What is Cædwalla?
{{Infobox royalty | type = monarch | name=Cædwalla | title=King of Wessex | image=Caedwalla_in_Barnard_Chichester_mural.png | caption=From a Lambert Barnard mural at Chichester Cathedral. | succession= King of Wessex | reign=685–688 | predecessor=[[Centwine of Wessex|Centwine]] | successor=[[Ine of Wessex|Ine]] | house= House of Gewissae | spouse=Cynethryth | birth_date= {{circa|659}} | death_date={{Death date and age|689|4|20|659|1|1|df=y}} <br/> Rome | father= Centberht }} '''Cædwalla''' (c. 659–689) was the [[List of monarchs of Wessex|King of Wessex]] from {{circa|685}} until his [[abdication]] in 688. His name comes from the British name [[Cadwallon]]. He was a powerful king and war leader. It was through his efforts that [[Wessex]] rose to become the third kingdom, after [[Northumbria]] and [[Mercia]], in what would become the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the [[w:heptarchy|heptarchy]]. Cædwalla was a [[pagan]] king who fought for and promoted [[Christianity]]. == Early career == Cædwalla{{efn|His name is a form of the British name ''Cadwallon''. This indicates Britons in his family tree even though he was a [[Wessex|West Saxon]] [[:en:wikt:atheling|atheling]] (prince).<ref name=Stenton69>Frank Stenton, ''Anglo Saxon-England'' (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 69</ref>}} was born {{circa|659}}.<ref>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', trans. Leo Sherley-Price, Revd. R. E. Latham (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), p. 276</ref> He the son of Cenberht (Coenbryht) and the brother of Mul.<ref name=Thorpe34>''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: According to Several Original Authorities'', ed. & trans. Benjamin Thorpe, Vol II (London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1861), p. 34</ref> They were of the royal house of the [[Gewissae]].<ref name=Frassetto137>Michael Frassetto, ''The Early Medieval World: from the fall of Rome to the time of Charlemagne'' (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), p. 137</ref> Cædwalla was a descendant of [[Cerdic of Wessex|Cerdic]].<ref name=Thorpe34/> H