Bretwalda

Bretwalda is an Old English term, of contested etymology, applied to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards. It appears to denote a degree of 'overlordship' over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms although the extent of this power, and its 'official' nature, is contested.

Etymology

The second element of the name is taken to mean 'ruler' or 'sovereign'. The first, however, is more controversial, and two possibilities have been proposed:

The Old English adjective brytten ('broad', from the verb breotan meaning 'to break' or 'to disperse'), an element also found in the terms bryten rice ('kingdom'), bryten-grund ('the wide expanse of the earth') and bryten cyning ('king whose authority was widely extended').

An allusion to Britain (ruler of Britain).

Bede

Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, is the first surviving text to allude to the notion of overlordship among the Anglo-Saxon kings. His account of the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, in the year 616, notes:

He [Æthelberht] was the third English king to rule over all the southern kingdoms, which are divided from the north by the river Humber and the surrounding territory; but he was the first to enter the kingdom of heaven. The first king to hold the like sovereignty was Ælle, king of the South Saxons; the second was Cælin, king of the West Saxons, known in their own language as Ceawlin; the third, as we have said, was Æthelberht, king of Kent; the fourth was Rædwald, king of the East Angles, who even during the lifetime of Æthelberht was gaining the leadership for his own race; the fifth was Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, the nation inhabiting the district north of the Humber. Edwin had still greater power and ruled over all the inhabitants of Britain, English and Britons alike, except for Kent only. He even brought under English rule the Mevanian Islands (Anglesey and Man) which lie between England and Ireland and belong to the Britons.