Discover

(Redirected from Kingdom of Wessex)


'Wessex' was one of the seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (the Heptarchy) that preceded the Kingdom of England. It was named after the West Saxons and was situated in the south and southwest of England. It existed as a kingdom from the 6th century until the emergence of the English state in the 9th century, and as an earldom between 1016 and 1066. "Wessex" has not had any official existence since that time, but it has remained a familiar term since Thomas Hardy revived it for his West Country novels and poetry. The earldom was revived in 1999 for His Royal Highness The Prince Edward. Today some wish to see Wessex restored as a region of England.

Contents

History

Revival

The present South West England region

Modern uses

Earl of Wessex

See also

References

External links

History

According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (ASC), Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, chieftains of a clan known as "''Gewisse''", although the specific events given by the ASC are considered to be suspect. Archæological evidence points to an origin in the upper Thames and Cotswolds area, and the ASC origin myth may have been political propaganda designed to justify a later invasion of the Jutish province in southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The two main sources for the names and dates of the kings of Wessex are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and an associated document known as the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List. The Chronicle gives small genealogies in multiple places, under the annals for different years. These sources, however, conflict in various ways, and cannot be fully reconciled. A recent analysis by David Dumville has produced a set of plausible dates for the West Saxon kings; these have been used by other scholars but cannot be regarded as definitive. Dumville's dates are used in the historical outline below, with reference to the original sources to highlight some of the conflicts.
The Chronicle gives 495 as the date for Cerdic's arrival in Britain, but this date has been revised to about 538. The later genealogies were written with the intent of connecting all lineages to Cerdic, and this has introduced additional inconsistencies which cannot all be resolved. Cerdic appears to have reigned for about sixteen years, and the throne passed to Cynric in about 554. Cynric is Cerdic's son according to some sources and Cerdic's grandson in others, which name Creoda, son of Cynric, as Cynric's father. Cynric was in turn succeeded by Ceawlin, who was probably his son, in about 581.
Ceawlin's reign is thought to be more reliably documented than those of the earlier kings, though the Chronicle's dates of 560 to 592 are substantially different from the revised chronology. He was militarily active along the upper Thames valley during a time when, it is thought, the Anglo-Saxon expansion had begun again, after a long pause caused by the battle of Mons Badonicus. Ceawlin is one of the seven kings named in Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" as holding "imperium" over the southern English; the Chronicle later repeats this claim and refers to Ceawlin as a "bretwalda", or "Britain-ruler".
Ceawlin was deposed, perhaps by his successor Ceol, and died the following year. Ceol was the son of Ceawlin's brother, Cutha. Six years later, in about 594, Ceol was succeeded by Ceolwulf, his own brother; and Ceolwulf was succeeded in his turn in about 617 by Cynegils. The genealogies are remarkably inconsistent on Cynegils' pedigree: his father is variously given as Ceola, Ceolwulf, Ceol, Cuthwine, Cutha, and Cuthwulf.
It is in Cynegils reign that the first event in Wessex history that can be dated with reasonable certainty occurs: the baptism of Cynegils by Birinus, which happened at the end of the 630s, perhaps in640. This was the first conversion to Christianity by a West Saxon king, but it did not mark a full conversion of the West Saxons: Cynegils' successor (and probably his son), Cenwealh, who came to the throne in about 642, was a pagan at his accession.
Cenwealh married a daughter of Penda of Mercia, and when he repudiated her, Penda invaded and drove him into exile for some time, perhaps three years. The dates are uncertain but it was probably in the late 640s or early 650s. He spent his exile in East Anglia, and was converted to Christianity there.
After his death in 673, his widow, Seaxburh, held the throne for a year; she was followed by Aescwine, who was apparently descended from another brother of Ceawlin. Aescwine's reign only lasted two years, and in 676 Centwine became king of the West Saxons. Centwine, a brother of Cenwealh, is known to have fought and won battles against the British, but the details have not survived.
After Centwine the throne passed to Caedwalla, son of Coenberht, son of Cedda, son of Cuthwine, son of Ceawlin, and therefore another descendant of Cynric in the male line. Caedwalla reigned for just two years, then Ine became king. He was a member of the royal blood through his great-grandfather Cutha Cathwulf, a brother of Cedda.
Ine was one of the most powerful of the West Saxon kings and certainly the longest-reigning; he reigned for 38 years. He had no heir and after his death the throne passed to a number of other kings whose descent from Cynric is uncertain or disputed. The kingship of Wessex returned to the house of Cerdic in 802 with the ascension of Egbert, a great-grandson of Ine's brother Ingild of Wessex.
Wessex expanded its boundaries and clashed with its neighbours, notably British Dumnonia (essentially modern day Devon and Cornwall), which it eventually came to dominate, and with Mercia. After Egbert defeated Mercia in 825 and the Northumbrians accepted his overlordship in 829, Egbert became the Bretwalda, or lord of Britain. He was never referred to as King of England.
The integrated system of fortified towns (the "''burhs"'') established under Alfred the Great, described in both Asser and the ''ASC'', and documented in a unique ''hidage'',^[1] helped to prevent the conquest of southern England by the Danish invaders in the 870s. The ''hidage'' identifies thirty-three forts, which ensured that no one in Wessex was more than a long day's ride from a place of safety.
Important West Saxon settlements included old Roman settlements such as Dorchester, Wilton and Winchester, which Alfred made the capital in 871, and newly-founded ''burhs'' such as Wallingford. Wilton had previously made a claim to be the capital of Wessex but it has since been discovered that it was in fact the capital of one of the districts.
There is some evidence that kingship in Wessex was not rigidly hereditary. The strongest candidate from the pool of the senior families was elected or forced his control on the lesser kings. The internal feuding produced by this may have delayed the rise of Wessex as a full kingdom, but this is conjecture.
After the Mercian conquest of its original territories in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the northern boundary of Wessex was probably the River Thames; Southwark, facing London from the south bank of the Thames, was included among the ''burhs'', but London fell beyond West Saxon territory. Its heartland was the present-day counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Berkshire.
Wessex is often symbolized by a Wyvern. Both Henry of Huntingdon and Matthew of Westminster talk of a Golden Dragon being raised at the Battle of Burford in 752AD by the West Saxons. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts a fallen golden dragon, as well as a red/golden/white dragon at the death of King Harold II, who was previously Earl of Wessex. Dorset County Council use the Golden Wyvern in their seal in recognition of the counties historic past. The Wessex Society have produced a flag which features an heraldric golden wyvern on a red background.

