The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until around 927. In about 886, Alfred the Great adopted the title 'King of the Anglo-Saxons' as the ruler of all Anglo-Saxons not under Danish rule. Over the next thirty years Alfred's son, Edward the Elder and grandson Æthelstan conquered the Danish kingdoms, and when Æthelstan conquered the last surviving one, York, in 927, he adopted the title 'King of the English'.
The Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric of the Gewisse, though this is considered by some to be a legend. The two main sources for the history of Wessex are the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (the latter of which drew on and adapted an early version of the List), which sometimes conflict. Wessex became a Christian kingdom after Cenwalh (r. 642–645, 648–672) was baptised and was expanded under his rule. Cædwalla later conquered Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight. His successor, Ine (r. 689–726), issued one of the oldest surviving English law codes and established a second West Saxon bishopric. The throne subsequently passed to a series of kings with unknown genealogies.
During the 8th century, as the hegemony of Mercia grew, Wessex largely retained its independence. It was during this period that the system of shires was established. Under Egbert, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex, and Mercia, along with parts of Dumnonia, were conquered. He also obtained the overlordship of the Northumbrian king. However, Mercian independence was restored in 830. During the reign of his successor, Æthelwulf, a Danish army arrived in the Thames estuary, but was decisively defeated. When Æthelwulf's son, Æthelbald, usurped the throne, the kingdom was divided to avoid war. Æthelwulf was succeeded in turn by his four sons, the youngest being Alfred the Great.
Wessex was invaded by the Danes in 871, and Alfred was compelled to pay them to leave. They returned in 876, but were forced to withdraw. In 878, they forced Alfred to flee to the Somerset Levels, but were eventually defeated at the Battle of Edington. During his reign Alfred issued a new law code, gathered scholars to his court and was able to devote funds to building ships, organising an army and establishing a system of burhs. Alfred's son, Edward, captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of his sister, Æthelflæd. Edward's son, Æthelstan, conquered Northumbria in 927, and England became a unified kingdom for the first time. Cnut the Great, who conquered England in 1016, created the wealthy and powerful earldom of Wessex, but in 1066 Harold Godwinson reunited the earldom with the crown and Wessex ceased to exist.
History
Prehistoric Britain
From the Neolithic onwards the chalk downland of the area that would become Wessex was traversed by the Harrow Way, which can still be traced from Marazion in Cornwall to the coast of the English Channel near Dover, and was probably connected with the ancient tin trade. In the Late Neolithic, the ceremonial sites of Avebury and Stonehenge were completed on Salisbury Plain, but the final phase of Stonehenge was erected by the so-called "Wessex culture" of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600–1200 BC). The area has many other earthworks and erected stone monuments from the Neolithic and Early Bronze periods, including the Dorset Cursus, an earthwork 10 km (6 mi) long and 100 m (110 yd) wide, which was oriented to the midwinter sunset. Although agriculture and hunting were pursued during this long period, there is little archaeological evidence of human settlements. By the Iron Age, Celtic British tribes such as the Durotriges, Atrebates, Belgae and Dobunni occupied the future Wessex.
Roman Britain
Following the Roman conquest of Britain, from the 1st century AD, numerous country Roman villas with attached farms were established across Wessex, along with the important towns of Dorchester and Winchester (the ending -chester comes from Latin castra, "a military camp"). The Romans, or rather the Romano-British, built another major road that integrated Wessex, running eastwards from Exeter through Dorchester to Winchester and Silchester and on to London.
In the mid-4th century there were increasing raids on Roman Britain by peoples such as the Picts, Scottish people, Attacotti, and Franks, as well as the Saxons. In 367, these tribes simultaneously invaded Britain from the north, west and east. The invaders reportedly defeated or co-opted Roman forces in most parts of northern and western Britain. However, the Roman general Theodosius had recaptured most areas by the end of 368. In 380–1, Magnus Maximus defeated further raids. However, there was increasing internal conflict across the Roman Empire. During 383–4, in the context of the overthrow of Emperor Gratian, Maximus took most of the garrison from Britain to Gaul, where he was made Augustus of the West, ruling Britain, Gaul, Spain and Roman Africa. Following the death of Maximus in 388, Roman authority in Britain again declined. During the late 390s, Stilicho attempted to restore control, with a campaign against the Picti, but this was undermined in 401 when Stilicho transferred troops to the Continent to fight the Goths. Two subsequent Roman rulers of Britain were murdered. In 407, a Roman officer in Britain, Constantine III declared himself Augustus of the West, and left for Gaul, taking with him Roman troops. Finally, in 410, when Romano-British officials requested military assistance from Emperor Honorius, he told them to manage their own defences. Economic decline occurred after these events: circulation of Roman coins ended and the importation of items from the Roman Empire stopped.
Anglo-Saxon settlement
Theories about the settlement of Saxons, Jutes and Angles in Britain are divided into two categories by the historian Peter Hunter Blair (1956), namely "Welsh" and "English".
The Welsh tradition
The Welsh tradition is exemplified by Gildas, in De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. In brief, it states that after the Romans left, the Celtic Britons managed to continue for a time without any major disruptions. However, when finally faced with northern invaders, a certain unnamed ruler in Britain (called "a proud tyrant" by Gildas) requested assistance from the Saxons in exchange for land.
