page_title: Bretwalda
section_title: Listed by Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
hierarchical_section_title: Bretwalda / Bretwaldas / Listed by Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
caption_attribution_description: Edwin of Northumbria
context_page_description: Bretwalda is an Old English word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is unclear whether the word dates back to the 5th century and was used by the kings themselves or whether it is a later, 9th-century, invention. The term bretwalda also appears in a 10th-century charter of Æthelstan. The literal meaning of the word is disputed and may translate to either 'wide-ruler' or 'Britain-ruler'.
  The rulers of Mercia were generally the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kings from the mid 7th century to the early 9th century but are not accorded the title of bretwalda by the Chronicle, which had an anti-Mercian bias. The Annals of Wales continued to recognise the kings of Northumbria as "Kings of the Saxons" until the death of Osred I of Northumbria in 716.
context_section_description: Ælle of Sussex (488–c. 514)
  Ceawlin of Wessex (560–592, died 593)
  Æthelberht of Kent (590–616)
  Rædwald of East Anglia (c. 600–around 624)
  Edwin of Deira (616–633)
  Oswald of Northumbria (633–642)
  Oswiu of Northumbria (642–670)
caption: An imaginary depiction of Edwin of Northumbria, from John Speed's Saxon Heptarchy (1611)
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