Cynric

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Cynric (also Cinric ; † 560 or 581 ) was king of the Gewissæ , an ethnic group that formed the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the late 7th century as "West Saxony" in the 6th century .

Sources

family

Cynric comes from the Wessex family and is considered the son of Cerdic or Creoda. According to the Anglian Collection , Cynric was a son of the otherwise unknown Creoda, whose mythical ancestry goes back to Frealafing via Cerdic, Aluca, Giwis, Brand, Bældæg , Woden . Bishop Assers Vita Alfredi inserts a Frithowald between Woden and Frealafing and extended the line of ancestors back to Adam and Eva .

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, his sons were :

  1. Ceawlin ,
  2. Cutha,
  3. Ceolwulf
  4. Celm.

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, Cerdics and Cynric's relatives ( nefum "nephews", 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 British followed in 527 at Cerdicesleaga (location unknown), the outcome of which is unknown. In 530 Cerdic and Cynric conquered the Isle of Wight at the Battle of Wihtgarabyrg (Carisbrooke) . On Wight, Cerdic and Cynric installed their relatives Stuf and Wihtgar as rulers. Cerdic died in 534 and Cynric succeeded him.

Cynric defeated the Britons in the year 552 in a battle at Searobyrig ( Old Sarum ) and fought together with Ceawlin in the year 556 at Beranburh ( Barbury Castle ) again against the British. After Cynric's death, his son Ceawlin succeeded him to the throne in 560.

State of research

England around 540

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 shows the ideas of the 9th century about the origin of the kingdom rather than historical facts.

The chronology is certainly flawed and some events seem to be mentioned twice every 19 years. So z. B. the landing of Cerdics and Cynrics in 495 and the landing of Stuf and Wihtgar in 514 as later transcription errors or misunderstandings, which go back to the Easter calculation of Dionysius Exiguus , who grouped events in 19-year cycles. Cerdic's reign from 519 to 534 coincides with the 16-year tenure in the West Saxon king lists, but discrepancies between the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other king lists indicate that his rule is dated too early. , see. A dating of Cerdic and Cynric's “arrival” to 532 and Cynric's reign from 554 to 581 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.

The contradicting statements about his father (Cerdic or Creoda) could not be finally resolved by research. A possible explanation could be that Cynric's or Ceawlin's line were not Cerdicingas , but were subsequently linked to the dynasty founder Cerdic. Cynric, who according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was "grown up" in 495 and died in 560, would have reached the extraordinary age of over 80 years. Hence his "early years" seem to be part of the legend and Creoda seems more plausible as a father. It is also noteworthy that Cynric is said to have ruled together with Cerdic since 519, while his 26 or 27 years of reign began with the death of Cerdic in 534.

The conquest of the Isle of Wight is apparently a later addition which was intended to legitimize the West Saxon expansion to the south. Cynric or a successor probably extended the area of ​​influence to what is now Wiltshire in the second half of the 6th century . This region was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons since the 5th century. The struggles of the year 552 (according to ASC) at Searobyrig ( Old Sarum ) and together with Ceawlin in 556 (according to ASC) at Beranburh ( Barbury Castle ), both places with Iron Age hill forts were, therefore, not necessarily out against the British. The assignment of archaeological findings is associated with uncertainties, since the Gewissæ can hardly be distinguished from other Saxon groups of that time. After Cynric's death, he was succeeded by his son Ceawlin.

swell

literature

  • Barbara Yorke : Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 . PDF (6.2 MB)
  • Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain) , Continuum, 1995, ISBN 978-0718518561 .
  • DN Dumville: The West Saxon genealogical regnal list and the chronology of early Wessex , Peritia, 4/1985, pp. 21-66.
  • Alheydis Plassmann : Origo gentis. Establishing identity and legitimacy in early and high medieval origin narratives (= Orbis mediaevalis . Volume 7). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-05-004260-5 , pp. 107-110 (also: habilitation thesis, Bonn 2004).
  • Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1 .
  • DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings , Routledge, London-New York 2000, ISBN 978-0415242110 .
  • John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: The Kings and Queens of Britain , Oxford University Press, 2009 (2nd revised edition), ISBN 978-0-19-955922-0 , p. 24.
  • B. Eagles: The archaeological evidence for settlement in the fifth to seventh centuries AD . In: Michael Aston, Carenza Lewis (ed.): The medieval landscape of Wessex , Oxbow, 1994, ISBN 978-094689778-0 , pp. 13-32.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Barbara Yorke: Cynric  ( 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
  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 978-0-6312-2492-1 , pp. 511-514.
  3. ↑ a b Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 688
  4. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 854
  5. ↑ a b c Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 495
  6. ^ A b Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , pp. 131-132.
  7. ↑ a b Anglian Collection
  8. ↑ Asser : Vita Alfredi ; The Life of King Alfred , online ( 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
  9. ↑ a b Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 597
  10. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 508
  11. ↑ a b c Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 534
  12. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 514
  13. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 519
  14. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 527
  15. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 530
  16. ↑ a b c d e 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, Oxford 2004, accessed November 13, 2011
  17. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 552
  18. ↑ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 556
  19. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 560
  20. ^ A b c Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , pp. 3-4.
  21. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 133.
  22. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 143.
  23. ↑ John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: The Kings and Queens of Britain , Oxford University Press, 2009 (2nd revised edition), ISBN 978-0-19-955922-0 , p. 54.
  24. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 155.
predecessor Office successor
Cerdic King of Wessex
534-560
or
554-581 		Ceawlin
personal data
SURNAME Cynric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cinric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Wessex
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century or 6th century
DATE OF DEATH at 560 or at 581