Revival

The English author Thomas Hardy used a fictionalised south-west as a setting for many of his novels, reviving the term ''Wessex'' for southwest England. His Wessex included all the counties mentioned in the previous paragraph apart from Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, along with Devon. He gave the counties the following fictionalised names: Berkshire = North Wessex; Devon = Lower Wessex; Dorset = South Wessex; Hampshire = Upper Wessex; Somerset = Outer Wessex; Wiltshire = Mid-Wessex. Neighbouring Cornwall was described as Off-Wessex or Lyonesse. See ''Thomas Hardy's Wessex''.
There is a movement in modern day south-central England to create a regional cultural and political identity in Wessex. This consists of three distinct but interlinked organisations. The Wessex Regionalist Party is a registered political party which contests elections. The Wessex Constitutional Convention is an all-party pressure group in which those sympathetic to Wessex devolution who are not members of the Wessex Regionalist Party can also be represented. The Wessex Society is a cultural society which promotes a cultural identity for Wessex while remaining neutral on questions of political devolution.
The boundaries of Wessex were unclear and subject to dispute. The Wessex Constitutional Convention and Wessex Society add Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire to Hardy's list; and the Wessex Regionalists, who currently use Hardy's definition of Wessex, are likely to follow suit in the near future.
This definition of Wessex has been criticised from a number of quarters. A number of people within Devon, southern Somerset and parts of Dorset see those areas as sharing a Dumnonian Celtic identity with Cornwall, whereas some regard Hardy's definition as correct on the grounds that the counties north of the Thames, along with Berkshire and north-east Somerset, were part of Mercia for most of the Anglo-Saxon period. There are also a few in Hampshire who argue that southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were once a Jutish province in their own right and deserve to be treated differently to the rest of Wessex.
The Wessex regionalist movements justify their eight-shire definition of Wessex in terms both of history and of modern regional geography and point to the impossibility of pleasing everyone as an argument against change at the present time, though they do not rule out the possibility of change in the future if the popular will demands it.

The present South West England region

The government office region of South West England covers a different area, consisting of Hardy's Wessex, less Berkshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, but including Cornwall and Gloucestershire. Wessex groups are currently campaigning for boundary revisions to the regions in order to more closely match their definitions of Wessex.

Modern uses

★ Wessex Institute of Technology

★ Wessex Stadium, home to Weymouth F.C.

★ 43rd (Wessex) Brigade - British Army's regional command for the South West region

★ Royal Wessex Yeomanry - British Army territorial unit

★ Wessex Archaeology - An educational charity and the largest UK archaeological practice [1]

★ Wessex culture - an archæological label used ally to describe a Bronze Age culture whose remains are found in the Wessex area

★ Wessex League - football league covering Hampshire and parts of the surrounding counties

★ Wessex Sound Studios - a renowned former recording studio

★ Wessex Trains - train operating company that used to operate in much of the South West region

★ Wessex Water - water supply and sewage company that covers much of the South West region

★ Wessex Cyclists Touring Club - cycling and events across the region [2]

★ Southampton University sports teams have adopted 'Wessex' as a group identity [3]

Earl of Wessex

Main articles: Earl of Wessex

In an unusual move, Prince Edward was made Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn in honour of his marriage to Sophie, The Countess of Wessex. The title Earl of Wessex had not been in use for over 900 years. The last earl, King Harold Godwinson, was famously killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

See also

★ Monarchs of Wessex

References

1. The Burghal Hidage: Alfred's Towns, Alfred the Great website

External links

★

★ The Burghal Hidage

★ Thomas Hardy's Wessex Research site by Dr Birgit Plietzsch

★ The History Files: Kings of the West Saxons