Wessex
'''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 situated in the south and southwest of England. It existed from the
6th century until the emergence of the English state in the
9th century.
History
Wessex was, according to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC), founded by
Cerdic and
Cynric, although the specifics given by the ASC are considered to be suspect. The first certain event in Wessex is the baptism of
Cynegils around the year 640.
Wessex expanded its boundaries and clashed with its neighbours, including Celtic 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 Burghal system of fortified towns (the "''burhs"'') under
Alfred the Great, described in both Asser and the
ASC and documented in a unique
hidage, http://www.ogdoad.force9.co.uk/alfred/alfhidage.htm 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.
Southwark is included, but
London fell beyond West Saxon territory. Important West Saxon settlements included old Roman settlements such as
Dorchester, or Winchester, which Alfred made the capital in 871, and new 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, its northern boundary was probably the
River Thames, and its heartland was the present-day counties of
Hampshire,
Wiltshire,
Dorset,
Somerset, and
Berkshire.
Revival
The English author
Thomas Hardy used a fictionalised south-west as a setting for many of his novels, reviving the term
Wessex for southwest England. His Wessex included all the counties mentioned in the previous paragraph apart from Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, along with
Devon. He gave the counties the following fictionalised names: Berkshire = North Wessex; Devon = Lower Wessex; Dorset = South Wessex; Hampshire = Upper Wessex; Somerset = Outer Wessex; Wiltshire = Mid-Wessex. Neighbouring Cornwall was described as Off-Wessex or Lyonesse.
There is a movement in modern day south-central England to create a regional cultural and political identity in Wessex. This consists of three distinct but interlinked organisations. The
Wessex Regionalist Party is a registered political party which contests elections. The
Wessex Constitutional Convention is an all-party pressure group in which those sympathetic to Wessex devolution who are not members of the Wessex Regionalist Party can also be represented. The
Wessex Society is a cultural society which promotes a cultural identity for Wessex while remaining neutral on questions of political devolution.
The boundaries of Wessex were unclear and subject to dispute. The Wessex Constitutional Convention and Wessex Society add Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire to Hardy's list; and the Wessex Regionalists, who currently use Hardy's definition of Wessex, are likely to follow suit in the near future. This definition of Wessex has been criticised from a number of quarters. For example a number of people within Devon, southern Somerset and parts of Dorset see those areas as sharing a Dumnonian Celtic identity with Cornwall, whereas some regard Hardy's definition as correct on the grounds that the counties north of the Thames, along with Berkshire and north-east Somerset, were part of Mercia for most of the Anglo-Saxon period. There are also a few in Hampshire who argue that southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were once a Jutish province in their own right and deserve to be treated differently to the rest of Wessex. The Wessex regionalist movements defend their 8-shire definition of Wessex as being justifiable in terms of both history and modern regional geography, and point to the impossibility of pleasing everyone as an argument against change at the present time, though they do not rule out the possibility of change in the future if the popular will demands it.
The government office region of
South West England covers a different area, consisting of Hardy's Wessex less
Berkshire,
Hampshire and the
Isle of Wight, but including
Cornwall and
Gloucestershire. Wessex groups are currently campaigning for boundary revisions to the
regions in order to more closely match their definitions of Wessex.
Earl of Wessex
In an unusual move
Prince Edward was made
Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn in honour of his marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999. The title Earl of Wessex had not been in use for over 900 years. The last earl, King Harold, was famously killed at the
Battle of Hastings in 1066.
See also
External link
Category:Anglo-Saxon England
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