Kingdom of Wessex

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Britain circa 802

The Kingdom of Wessex ( Old English Westseaxena rice = "Empire of the West Saxons") was one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the early Middle Ages that existed before a Kingdom of England was founded. The region still called Wessex today was located in the south and south-west of England. The Kingdom of Wessex lasted from about the 6th century to the 10th century. According to Anglo-Saxon historiography, Wessex was founded by Cedric and Cynric in what is now southern Hampshire , but this is believed to be a legend. The first Anglo-Saxon settlements in the 6th century, from which Wessex would later emerge, were probably in theThames Valley , later the West Saxons expanded into Chilterns , Gloucestershire and Somerset . The Kingdom of Wessex competed with the Kingdom of Mercia for supremacy in the south and west of Britain in the 7th and 8th centuries . From the 9th century, with the decline of Mercia, Wessex exercised dominance over larger parts of England. When Vikings from Scandinavia invaded Britain from the 9th century, Wessex was the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom not to fall under Danish influence. Under King Alfred the Great , the West Saxons succeeded in pushing back the Vikings. Alfred's descendant Æthelstan was after all the first West Saxon king under whose rule England was united as one kingdom. The Kingdom of Wessex ended with the conquest of England by the Danish King Canute the Great and finally with the conquest of England by the Norman William the Conqueror .

history

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms around 600

Prehistory and beginnings of the Saxon settlement

Britain was originally settled by Celtic tribes who had to come to terms with a Roman occupation from the first century AD. From the 5th century onwards, the Romans began to withdraw their troops, the British were increasingly on their own in their defense against the Picts in the north and invading Germanic tribes in the south. A period of settlement and conquest of Britain by the Germanic tribes of the Saxons , Angles and Jutes (later referred to as the Anglo-Saxons ) began.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , the founders of the Kingdom of Wessex, Cerdic and Cynric , landed in 495 with five ships in Britain, namely in the south of Hampshire . According to the chronicle, they then conquered the Isle of Wight . However, historians have questioned this historiography and relegated it to the realm of legend because the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contradicts other sources of the time such as B. Bedas Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum stands that Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are identified as the settlement area of ​​the Jutes, not the Saxons. Based on the available data from historiography, archeology and research on place names, it is assumed that the upper valley of the Thames was a center of Saxon settlements from the 5th century. Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty, could have established himself in the upper Thames Valley around 530. At that time, Cerdic's people were still referred to as Gewisse or Gewissæ , the name West Saxony was not to become common until a later king, Caedwalla .

At the beginning of its history, Wessex comprised the western part of the area south of the Thames, between the Thames Valley and the Channel coast, but without the British Celtic areas in Devon and Cornwall . The kingdom had the Roman town of Dorchester as the first central town ; in the middle of the 7th century the central town was moved to Winchester .

Expansion to 802

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the empire of the West Saxons first expanded under Ceawlin , to whom, among other things, the conquest in 577 of the formerly British Gloucester , Cirencester and Bath is ascribed. It is unclear whether the Chronicle reports reliably here, but it can be assumed that in Ceawlin's time the West Saxons were firmly established in the upper Thames Valley and able to take tribute from neighboring kingdoms in southern England.

Ceawlin was followed by his descendants Ceol , Ceolwulf , Cynegils and Cenwalh as kings of the West Saxons until 673. Cenwalh's widow Seaxburh tried to hold the throne for a year after his death, but was eventually replaced by Aescwine , a descendant of a second brother of Ceawlin which in turn Centwine , son of King Cynegils follows. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes various battles and conquests at this time, including the battles of Beandun (614), Peonnan (658) and Posentesbryig (661). For every battle, there is not an exact knowledge of where it took place. It is believed that most of the battles centered on what is now North Wiltshire , North Somerset and southern Gloucestershire . There is also evidence that the West Saxons extended to Dorset , Somerset and Exeter , for King Cenwalh was a patron of the abbey at Sherborne, Dorset, King Centwine of Glastonbury, Somerset, and the West Saxon Boniface was trained in an abbey in Exeter.

When Caedwalla became king of the West Saxons, Wessex experienced a significant increase in power. Within a few years he succeeded in conquering the regions south of the Thames and establishing himself as King of Sussex , Surrey and the Jutian provinces in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; he made his brother King of Kent (which he only kept for a short time and was then killed by the people of Kent). Caedwalla's short reign (685–689) was a decisive change in the development of Wessex: until now it had only expanded at the expense of the British-Celtic rulers in the south-west, but Caedwalla drove control of neighboring Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the south and south-east.

