The title Earl of Wessex has been created twice in British history, once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The region of Wessex (the "West Saxons'), in the south and southwest of England, had been one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (the Heptarchy), whose expansion in the tenth century created a united Kingdom of England.
Read more about Earl Of Wessex: First Creation, Second Creation (current)
Famous quotes containing the words earl of and/or earl:
“Great Negative, how vainly would the Wise
Enquire, define, distinguish, teach, devise,
Didst thou not stand to point their dull Philosophies?
Is, or is not, the two great Ends of Fate,
And, true or false, the Subject of Debate,
That perfect, or destroy, the vast Designs of Fate,”
—John Wilmot, 2d Earl Of Rochester (1909–1969)
“Here lies our Sovereign Lord, the King
Whose word no man relies on:
He never said a foolish thing
Nor ever did a wise one.”
—John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Of Rochester (1647–1680)