious - Canterbury view of the debate, though four is perhaps more likely. Wulfred and the Canterbury community fought Cenwulf vigorously, sending embassies to the Pope and concocting forgeries in their favour which purported to have been issued by earlier kings. But around 820 Cenwulf forced Wulfred into an unfavourable settlement by which Wulfred gained control over the debated monasteries in exchange for a large payment of gold and the loss of a very large estate to the king. Neither were Cenwulf and his followers quick to cede control of Minster and Reculver to the archbishop. After the death of Cenwulf's successor Ceolwulf in 823 Wulfred's situation improved. The new Mercian king, Beornwulf presided over another council at Clofesho in 825 where the conflict was finally settled in Wulfred's favour and an account of the whole conflict up to that point was written down. Cenwulf's daughter Cwoenthryth, abbess of Winchcombe and Minster, paid compensation to Wulfred and lost control over the houses in Kent. Later in 825 (or possibly the following year), however, Kent was lost to Mercia after Egbert of Wessex defeated Beornwulf at Ellendun. Relations between Wulfred and the new West Saxon rulers were cold, and coinage in Wulfred's name appears to have ceased for a time, though it had been restored before Wulfred's death in 832. Final settlement of the debate over lordship of monasteries came in 838 at Kingston, shortly before Egbert's death.
Despite his relative obscurity, Wulfred was arguably one of the greatest archbishops of Canterbury, presiding with strength over a potentially dangerous period and defending ecclesiastical rights in the face of considerable opposition.
