Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice inBritish history – once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in thePeerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region ofWessex (the lands of theWest Saxons), in the south and southwest of present-day England, became one of theAnglo-Saxon kingdoms (one of the components of the so-calledHeptarchy); in the tenth century the increasing power of theKingdom of the West Saxons led to a unitedKingdom of England.

Earldom of Wessex held with Earldom of Forfar
Arms of the Earl of Wessex
Creation date	19 June 1999[1]
Creation	Second
Created by	Elizabeth II
Peerage	Peerage of the United Kingdom
First holder	Godwin of Wessex
Present holder	Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
Heir apparent	James, Earl of Wessex[a]
Remainder to	the 1st Earl'sheirs maleof the body lawfully begotten.
Subsidiary titles	Viscount Severn[1]
Status	Extant
Seat(s)	Bagshot Park

Wessex was one of the four earldoms of Anglo-Danish England.^[2] In this period, the earldom of Wessex covered the lands of the oldkingdom of Wessex, covering the counties of the south of England, and extending west to the Welsh border.

During the reign of KingCnut, the earldom was conferred onGodwin at some time after 1020.^[3] Thereafter, Godwin rose to become, in KingEdward's time, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Upon Godwin's death in 1053, the earldom passed to his son, who later becameKing Harold II and died at theBattle of Hastings in 1066; the title became extinct on his death.

The current Earl of Wessex is alsoDuke of Edinburgh,Earl of Forfar, andViscount Severn.^[1] This Earl of Wessex title is currently used as acourtesy title by the Duke's son and heir apparent to the earldoms of Wessex and Forfar,James Mountbatten-Windsor.

In 1999,Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son,Prince Edward, marriedSophie Rhys-Jones. Younger sons of the monarch have customarily been givendukedoms at the time of their marriage, and experts had suggested the former royal dukedoms ofCambridge andSussex as the most likely to be granted to Prince Edward. Instead, the Palace announced that Prince Edward would eventually be given the titleDuke of Edinburgh, which was at the time held byhis father. This did not happen by direct inheritance, as Prince Edward is the youngest of Prince Philip's three sons. The title of Duke of Edinburgh was newly created for Prince Edward on 10 March 2023, after it reverted to the Crown following "both the death of the first Duke of Edinburgh,^[b] and the second DukeCharles III's succession as King."^[4] On Edward’s creation as Duke of Edinburgh on 10 March 2023, Edward's son James became styled with the courtesy title of Earl of Wessex, now his father's most senior subsidiary title.^[5][6]

At the occasion of his marriage, in keeping with the tradition of a monarch's son receiving a title upon marriage, but preserving the rank of duke for the future, Prince Edward became the first British prince in centuries to be specifically created an earl, rather than a duke. His wifeSophie became the Countess of Wessex.The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that Edward was drawn to the historic title of Earl of Wessex after watching the 1998 filmShakespeare in Love, in which a character with the title “Lord Wessex” is played byColin Firth.^[7]

1971 filmRum Runners includes a character namedLord William Percival Hammond, Marquess of Wessex, played byClive Revill, a love interest of actress Linda Larue (Brigitte Bardot). During the film, the character introduces himself as “William Percival Rupert Plantagenet Hammond, 14th Marquess of Wessex, 11thEarl of Shetland, 17th Viscount ofFair Isle”.^[8]

The main antagonist in the 1998 filmShakespeare in Love is named “Lord Wessex” and played byColin Firth.The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that PrinceEdward was drawn to the title after watching the film.^[7]