Right-Believing
Frithuwold of Chertsey
Sub-king of Surrey and founder of Chertsey Abbey, in the 7th century.
- Era
- 7th century
- Place
- Chertsey
Life
Saint Frithuwold of Chertsey (Frithuwald, Fredeswald), the Right-Believing, was a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon ruler in Surrey, and perhaps also in parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, known from two surviving charters. The monks of Saint Peter's Minster at Chertsey revered him as a saint and considered him the founder of their monastery. The consensus view makes him a Mercian or Middle Anglian appointed by King Wulfhere to rule over Surrey.
Two charters issued by him to Eorcenwald, abbot of Chertsey and later Bishop of London, survive: the first, dated between 672 and 674, grants 200 hides of land at Chertsey, 5 at Thorpe and 10 in London; the second, dated after 675 and before 693, grants several estates in Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. The princeps Frithuric who was active in the reign of King Æthelred is presumed a kinsman, perhaps a son. Several forged charters, attributed to Wulfhere, Offa and Edgar, claim to reconfirm his grants. He is a saint of the undivided Church, venerated at Chertsey.