By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years earlier.

[3] The main source for this period is Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), completed in about 731.

Bede had informants who supplied him with details of the church's history in Wessex and Kent, but he appears to have had no such contact in Mercia.

[4] Charters of Ceolred's, recording royal grants of land to individuals and to religious houses, also survive,[5][6][7] as does the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, compiled in Wessex at the end of the 9th century, but incorporating earlier material.

[11] Historians have generally accepted Bede's report of Coenred's abdication, but Barbara Yorke has suggested that he may not have relinquished his throne voluntarily.