The Saxons

The House of Wessex

Eighth century England consisted of seven Anglo-Saxon sub-kingdoms that existed in a state of internecine warfare. Occasionally a king of one of the larger three kingdoms, Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, would emerge from the dynastic turmoil to be accepted as Bretwalda (Bretanwealda in Old English) or overlord by the others. One such was Egbert, of the House of Wessex. Cerdic of Wessex ((519-534), the founder of the Wessex line, claimed a mythical descent from the great Woden himself. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic was a Saxon Ealdorman who landed in Hampshire in 495 with his son Cynric and fought with the Britons becoming the first King of Wessex. The dynasty he founded was to rule England for over two hundred years and produced such varying characters as Alfred (871-899), the only English monarch ever to be bestowed with the epithet the Great, who amongst varied achievements, established peace with the invading Vikings and founded the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the ineffectual Ethelred the Redeless (978-1016) and his pious son, Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) who was later canonized in 1161.

The Anglo-Saxon line was interrupted for two decades by Viking conquerors but was re-established by Edward the Confessor. The Confessor is said to have willed his throne to his brother-in-law, King Harold II Godwineson (reigned- January-October, 1066), who was killed at the Battle at Hastings, when the native Saxon House of Wessex was displaced by the Normans in the person of William I, thereafter known as the Conqueror.

Monarch

Born

Reign

circa 780 son of Ealhmund of Kent

827-839

son of Egbert and Redburga

839-856

circa 831 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

856-860

circa 831 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

860-865

circa 837 son of Ethelwulf and Osburga

865-871

circa 849son of Ethelwulf Osburga

871-899

871-877 son of Alfred the Great Ealhswith

899-924

Ælfweard

904 son of Edward the Elder and Elfleda

924

895 son of Edward the Elder & Ecgwynn

924-939

c.921 son of Edward the Elder and Edgiva of Kent

939-946

c.923 son of Edward the Elder & Edgiva of Kent

946-955

c.940 son of Edmund I & Elgiva

955-959

c.943 son of Edmund I and Elgiva

959-975

c.962 son of Edgar the Peaceful & Ethelflaed

975-978

c.968 son of Edgar the Peaceful & Ælfthryth

978-1016

c. 993 son of Ethelred II & Ælla of Northumbria

1016

c. 1005 son of Ethelred II & Emma of Normandy

1042-1066

c. 1020 son of Godwine, Earl of Wessex & Gytha Thorkelsdótti

1066

 

Additional Information on the era