Arwald
Jutish king
Arwald (died 686) was the last pagan Anglo-Saxon king and the last king of the Wihtwara, a people that inhabited the Isle of Wight. He was killed by Cædwalla of Wessex during an invasion of his kingdom, at which point the island was Christianised. During the invasion, his two brothers were baptised before also being killed and are now venerated as saints.
Invasion of Wihtwara
According to Anglo-Saxon Chronicle A, Wihtwara was invaded by Cædwalla of Wessex in 686 during the rule of Arwald. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People states that at the time of this the island's whole population was heathen and the invader sought to slaughter every inhabitant of Wihtwara without mercy and to populate the island afresh with West Saxons. He also promised that if he was successful in conquering the island, he would give a fourth of it to the Church.
Arwald was killed during the West Saxon invasion, and his two younger brothers fled to mainland Britain where they were betrayed by those there and captured by Cædwalla's forces. It is unclear how old the brothers were at this time but the use of puer to describe them suggests an age around 7–14. Cædwalla, who had been wounded during the fighting, ordered them to be executed but Cynibert, a bishop from Hreutford, convinced him to have the boys baptised first. Bede records that these were the first from the island were "saved".
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2511840. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arwald” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.