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Wessex was one of the seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (the Heptarchy) that preceded the Kingdom of England. It was named after the West Saxons and was situated in the south and southwest of England. It existed as a kingdom from the 6th century until the emergence of the English state in the 9th century, and as an earldom between 1016 and 1066. The earldom was recently revived for His Royal Highness The Prince Edward. "Wessex" has not had any official existence since that time, but it has remained a familiar term since Thomas Hardy revived it for his West Country novels and poetry. Today some wish to see it restored as a region of England. History
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC), Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, chieftains of a clan known as "Gewisse", although the specific events given by the ASC are considered to be suspect. Archæological evidence points to an origin in the upper Thames and Cotswolds area, and the ASC origin myth may have been political propaganda designed to justify a later invasion of the Jutish province in southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The first certain event in Wessex is the baptism of Cynegils around the year 640. Wessex expanded its boundaries and clashed with its neighbours, notably British Dumnonia (essentially modern day Devon and Cornwall), which it eventually came to dominate, and with Mercia. After Egbert defeated Mercia in 825 and the Northumbrians accepted his overlordship in 829, Egbert became the first King of England. The integrated system of fortified towns (the "burhs") established under Alfred the Great, described in both Asser and the ASC, and documented in a unique hidage, helped to prevent the conquest of southern England by the Danish invaders in the 870s. The hidage identifies thirty-three forts, which ensured that no one in Wessex was more than a long day's ride from a place of safety. Important West Saxon settlements included old Roman settlements such as Dorchester and Winchester, which Alfred made the capital in 871, and newly-founded burhs such as Wallingford. There is some evidence that kingship in Wessex was not rigidly hereditary. The strongest candidate from the pool of the senior families was elected or forced his control on the lesser kings. The internal feuding produced by this may have delayed the rise of Wessex as a full kingdom, but this is conjecture. After the Mercian conquest of its original territories in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the northern boundary of Wessex was probably the River Thames; Southwark, facing London from the south bank of the Thames, was included among the burhs, but London fell beyond West Saxon territory. Its heartland was the present-day counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Berkshire. Research Tips
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