Cwenthryth


Cwenthryth was a daughter of King Coenwul of Mercia. In 811 she witnessed a charter of her father as filia regis. She was abbess of Winchcombe Minster, Reculver and Minster in [Thanet Priory|Minster in Thanet], which she inherited from her father. She also inherited a dispute with Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, over control of Reculver and Minster in Thanet. Coenwulf died in 821 and in 825 Wulfred launched a lawsuit to force her to submit to him and by 827 he had gained control over the properties. She is not recorded after that year.
According to a late and unreliable source, Cwenthryth murdered her brother, Cynehelm, who was later described as Saint Kenelm in a late eleventh-century hagiography and venerated in the later Middle Ages.