List of monarchs of Wessex
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the kings of Anglo-Saxon England |
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This is a list of monarchs of the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) until 886 AD. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure.
The names are given in modern English form followed by the names and titles (as far as is known) in contemporary Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Latin, the prevalent languages of record at the time in England.
This was a period in which spellings varied widely, even within a document. A number of variations of the details below exist. Among these are the preference between the
The character ⁊ (
Except in manuscripts, runic letters were an Anglian phenomenon. The early Engle restricted the use of runes to monuments, whereas the Saxons adopted wynn and thorn for sounds which did not have a Latin equivalent. Otherwise they were not used in Wessex.
List
Reign | Incumbent | Notes |
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Kingdom of the Gewissae | ||
Cerdicing dynasty
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519 to 534 | Cerdic | Possibly Brythonic , name.
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534 to 560 | Cynric | Son, or according to some sources grandson, of Cerdic. |
560 to 591 | Ceawlin | Son of Cynric. Possibly Brythonic , name.
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591 to 597 | Ceol | Nephew of Ceawlin, grandson of Cynric. |
597 to 611 | Ceolwulf | Brother of Ceol, grandson of Cynric. |
611 to 643 | Cynegils
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Sources derive him from Cynric, but name different dynasty members as his father. Possibly Brythonic , name
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c. 626 to 636 | Cwichelm | Co-ruler with Cynegils, perhaps his son of this name. |
643 to 645 | Cenwalh | Son of Cynegils. Possibly Brythonic , name; Deposed
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Mercian dynasty
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645 to 648 | Penda | King of Mercia, expelled Cenwalh. |
Cerdicing dynasty | ||
648 to 672 | Cenwalh | Restored; reigned until his death in 672 |
672 to 674 | Seaxburh | Only queen regnant, ruled after her husband's death. |
674 | Cenfus | (Disputed) Perhaps reigned between Seaxburh and his son Æscwine. Given a remote descent from Cynric. |
674 to 676 | Æscwine | Son of Cenfus. |
676 to 685 | Centwine | Traditionally son of Cynegils, but this is disputed. Deposed by Cædwalla |
Kingdom of the West Saxons | ||
Cerdicing dynasty | ||
685 to 688 | Cædwalla | Perhaps descendant of Ceawlin. Usurper; abdicated, possibly of British origin. |
688 to 726 | Ine | Descendant of Ceawlin. Abdicated |
726 to 740 | Æthelheard | Perhaps brother-in-law of Ine. |
740 to 756 | Cuthred | Relative, possibly brother, of Æthelheard. |
756 to 757 | Sigeberht | Distant relative of Cuthred. Deposed (and killed?) by Cynewulf |
757 to 786 | Cynewulf | Assassinated by Cyneheard, who was the brother of Sigeberht. Direct descendant of Cerdic. |
786 to 802 | Beorhtric | Possible direct descendant of Cerdic. Son-in-law of Offa of Mercia. |
802 to 839 | Ecgberht | Descendant of Ine's brother. |
839 to 858 | Æthelwulf | Son of Ecgberht. |
858 to 860 | Æthelbald
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Son of Æthelwulf. |
860 to 865 | Æthelberht
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Son of Æthelwulf. |
865 to 871 | Æthelred I
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Son of Æthelwulf. |
871 to 886 | Alfred the Great | Son of Æthelwulf. The only English monarch to be given the epithet "the Great". |
Timeline
Family tree
The chart shows their (claimed) descent from the traditional first king of Wessex,
The tree is largely based on the late 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (reproduced in several forms, including as a preface to the [B] manuscript of the Chronicle),[1] and Asser's Life of King Alfred. These sources are all closely related and were compiled at a similar date, and incorporate a desire in their writers to associate the royal household with the authority of being a continuation of a unified line of kingship descended from a single original founder.[2]
One apparently earlier pedigree survives, which traces the ancestry of King
Wessex Family Tree | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The red border indicates the monarchs
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See also
- List of royal consorts of Wessex
- Governors of Roman Britain
- List of legendary kings of Britain
- Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies
- List of English Monarchs
Notes
- .
- ISBN 0-4150-9086-5.
- .
- ^ Dumville 1976, pp. 40, 42, 46. It is also possible that the material may first have been joined in with the collection in a copy made in Mercia c. 840.
- Bush, Robin (28 August 2001). "Were the West Saxons guilty of ethnic cleansing?". Time Team Live 2001. Channel 4. Archived from the originalon 19 February 2006.