TheWreocensæte (Old English:Wrēocensǣte, Wrōcensǣte, Wrōcesǣte, Wōcensǣte), sometimes anglicized as theWrekinsets,^[1] were one of the peoples ofAnglo-Saxon Britain. Their name approximates to "Wrekin-dwellers". It is also suggested thatWrexham also derived from Wreocensæte.

The literal meaning ofWrocensaete is 'those dwelling atWrocen'. N.J. Higham interprets this as referring toWroxeter, the formercivitas of theCornovii, which became the centre of government of this early sub-Roman kingdom which was the successor territorial unit to Cornovia.^[2] He states that, 'It may refer quite specifically to the royal court itself, in the first instance, and only by extension to the territory administered from the court.' The hillfort on the Wrekin has to date produced no archaeological evidence of Roman, sub-Roman or Anglo-Saxon settlement. The nameWrocensaete was long in use, first occurring in theTribal Hidage (a tribute list which is normally dated to the seventh century) and was last documented asWreocensetun, a province or district of Mercia in which the Vikings were reported to be active in 855.^[3]

The boundaries of the kingdom are uncertain, but it was substantial as theTribal Hidage lists it as 7000hides, equal to the kingdoms of theEast Saxons andSouth Saxons. The evidence suggests that the Wrekinset were the most northerly of the three largeMercian subject kingdoms facingWales, with theMagonsæte to their south, and theHwicce farthest south.

The chief place was seemingly the former RomanViroconium Cornoviorum (modernWroxeter), the formercivitas of theCornovii and close to the hill fort known asThe Wrekin. The kingdom may have covered much of modernCheshire,Shropshire and into North EastWales,Wrexham,Denbighshire andFlintshire. The border betweenWales and Wreocensæte would have beenOffa's Dyke.

As with the neighbouringMagonsæte, the lands of the Wreocensæte appear to have included a number of lesser tribes or kingdoms. Place-names suggest that the much smallerMeresæte andRhiwsæte lay within the lands of the Wreocensæte. These, and the more southerly examples in Magonsæte, appear to be spaced regularly along the line of the frontier with Wales, and it is suggested that they may be artificial in origin, created by a king of Mercia to delineate and defend that border.

• Brooks, Nicholas, "The formation of the Mercian kingdom" in S. Bassett (ed.),The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1989.ISBN 0-7185-1317-7
• Gelling, Margaret, "The early history of western Mercia" in S. Bassett (ed.),The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1989.ISBN 0-7185-1317-7

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