The Kings of Wessex

Charts the changing fortunes of Wessex and its rise to become the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

This is a history of the kingdom of Wessex told through its more than twenty regnal kings, from its early foundations under Cerdic circa 500 to its apogee in 886 under Alfred the Great. Its roots are traced to the migration of Germanic tribes in the fifth century, with two of these tribes, the West Saxons of Hampshire and the Gewisse of the Upper Thames Valley, eventually uniting to form what would become the kingdom of Wessex.

We move from the post-Roman period, in which Cerdic and Cynric vied for land with Romano-British tribes across southern England, through periods of warfare and assimilation to the sixth and seventh centuries, and the succession of Ceawlin, Cynegils and Cenwealh, warrior kings who expanded Wessex westwards against the British tribes. Warfare against other Anglo-Saxon tribes saw Caedwalla briefly conquer the kingdoms in south-east England, and his successors, Ine, Cuthred and Cynewulf, saw consolidation against the backdrop of further warfare, not least against Mercia, the major power of the period.

Under Ecgberht, Wessex superseded Mercia as the dominant power across England by the ninth century, the kingdom stretching from Cornwall to Kent, with his grandsons Æthelred and Alfred later facing the Viking invasions wherein Wessex would be the last kingdom standing. Alfred was the last man to claim the title of King of Wessex. In 886, he re-titled himself King of the Anglo-Saxons, thus ending nearly four centuries of the regnal kings of Wessex.