Editing Ælle of Sussex (section)

==Early sources==
[[Image:Parker chronicle f. 5a 455-490.gif|thumb|250px|right|A page from the [A] manuscript of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Ælle's name, spelled "Elle", can be seen in two of the entries at the end of the page. The last entry on the page, for 488, refers to events in [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]] and does not mention Ælle.]]There are two early sources that mention Ælle by name. The earliest is ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People|The Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'', a history of the English church written in 731 by [[Bede]], a [[Northumbria]]n monk. Bede mentions Ælle as one of the Anglo-Saxon kings who exercised what he calls "''imperium''" over "all the provinces south of the river [[Humber]]"; "''imperium''" is usually translated as "overlordship". Bede gives a list of seven kings who held "''imperium''", and Ælle is the first of them.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZkzAQAAQBAJ&q=%C3%86thelwealh+king+of+sussex&pg=PT793|title=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England|last1=Lapidge|first1=Michael|last2=Blair|first2=John|last3=Keynes|first3=Simon|last4=Scragg|first4=Donald|date=2013-10-02|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781118316108|language=en}}</ref> The other information Bede gives is that Ælle was not a Christian—Bede mentions a later king, [[Æthelberht of Kent|Æthelberht]], as "the first to enter the kingdom of heaven".<ref name=Bede_111 />

The second source is the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', a collection of annals assembled in the Kingdom of [[Wessex]] in c. 890, during the reign of [[Alfred the Great]]. The ''Chronicle'' has three entries for Ælle, from 477 to 491, as follows:{{Efn|Translations are [[Michael Swanton]]'s (''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', p. 14), from the A text of the ''Chronicle''; except that Frank M. Stenton's translation (''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 17–18) of part has been substituted to keep "Andredes leag" and "Andredes cester" in the text, for subsequent explanation.}}

*477: Ælle and his 3 sons, Cymen and Wlencing and Cissa, came to the land of Britain with 3 ships at the place which is named [[Cymenshore|Cymen's shore]], and there killed many Welsh and drove some to flight into the wood called ''Andredes leag''.
*485: Here Ælle fought against the Welsh near the margin of [[Battle of Mercredesburne|Mearcred's Burn]].
*491: Here Ælle and Cissa besieged ''Andredes cester'', and killed all who lived in there; there was not even one Briton left there.

The ''Chronicle'' was put together about four hundred years after these events. It is known that the annalists used material from earlier chronicles, as well as from oral sources such as sagas, but there is no way to tell where these lines came from.<ref name=Swanton_xviii>Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. xviii–xix</ref> The terms 'British' and 'Welsh' were used interchangeably, as 'Welsh' is the Saxon word meaning 'foreigner', and was applied to all the native Romano-British of the era.<ref name=Swanton_14_2>Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', p. 14.</ref>

