Cerdic of Wessex
| Cerdic | |
|---|---|
| King of Wessex | |
| King Of Wessex | |
| Reign | 519–534 |
| Coronation | c. 519 |
| Predecessor | Honorius (Roman Emperor) |
| Successor | Cynric |
| Born | c. 475 |
| Died | 4 May 534 (aged 59) |
| Issue | Cynric |
| House | Wessex |
Cerdic (475-4 May 534) was the first Anglo Saxon King of the Gewisse,[a] also called the king of Wessex. He was the ancestor of the kings of Wessex and the Anglo-Saxon kings of England beginning with Athelstan.
War leader and king
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,[b] Cerdic, along with his son Cynric, came to Britain in 495.[4] Their three ships landed at Cerdic's ora fought the Britons there on the same day.[4] Most of what is known about Cerdic comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[5] In 519, Cerdic and his son defeated Britons at Cerdic's ford and took Wessex.[6] In 527 at a place called Cerdic's leaga, Cerdic and Cynric battled the Britons again. In 530, they conquered the Isle of Wight.[6] In 534, Cerdic died[7] and was succeeded by his son Cynric.[8]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gave Cerdic a pedigree going back to the Saxon god Woden. However, the historian Kenneth Sisam showed that the legendary pedigree was borrowed from the kings of Bernicia and was not historic.[9]
On the other hand, archaeological evidence shows that outside Kent and Sussex, the main area of settlement was in the upper Thames Valley.[10] That agrees with much of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle although the dates are harder to verify.
It should be noted that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is not a reliable document for the period contemporary to Cerdic's supposed reign. It should also be noted that Cerdic is a British name, not an Anglo-Saxon one. It is also unlikely that Wessex was the name of his proposed kingdom. Ultimately, Cerdic should be considered as mythology.
Family
Cerdic had one son:
- Cynric (died 560)[11]
Notes
- ↑ Bede thought of the Gewisse and the West Saxons as being the same people. That identification has been generally accepted by historians. However, the Gewisse were not the only dynastic lineage in Wessex.[1] When he wrote of the West Saxons during the reign of Cynegils, however, he referred to them as "anciently known as the Gewissae".[2]
- ↑ This was a collection of annals written at different times that were gathered together into one chronicle during the time of Alfred the Great (849–899).[3]
References
- ↑ D. P. Kirby, The Earliest English Kings (London; New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 38-39
- ↑ Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, trans. Leo Sherley Price, revsd. R. E. Latham (London; New York: Penguin, 1990), p. 153
- ↑ Peter Hunter Blair, Roman Britain and Early England; 55 B.C.–A.D. 871 (New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1966), pp. 11–12
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Benjamin Thorpe, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle according to the Several Original Authorities: Translation (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1861), p. 14
- ↑ Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 20
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 21
- ↑ Benjamin Thorpe, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle according to the Several Original Authorities: Translation (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1861), p. 14
- ↑ Mike Ashley, The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens (New york: Carroll & Graf, 1999), p. 301
- ↑ Kenneth Sisam, 'Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies', Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 39 (1953), pp. 287-348
- ↑ Peter Hunter Blair, Roman Britain and Early England; 55 B.C.–A.D. 871 (New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1966), p. 203
- ↑ G. H. Wheeler, 'The Genealogy of the Early West Saxon Kings', The English Historical Review, Vol. 36, No. 142 (Apr., 1921), p. 167
Other websites
- Britannia: Kings of Wessex Archived 2013-07-27 at the Wayback Machine