Wessex - Origin

Origin

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, chieftains of a clan known as the Gewisse, who were said to have landed on the Hampshire coast and conquered the surrounding area, including the Isle of Wight. However, the specific events given by the Chronicle are in some doubt: archæological evidence points instead to a considerable early Anglo-Saxon presence in the upper valley of the river Thames, the Cotswolds area and from The Wash along the Icknield Way. The centre of gravity of Wessex in the late 6th and early 7th century seems to have lain farther to the north than in later periods, following successful expansion to the south and west. Bede stated that the Isle of Wight was settled not by Saxons but by Jutes, who also settled on the Hampshire coast, where they were known as the Meonwara, and that these areas were only acquired by Wessex in the later 7th century. It is therefore possible that the Chronicle's account is a product of the circumstances of the 8th and 9th centuries being projected back into the past to create an origin story of the ruling kinship appropriate to the contemporary form of the kingdom.

The names of some of the early West Saxon leaders appear to be British in origin, including the dynastic founder Cerdic (being a form of Ceredic or Caradoc) and Cædwalla (from Cadwallon, a Welsh name derived from the same element in the ethnonym Catuvellauni). These are interspersed with Old English names such as Ceolwulf, Cenberht and Aescwine. This variation might suggest the early rulers came from a hybrid Anglo-British dynasty or that the rule of early Wessex shifted between more than one royal clan, but this is conjecture.

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. However, these sources conflict in various ways and cannot be fully reconciled. A recent analysis by David Dumville that has produced a set of plausible dates for the West Saxon kings has been used by other scholars, but it cannot be regarded as definitive.

The Chronicle gives 495 as the date for Cerdic's arrival in Britain, "495. There came two eaorlmen to Britain, Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships, to a place called Cerdicesora, on the same day they fought the Welsh", but the historian F. M. Stenton gave evidence of doubled entries in the Chronicle, which suggests an early 6th century date for the arrival of the ancestor of the Wessex ruling kinship. The location of Cerdicesora (or "Cerdic's Shore") is generally believed to be somewhere on Southampton Water, perhaps at Calshot.

After making a beachhead and consolidating their position, the invaders next fought the Britons at the Battle of Natanleod, the location of which has been placed at Netley Marsh, "508. This year Cerdic and Cynric killed a British king named Natanleod, and five thousand men with him. After that the land was known as Natanleag up to Cerdicesford". Cerdicesford has been placed at various locations in southern Hampshire, including Chandler's Ford. The historian Albany Major places the site at Charford at the crossing of the river Avon, close to the border with Wiltshire.

The Chronicle appears to repeat itself with the annals for 514 and 519: "514. The West-Saxons came to Briton with 3 ships to a place called Cerdicesora and in the same year they fought the Britons and put them to flight", and "519. Cerdic and Cynric received the West-Saxon kingdom, and the same year they fought with the Britons, in a place now called Cerdicesford. The royal line of Wessex ruled from that day". Despite the repetition, there may have been multiple landings along the part of the coast known to the Saxons as Cerdic's Shore. It is likely that both Winchester and Silchester would have fallen to the West Saxons between the years 508 and 514, but this transition is only suggested by the absence of these important towns in the later annals of the British scribes. A later thrust by the West Saxons up the Avon towards Old Sarum in 519 appears to have been checked by the Britons at Charford. Albany Major, in Early Wars of Wessex, makes the case that the borders of Hampshire probably matched those of the first West Saxon kingdom established by Cerdic and his son. Evidence of this comes from the border between Hampshire and Berkshire, which generally follows the line of the Roman road that ran east and west through Silchester, but is deflected in the north in a rough semicircle, in such a way as to include the whole district around the town. Major argues that the capture of Silchester, of which no record has survived, was not the work of Angles but of the West Saxons, who probably struck north from Winchester, possibly acting in concert with a separate force making its way up the Thames Valley towards Reading. Silchester was desolated after its fall and it is most improbable that any regard would have been paid to its side of the border had the fixing of the county boundary been made at a later period.

A study of the borders between Hampshire and Wiltshire also seem to suggest the West Saxons' westward advance was checked by about 519. This would corroborate the date given in the Annales Cambriae for the crucial British victory at the Battle of Mons Badonicus in 517, which is believed to have stopped further Anglo-Saxon encroachments in south-west and mid- Britain for at least a generation.

It is not clear for how long Cerdic ruled, but he was succeeded by Cynric in about 554. Cynric is named as Cerdic's son by some sources but his grandson in others, which name Creoda as Cynric's father. It is presumed that Ceawlin, who succeeded Cynric in about 581, was his son. Ceawlin's reign is thought to be more reliably documented than those of his predecessors, though the Chronicle's dates of 560 to 592 are different from the revised chronology. Ceawlin overcame pockets of resisting Britons to the northeast, in the Chilterns, Gloucestershire and Somerset. The capture of Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath in 577, after the pause caused by the battle of Mons Badonicus, opened the way to the southwest.

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 repeated this claim, referring to Ceawlin as a bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler". Ceawlin was deposed, perhaps by his successor, a nephew named Ceol, and died a year later. Six years later, in about 594, Ceol was succeeded by a brother, Ceolwulf, who was succeeded in his turn in about 617 by Cynegils. The genealogies do not agree on Cynegils' pedigree: his father is variously given as Ceola, Ceolwulf, Ceol, Cuthwine, Cutha or Cuthwulf.