Three of the places named may be identified:
#"[[Cymenshore|Cymen's shore]]" ("''Cymenes ora''" in the original) is believed to be located at what is now a series of rocks and ledges, in the English Channel off  [[Selsey Bill]], on the south coast, known as the [[Cymenshore#The Owers|Owers]].<ref name="ngia4">NIMA.Pub194. Sailing Directions. English Channel.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=m0zjxFyTSiQC&dq=channel%20pilot%20southcoast&pg=PA43 The Owers]  p. 43</ref><ref name=kelly110>"Kelly. Anglo-Saxon Charters VI. Charters of the Selsey. p. 3, p. 12 and p. 118</ref> It has been suggested that Ower is derived from the word '''ora''' that is found only in placenames where Jutish and West Saxon dialects were in operation (mainly in southern England).<ref name="gelling179">Gelling. Placenames in the Landscape. pp. 179–180</ref> It is possible that the stretch of low ground along the coast from [[Southampton]] to [[Bognor Regis|Bognor]] was called ''Ora'', "the shore", and that district names were used by the various coastal settlements, ''Cymens ora'' being one of them.<ref name="gelling179"/>
#The wood called "''Andredes leag''" is the [[Weald]], which at that time was a forest extending from north-west [[Hampshire]] all through northern Sussex.
#"''Andredes cester''" is thought to be ''[[Anderitum]]'', the Saxon Shore fort built by the Roman rebel [[Carausius]] in the late 3rd century at [[Pevensey Castle]], just outside the town.<ref name=BlairRBaEE_176>Blair. Roman Britain. p. 176</ref><ref name=Stenton_17>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 17–19.</ref>  Some believe ''Andredes cester'' may have been an imperial stronghold somewhere else as [[Henry of Huntingdon]] described the place as a fortified city and gave a very full account of the siege which is inconsistent with the geography of ancient Pevensey and little archaeological evidence of sustained settlement there.<ref name=huntingdon92>Huntingdon. ed. Greenway. ''Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People''. pp. 92–93</ref> Also, in his [[William Camden#Britannia|''"Britannia"'']], [[William Camden]] suggests that it could be [[Newenden|Newenden, Kent]].<ref name=camden40>Camden. [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/kenteng.html#kent40 Britannia. Vol 2. Ch. 20. Section 40]. Retrieved 4 October 2015</ref>

[[Image:Owers sandbanks map 1780.gif|thumb|250px|left|A detail from a 1780 map, showing the Isle of Wight, Selsey Bill, and the Owers shoals to the south.<ref name="ngia4"/> Pevensey is about fifty miles to the east, along the coast.]]The ''Chronicle'' mentions Ælle once more under the year 827, where he is listed as the first of the eight "''[[Bretwalda|bretwaldas]]''", or "Britain-rulers". The list consists of Bede's original seven, plus [[Egbert of Wessex]].<ref name=Swanton_60>Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. 60–61.</ref> There has been much scholarly debate over just what it meant to be a "''bretwalda''", and the extent of Ælle's actual power in southern England is an open question.<ref name=Blair_IASE_201>Hunter Blair, ''An Introduction'', pp. 201–202.</ref><ref name=Campbell_TAS_53>Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'', pp. 53–54.</ref> It is also noteworthy that there is a long gap between Ælle and the second king on Bede's list, [[Ceawlin of Wessex]], whose reign began in the late 6th century; this may indicate a period in which Anglo-Saxon dominance was interrupted in some way.<ref name=Stenton_17 />

Earlier sources than Bede exist which mention the South Saxons, though they do not name Ælle. The earliest reference is still quite late, however, at about 692: a charter of King [[Nothhelm of Sussex|Nothhelm]]'s, which styles him "King of the South Saxons".<ref name=Kirby_20>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', pp. 20–21.</ref> Charters are documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen, and which would be witnessed by the kings who had power to grant the land. They are one of the key documentary sources for Anglo-Saxon history, but no original charters survive from earlier than 679.<ref name=BlairRBaEE_14>Hunter Blair, ''Roman Britain'', pp. 14–15.</ref><ref name=Campbell_95_2>Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'', pp.95–98.</ref>

There are other early writers whose works can shed light on Ælle's time, though they do not mention either him or his kingdom. Gildas's description of the state of Britain in his time is useful for understanding the ebb and flow of the Anglo-Saxon incursions. [[Procopius]], a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] historian, writing not long after Gildas, adds to the meagre sources on population movement by including a chapter on England in one of his works.  He records that the peoples of Britain—he names the English, the British, and the Frisians—were so numerous that they were migrating to the kingdom of the Franks in great numbers every year,<ref name=Blair_RBaEE_164>Hunter Blair, ''Roman Britain'', p. 164.</ref> although this is probably a reference to Britons emigrating to [[Armorica]] to escape the Anglo-Saxons. They subsequently gave their name to the area they settled as [[Brittany]], or ''la petite Bretagne'' (lit., "little Britain").