There were no conflicts between the British and the Saxons for a time, but following "a dispute about the supply of provisions" the Saxons warred against the British and severely damaged parts of the country. In time, however, some Saxon troops left Britain; under Ambrosius Aurelianus, the British subsequently defeated those who remained.
A lengthy conflict ensued, in which neither side gained any decisive advantage until the Britons routed the Saxons at the Battle of Mons Badonicus. After this, there occurred a peaceful period for the Britons, under which Gildas was living at the time he wrote the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae.
The English tradition
One of the "English" traditions about the Saxon arrival concerns Hengest and Horsa. When Bede wrote his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, he adapted Gildas' narrative and added details, such as the names of those involved. To the "proud tyrant" he gave the name Vortigern, and the Saxon commanders he named Hengest and Horsa.
Further details were added to the story in the Historia Brittonum, which was partially written by Nennius. According to the Historia, Hengest and Horsa fought the invaders of Britain under the condition of gaining the Island of Thanet. The daughter of Hengest, Rowena, later arrived on a ship of reinforcements, and Vortigern married her.
However, a war arose in Kent due to a dispute between Hengest and Vortigern's son. After losing several battles, the Saxons finally defeated the British by treacherously attacking them once the two parties had convened for a meeting. Some additional details of the Hengest and Horsa legend are found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Chronicle then records subsequent Saxon arrivals, including that of Cerdic, the founder of Wessex, in 495.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic of Wessex and his son Cynric of Wessex landed in southern Hampshire in 495, but this account is not regarded by historians as reliable due to duplication of Chronicle entries and evidence that the area was first occupied by Jutes. Although the entry mentions Cynric as Cerdic's son, a different source lists him as the son of Cerdic's son, Creoda of Wessex.
The Chronicle continues, stating that "Port, and his two sons Bieda and Mægla", landed at Portsmouth in 501 and killed a high-ranking British nobleman. In 508, Cerdic and Cynric slew British king Natanleod along with five thousand of his men (though the historicity of Natanleod has been disputed), and Cerdic became the first king of Wessex in 519.
The Saxons attacked Cerdicesford in 519, intending to cross the River Avon and block a road which connected Old Sarum and Badbury Rings, a British stronghold. The battle appears to have ended as a draw, and the expansion of Wessex ended for about thirty years. This is likely due to losses suffered during the battle and an apparent peace agreement with the Britons.
The battle of Mons Badonicus is believed to have been fought around this time. Gildas states that the Saxons were completely defeated in the battle, in which King Arthur participated according to Nennius. This defeat is not recorded in the Chronicle. The thirty-year period of peace was temporarily interrupted when, according to the Chronicle, the Saxons conquered the Isle of Wight in 530 at a battle near Carisbrooke.
Cynric became the ruler of Wessex after Cerdic died in 534, and reigned for twenty-six years. The sources do agree that Ceawlin, who succeeded Cynric in about 581, is the son of Cynric; he usually is named as the father of Cuthwine. 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 nephew, 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 of Wessex. The genealogies do not agree on Cynegils' pedigree: his father is variously given as Ceola, Ceolwulf, Ceol, Cuthwine, Cutha or Cuthwulf.
The tradition embodied in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and in the genealogies of the West Saxon dynasty, is open to considerable doubt. This is largely because the founder of the dynasty and a number of his alleged descendants had Brittonic Celtic, rather than Anglo-Saxon Germanic, names. The name Cerdic is derived from the British name Caraticos. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became anglicised over time. Other members of the dynasty possessing Celtic names include Ceawlin and Cædwalla. Cædwalla, who died as late as 689, was the last West Saxon king to possess a Celtic name.
Christianisation of Wessex
Cynegils' reign saw the first event in West Saxon history that can be dated with reasonable certainty: the baptism of Cynegils by Birinus, at the end of the 630s, perhaps in 640. Birinus was then established as bishop of the West Saxons, with his seat at Dorchester-on-Thames. This was the first conversion to Christianity by a West Saxon king, but it was not accompanied by the immediate conversion of all the West Saxons: Cynegils' successor (and probably his son), Cenwealh, who came to the throne in about 642, was a pagan at his accession. However, he too was baptised only a few years later and Wessex became firmly established as a Christian kingdom. Cynegils' godfather was King Oswald of Northumbria, and his conversion may have been connected with an alliance against King Penda of Mercia, who had previously attacked Wessex.
These attacks marked the beginning of sustained pressure from the expanding kingdom of Mercia. In time this would deprive Wessex of its territories north of the Thames and the (Bristol) Avon, encouraging the kingdom's reorientation southwards. Cenwealh married Penda's daughter, and when he repudiated her, Penda again 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 return, Cenwealh faced further attacks from Penda's successor Wulfhere, but was able to expand West Saxon territory in Somerset at the expense of the Britons. He established a second bishopric at Winchester, while the one at Dorchester was soon abandoned as Mercian power pushed southwards.
After Cenwealh's death in 673, his widow, Seaxburh, held the throne for a year; she was followed by Æscwine, who was apparently descended from another brother of Ceawlin. This was one of several occasions when the kingship of Wessex is said to have passed to a remote branch of the royal family with an unbroken male line of descent from Cerdic; these claims may be genuine, or may reflect the spurious assertion of descent from Cerdic to legitimise a new dynasty. Æscwine's reign only lasted two years, and in 676 the throne passed back to the immediate family of Cenwealh with the accession of his brother Centwine of Wessex. Centwine is known to have fought and won battles against the Britons, but the details have not survived.