Caedwalla's successor Ine (688-726) was able to maintain Caedwalla's achieved hegenomy over the south of England (except for Kent and Surrey). As a West Saxon king, Ine is also noteworthy because under his rule the only known West Saxon collection of laws apart from that of Alfred the Great arose. What is interesting about Ine's law collection is that he tried to do justice to both his British and Anglo-Saxon subjects - an indication that the integration of Anglo-Saxon and British society has not yet taken place completely. In the 8th century, presumably also under Ine, the system of administration of the kingdom by Earldormen and the division into administrative districts, the Shires , was established, which has survived to this day.

In the 8th century the kingdom of Mercia was at the height of its power and gained great influence over many of its neighboring kingdoms, especially under its kings Offa and Aethelbald . In contrast to smaller kingdoms such as Hwicce , Wessex was able to maintain its independence, even if Wessex's kings temporarily recognized the sovereignty of Mercia.

Dominance in the south and first Viking incursions

With the accession of Egbert in 802 a new phase began for the Kingdom of Wessex: with the decline of Mercia's power, Egbert conquered Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex in 825 . In 829 he even succeeded in invading Mercia , which he ruled for a year. Egbert's successes were crowned by the submission of the king of Northern Humbria to his suzerainty. In 830, however, the Merzian king Wiglaf was again in power, and Egbert should no longer have exercised any influence on Mercia and Norhumbria. Nevertheless, the increase in power under Egbert was enormous, for he conquered Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex and later Cornwall , giving West Saxony control of all land south of the Thames, including the parts of Essex north of the river.

The influence of Wessex extended to the present day counties of Devon and Cornwall since the early 9th century . The northern border of Wessex was believed to be the Thames . The area is now the heartland of the counties of Hampshire , Wiltshire , Dorset , Somerset and Berkshire . An important settlement in Wessex was Winchester , which became the capital under Alfred the Great in 871.

Egbert also managed to secure the throne for his family for a longer period of time: He was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf (839-858), who in turn was succeeded by his sons Aethelbald (855-860), Aethelbert (860-866), Aethelred (866-871) and Alfred (871-899) was inherited. Aethelwulf and his sons were able to expand their influence on Mercia and Wales with a clever marriage and alliance policy.

In the time of Egbert and his descendants, the time of the first Viking invasions also falls, which is said to ultimately pose a threat to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Wessex was threatened from two directions: its western coasts were invaded by Vikings ('Hiberno-Norse') in the 9th century who settled in Ireland , the Isle of Man and on the west coast of Scotland . After Egbert's army had defeated the Hiberno-Norse, they were dissuaded from settling permanently in Wessex. The parts of Wessex that lay on the English Channel were threatened by greater danger : They were threatened by Danish fleets, which also had a base in Franconia and operated from there. To 865 the West Saxons various attacks had their coastal ward, but a greater threat to Wessex emerged only from 865, as the so-called Great Heathen Army (Engl. 'Great Heathen Army ") in Thanet landed and large parts of Britain began to conquer.

English kingdom under Alfred and his descendants

England around 878

From 865 onwards, the Danish Vikings , who had initially only undertaken raids in eastern Britain, succeeded in conquering a large number of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms within a short time. When the Great Pagan Army finally reached Wessex in 870/71, the Danes had already conquered Mercia and northern Humbria. The domain of the Danes, the Danelag (English Danelaw) eventually took the whole of East England. After two defeats against the Danes (King Aethelred fell in one), Aethelred's successor Alfred concluded a peace treaty with the Danes, whereby it is assumed that this meant a tribute payment to the Danes. In further disputes with the Danes in 878, Alfred was finally successful and hit them so hard that they concluded a new contract with Alfred. Alfred the Great of Wessex was the only Anglo-Saxon king who could finally stop the advance of the Vikings. He expanded Cornwall as a military base and drove the Danes from Wessex in 878.

Earldoms in England around 1025

Alfred's military successes can be traced back to various measures: Under Alfred the national defense was reformed, so he established a standing army and renewed defensive systems ( burh ), so that there was a network of refuges and fortified settlements in Wessex. Fortifications existed before Alfred, but under Alfred these were expanded and networked: a burh should not be more than a day's journey away, and the defenses were connected by rivers, old Roman roads or other transport routes. In addition to military reforms, Alfred also carried out innovations in the areas of administration, education and legislation.

