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This is alist of monarchs of theKingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) until 886 AD. 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 contemporaryOld English (Anglo-Saxon) andLatin, 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 therunic characterthorn (Þ, lower-case þ, from therune of the same name) and the lettereth (Ð or ð), both of which are equivalent to modern ⟨th⟩ and were interchangeable. They were used indiscriminately forvoiced and unvoiced ⟨th⟩ sounds, unlike in modernIcelandic.Thorn tended to be more used in the south (Wessex) andeth in the North (Mercia and Northumbria). Separate lettersth were preferred in the earliest period in Northern texts, and returned to dominate by theMiddle English period onward.
The character ⁊ (Tironianet) was used as theampersand (&) in contemporary Anglo-Saxon writings. The era pre-dates the emergence of some forms of writing accepted today; notably rare werelower case characters, and the letters W and U. W was occasionally rendered VV (later UU), but the runic characterwynn (Ƿ or ƿ) was a common way of writing the /w/ sound. Again the West Saxons initially preferred the character derived from a rune, and the Angles/Engle preferred the Latin-derived lettering VV, consistent with thethorn versuseth usage pattern.
Except in manuscripts, runic letters were an Anglian phenomenon. The early Engle restricted the use of runes to monuments, whereas the Saxons adoptedwynn andthorn for sounds which did not have a Latin equivalent. Otherwise they were not used in Wessex.
| Reign | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of the Gewissae | ||
| Cerdicing dynasty | ||
| 519 to 534 | Cerdic | PossiblyCeltic,Brythonic, name. King of Wessex (King of the Gewissae) |
| 534 to 560 | Cynric | Son, or according to some sources grandson, of Cerdic. |
| 560 to 591 | Ceawlin | Son of Cynric. PossiblyCeltic,Brythonic, name. |
| 591 to 597 | Ceol | Nephew of Ceawlin, grandson of Cynric. |
| 597 to 611 | Ceolwulf | Brother of Ceol, grandson of Cynric. |
| 611 to 643 | Cynegils | Sources derive him from Cynric, but name different dynasty members as his father. PossiblyCeltic,Brythonic, name |
| c. 626 to 636 | Cwichelm | Co-ruler with Cynegils, perhaps his son of this name. |
| 643 to 645 | Cenwalh | Son of Cynegils. PossiblyCeltic,Brythonic, name; Deposed |
| Mercian dynasty | ||
| 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 byCædwalla |
| 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?) byCynewulf |
| 757 to 786 | Cynewulf | Assassinated by Cyneheard, who was the brother ofSigeberht. Direct descendant ofCerdic. |
| 786 to 802 | Beorhtric | Possible direct descendant ofCerdic. Son-in-law ofOffa of Mercia. |
| 802 to 839 | Ecgberht | Descendant of Ine's brother. |
| 839 to 858 | Æthelwulf | Son of Ecgberht. |
| 858 to 860 | Æthelbald | Son of Æthelwulf. |
| 860 to 865 | Æthelberht | Son of Æthelwulf. |
| 865 to 871 | Æthelred I | Son of Æthelwulf. |
| 871 to 886 | Alfred the Great | Son of Æthelwulf. The only English monarch to be given the epithet "the Great". |
The chart shows their (claimed) descent from the traditional first king of Wessex,Cerdic, down to the children ofAlfred the Great. A continuation of the tree into the 10th and 11th centuries can be found atEnglish monarchs family tree.
The tree is largely based on the late 9th-centuryAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, theWest Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (reproduced in several forms, including as a preface to the [B] manuscript of the Chronicle),[1] andAsser'sLife 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 KingIne back to Cerdic. This first appears in a 10th-century manuscript copy of the "Anglian collection" ofAnglo-Saxon royal genealogies. The manuscript is thought to have been made at Glastonbury in the 930s during the reign of KingÆthelstan [3] (whose family traced their own royal descent back to Cerdic via a brother of King Ine), but the material may well date back to the earliest reconstructable version of the collection,c. 796; and possibly still further back, to 725–726.[4] Compared to the later texts, this pedigree gives an ancestry forCeolwald as son ofCuthwulf son ofCuthwine which in the later 9th-century texts sometimes seems confused; and it statesCynric as son ofCreoda son of Cerdic, whereas theChronicle annals go to some length to present Cerdic and Cynric as a father-and-son pair who land in and conquer the southern part of Wessex together (a narrative now considered spurious by historians).[5]
The Wessex royal line was traditionally founded by a man namedCerdic, an undoubtedly Celtic name cognate toCeretic (the name of two British kings, ultimately derived from *Corotīcos). This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton and that his dynasty became anglicised over time.[6][7]
A number of Cerdic's alleged descendants also possessed Celtic names (see the list above), including the 'Bretwalda'Ceawlin.[8] The last man in this dynasty to have a Brittonic name was KingCaedwalla, who died as late as 689.[9]
This is seen as evidence for a British influence on the emerging Anglo-Saxon elite classes within theongoing debate about whether theRomano-Britons were forcefully expelled or gradually assimilated by theAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
