The Mercian king Coenwulf invaded Kent and defeated the Kentish king Eadberht Praen at Otford. Eadberht, who had been a clerk before seizing the kingship, was blinded and mutilated — the standard Carolingian way of removing a rival from power permanently. Coenwulf installed his own brother Cuthred as king of Kent. This effectively ended Kentish independence. The battle at Otford is one of the few early medieval battles in the southeast with reasonable documentary evidence.
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