Since all competing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had become extinct with the conquest of the Danes, the kings of Wessex, as the last Anglo-Saxon kings, were now able to bring larger areas of England under their influence. From 925 Æthelstan ruled over large parts of what is now England, and he succeeded in conquering northern Humbria, which, however, was lost again under his son. Under his successors Eadred and Edgar a temporary unification of large parts of England including northern Humbria succeeded again.

Under Alfred's successors, territorial disputes with the Danes flared up again, on a large scale, when Aethelred II Unraed was in power in Wessex (978-1016). The unification of England under the Kings of Wessex came to an end with the conquest of England by the Danish King Canute the Great in 1016, who established earldoms on the basis of the former kingdoms of North Humbria, Mercia and East Anglia but left Wessex under his personal administration. After a few years the Earldom Wessex went to his confidante Godwin and then his son Harold . Harold himself became king in 1066 and united the Earldom of Wessex with the English crown.

When England was conquered by William in 1066 , Norman rule began in England. Extensive political and organizational reforms were carried out under Wilhelm, which disempowered the Anglo-Saxon elite and replaced them with Norman nobles. Among other things, the large Anglo-Saxon earldoms were dissolved and replaced by smaller units. So also ended the time of Wessex as an earldom and thus as a political unit.

Kings of Wessex

The kings of Wessex trace their ancestry back to Cerdic, the legendary founder of the west Saxon domain in the 6th century.

As a result, the Kingdom of Wessex became part of the Kingdom of England (see: List of the rulers of England ).

Saints from Wessex

Wessex as a regional entity today

Wessex was used by the English author Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) as the fictional county in south-west England where most of his novels are set. The fictional region roughly corresponds to the historical Kingdom of Wessex.

Even Robert Harris moved the plot of his 2019 published novel 'The Second Sleep' (dt. 'The second bedroom') in Wessex.

Wessex is a common term in south-central England to refer to the region. Many institutions relating to the region comprising Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire and Wiltshire as a whole use the name Wessex, e.g. B. Wessex Bus, Wessex Water and Wessex Institute of Technology.

Unusually, Prince Edward was named Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn in 1999 on the occasion of his wedding to Sophie Rhys-Jones . The title of Earl of Wessex has not been used for over 900 years. The last earl, King Harald II , was killed during the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

See also

literature

  • John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: Kings and Queens of Britain , 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-955922-0 .
  • Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013.
  • DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings. Routledge, 2000, ISBN 978-0-415-24211-0 .
  • Harald Kleinschmidt: The Anglo-Saxons. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62137-6 .
  • Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 .
  • Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the Early Middle Ages . Leicester University Press, London / New York 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1314-2 .

Web links

Commons : Wessex  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , pp. 130-132.
  2. ↑ Harald Kleinschmidt: The Anglo-Saxons. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62137-6 , p. 14.
  3. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , p. 135.
  4. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , pp. 135-137.
  5. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , pp. 137-138.
  6. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , p. 138.
  7. ↑ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the Early Middle Ages . Leicester University Press, London / New York 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1314-2 , pp. 84-85.
  8. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , p. 141.
  9. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , p. 141.
  10. ^ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England . Seaby, London 1990, ISBN 1-85264-027-8 , pp. 149-151.
  11. ↑ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the Early Middle Ages . Leicester University Press, London / New York 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1314-2 , pp. 107-109.
  12. ↑ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the Early Middle Ages . Leicester University Press, London / New York 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1314-2 , pp. 107-109.
  13. ^ Jürgen Sarnowsky: England in the Middle Ages . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, p. 38.
  14. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , p. 268.
  15. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , pp. 268-269.
  16. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , pp. 301-305.
  17. ↑ Barbara Yorke: Wessex in the Early Middle Ages . Leicester University Press, London / New York 1995, ISBN 0-7185-1314-2 , pp. 107-109.
  18. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , pp. 393, 396.
  19. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , p. 400.
  20. ^ Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan: The Anglo-Saxon World. Yale University Press, New Haven 2013, ISBN 978-0-300-21613-4 , p. 410.
  21. ^ Map of Thomas Hardy's Wessex. In: British Library. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  22. ^ Wessex (entry). In: Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989.
  23. ^ The Edinburgh Gazette : No. 24629, p. 1379 , June 29, 1999.