Cerdic

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Anglo-Saxon Migration in the 5th Century

Cerdic (also Ceartic, Certic ; † 534 / 554 ) was sixth in the early century king of gewisse , an ethnic group in the 7th century as "Westsachsen" the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex was formed.

Sources

family

Cerdic is considered to be the progenitor of the Wessex company . According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , Cynric was his son.

According to the Anglian Collection , Cerdic was a son of Aluca, whose mythical ancestry goes back to Frealafing via Giwis, Brand, Bældæg , Woden . Cerdic's son was the otherwise unknown Creoda, father of Cynric.

Bishop Assers Vita Alfredi adds a Frithowald between Woden and Frealafing and extended the line of ancestors to Adam and Eva .

Domination

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , Cerdic and his son Cynric landed with five ships at Cerdicesora in 495 and settled on the coast. In 508 they won at Natanleaga (Netley Marsh, Hampshire ) against the British King Natanleod . In 514 Cerdic's relatives ( nefum = "nephew", often general for "relative") Stuf and Wihtgar landed at Cerdicesora with three ships as reinforcement.

In 519 Cerdic and Cynric received the royal crown, so that this year is considered to be the beginning of the Kingdom of Wessex. They fought against the Britons at Cerdicesford (Charford in Hampshire ). Further battles against the Britons followed in 527 at Cerdicesleaga (location unknown), their outcome is unknown. In 530 Cerdic and Cynric conquered the Isle of Wight at the Battle of Wihtgarabyrg (Carisbrooke) . On Wight, Cerdic installed Stuf and Wihtgar as rulers. Cerdic died in 534 and Cynric succeeded him.

State of research

England in the early 6th century

The source situation raises some unsolvable problems. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was written nearly 400 years after the actual events, and many of the details given there must be considered legendary. A possible historical core has been distorted in the tradition and reflects the ideas of the 9th century about the origin of the kingdom rather than historical facts.

The chronology is very likely in error and some events appear to be mentioned twice every 19 years. So z. For example, the landing of Cerdic in 495 and the landing of Stuf and Wihtgar in 514 are viewed as later transcription errors or misunderstandings that go back to Dionysius Exiguus' calculation of Easter , who grouped events in 19-year cycles. Cerdic's reign from 519 to 534 coincides with the 16-year term in the West Saxon royal lists, but discrepancies between the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other royal lists indicate that his rule is dated too early. A dating of Cerdic's "arrival" to 532 and his reign from 538 to 554 has been suggested.

The arrival of a founding couple with alliterating names and on a few ships resembles other Anglo-Saxon origin myths (e.g. Hengest and Horsa ) and is part of Indo-European tradition. Another topos are place names derived from people such as Natanleaga (after King Natanleod), which more likely means “wet forest”. Presumably the reverse case is correct, that the people were named after existing place names.

Another problem is the name "Cerdic", which is the Anglicised form of the Celtic name "Caraticos". The most plausible explanation for this is that Cerdic did not come from the mainland, but came from a region in which a mixed population of Old Saxons and Romanized Britons lived . This applies to the area around Dorchester-on-Thames on the Upper Thames , which has been inhabited by Germanic settlers since the 5th century , where it has been proven that the Gewissæ was an early center of power and their first diocese was founded. Cerdic's descendants, such as B. Ceawlin and Caedwalla , show a noticeable accumulation of Celtic names.

The kingdom of Cerdics, if he was indeed the first king of the Gewissæ, is more likely to be located there on the Upper Thames and possibly also on the upper reaches of the Avon in Wiltshire than in southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, where Jutian dynasties up until the late 7th century ruled. Eastern Wiltshire was populated by Saxons as early as 50000. The conquest of the Isle of Wight is apparently a later addition which was intended to legitimize the West Saxon expansion to the south.

In the 7th and 8th centuries it seems to have been decisive for claims to the throne that the pretender traced his origin to Cerdic, even if no further genealogical information was passed down. Historians, however, question the authenticity of these ancestry claims.

swell

literature

  • Barbara Yorke : Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain). Continuum, 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1856-X .
  • Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, London / New York 2002, ISBN 0-415-16639-X . PDF (6.2 MB)
  • John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: The Kings and Queens of Britain. 2. revised Edition. Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-955922-0 , p. 24.
  • Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 0-631-22492-0 . (especially Barbara Yorke: Cerdic , p. 93)
  • DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings. Routledge, London / New York 2000, ISBN 0-415-24211-8 .
  • DN Dumville: The West Saxon genealogical regnal list and the chronology of early Wessex. In: Peritia. 4/1985, pp. 21-66.
  • Barbara Yorke: The Jutes of Hampshire and Wight and the origins of Wessex. In: Steven Bassett (ed.): The origins of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Leicester University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-7185-1317-7 , pp. 84-96.
  • R. Coates: On some controversy surrounding Gewissae / Gewissei, Cerdic and Ceawlin. In: nouns. 13 (1989-1990), pp. 1-11.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ A b c d Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, London / New York 2002, ISBN 0-415-16639-X , pp. 3-4.
  2. ↑ Simon Keynes: Kings of the West Saxons. In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 0-631-22492-0 , pp. 511-514.
  3. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 688
  4. ^ A b Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, London / New York 2002, ISBN 0-415-16639-X , pp. 131-132.
  5. ^ Anglian Collection
  6. ↑ Asser : Vita Alfredi ; The Life of King Alfred ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Online Medieval and Classical Library (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / omacl.org
  7. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 495
  8. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 508
  9. ↑ a b c Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 534
  10. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 514
  11. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 519
  12. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 527
  13. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 530
  14. ↑ a b c d e f g h Barbara Yorke: Cerdic  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.oxforddnb.com   (paid registration required). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2011
  15. ^ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain). Continuum, 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1856-X , p. 49.
  16. ^ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain). Continuum, 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1856-X , p. 32.
  17. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, London / New York 2002, ISBN 0-415-16639-X , p. 155.
  18. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, London / New York 2002, ISBN 0-415-16639-X , p. 142.
predecessor Office successor
- King of Wessex
519-534
or
538-554 		Cynric
personal data
SURNAME Cerdic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ceartic; Certic
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Wessex
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century or 6th century
DATE OF DEATH at 534-554