Editing Cerdic of Wessex (section)

== Background ==
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The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' provides a [[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies|pedigree tracing Cerdic's ancestry]] back to [[Odin|Wōden]] and the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|antediluvian patriarchs]]. [[Kenneth Sisam]] has shown that this pedigree was constructed by borrowing and subsequently modifying a pedigree tracing the ancestry of the [[List of monarchs of Northumbria|kings of Bernicia]], and hence before the generation of Cerdic himself the Wessex pedigree has no historical basis.<ref>Sisam, Kenneth, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', vol. 39, pp. 287–348 (1953)</ref> The pedigree gives Cerdic's father as Elesa, who has been identified by some scholars with the Romano-Briton Elasius, the "chief of the region", met by [[Germanus of Auxerre]].<ref>Grosjean, P., ''Analecta Bollandiana'', 1957, Hagiographie Celtique, pp. 158–226.</ref><ref>Nicholl, D. (1958) ''Celts, Romans and Saxons'', Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 47, No. 187 (Autumn 1958), p. 300</ref>

[[J. N. L. Myres]] noted that when Cerdic and [[Cynric]] first appear in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' in s.a. 495 they are described as ''[[ealdormen]]'', which at that point in time was a fairly junior rank.<ref>Myres, J. N. L. (1989), ''The English Settlements'', Oxford University Press, pp. 146–147</ref> Myres remarks that:
{{blockquote|It is thus odd to find it used here to describe the leaders of what purports to be an independent band of invaders, whose origins and authority are not otherwise specified. It looks very much as if a hint is being conveyed that Cerdic and his people owed their standing to having been already concerned with administrative affairs under Roman authority on this part of the Saxon Shore.}}

Furthermore, it is not until s.a. 519 that Cerdic and Cynric are recorded as "beginning to reign", suggesting that they ceased being dependent vassals or ealdormen and became independent kings in their own right.

Summing up, Myres believed that:
{{blockquote|It is thus possible ... to think of Cerdic as the head of a [[Celtic names in the Wessex royal line|partly British]] noble family with extensive territorial interests at the western end of the [[Saxon Shore|Litus Saxonicum]]. As such he may well have been entrusted in the last days of Roman, or sub-Roman authority with its defence. He would then be what in later Anglo-Saxon terminology could be described as an ealdorman ... If such a dominant native family as that of Cerdic had already developed blood-relationships with existing Saxon and Jutish settlers at this end of the Saxon Shore, it could very well be tempted, once effective Roman authority had faded, to go further. It might have taken matters into its own hands and after eliminating any surviving pockets of resistance by competing British chieftains, such as the mysterious [[Natanleod]] of annal 508, it could "begin to reign" without recognizing in future any superior authority.<ref>Myres, Chapter 6&nbsp;– for all preceding comment.
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