Cwenthryth

Cwenthryth (fl. 811-c.827) was a daughter of King Coenwulf of Mercia. In 811 she witnessed a charter of her father as filia regis (king's daughter). She was abbess of Winchcombe Minster, Reculver and Minster in Thanet, which she inherited from her father. She also inherited a dispute with Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, over control of Reculver and Minster in Thanet. Coenwulf died in 821 and in 825 Wulfred launched a lawsuit to force her to submit to him and by 827 he had gained control over the properties. She is not recorded after that year.

According to a late and unreliable source, Cwenthryth murdered her brother, Cynehelm, who was later described as Saint Kenelm in a late eleventh-century hagiography and venerated in the later Middle Ages.