The main sources for Wulfred's life are the surviving charters which mention him, a number of documents from his suffragan bishops pledging obedience, the records of a church council he presided over, and the coinage he issued.

[1] By 813, Wulfred was already claiming in a document that he had "revived the holy monastery of the church of Canterbury by renewing, restoring and rebuilding it".

[6] His efforts including requiring the clergy to eat together, to give over their personal property to the chapter, and ensuring that the canonical hours were kept as part of the liturgy.

[1] Although it is clear that a communal style of living was practised, whether the cathedral clergy were transformed into canons or if they remained monks is unclear.

In 808 the papacy informed Charlemagne that Coenwulf had not yet made peace with the archbishop,[7] but by 809 they seem to have been on good terms; the two were involved in a series of land transfers from 809 to 815.

Although the exact nature of his business with the pope is unknown, it was likely connected with the issue that arose between the archbishop and Coenwulf over lay control of monasteries.

Tensions over the Kentish monastic houses of Reculver and Minster-in-Thanet reached such a point that Wulfred was deprived of authority by the king for a period of some years; six according to the document drawn up in 825 recording the – then victorious – Canterbury view of the debate, though four is perhaps more likely.

[3] However, the dispute was still active in the last years of Coenwulf's reign, as at a council held perhaps in 821, the king threatened the archbishop with exile unless he yielded.

[9] Wulfred and the Canterbury community fought Coenwulf vigorously, sending embassies to the pope and concocting forgeries in their favour which purported to have been issued by earlier kings.

Coenwulf's daughter Cwenthryth, abbess of Winchcombe and Minster, paid compensation to Wulfred and lost control over the houses in Kent.

[6][10] Although the handwriting of the documents produced during Wulfred's archiepiscopate is quite elegant, the actual contents of the charters is marked by bad grammar and other errors.