Editing Cerdic of Wessex (section)

== King of Wessex ==
[[Image:Britain.early.6th.century.nascent.kingdoms.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|South Britain in the early 6th century]]

According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Cerdic landed in Britain at a place called Cerdic's-ore, presumably in what is present-day [[Hampshire]], in 495 with his son Cynric in five ships. He is said to have fought a Brittonic king named [[Natanleod]] and slew him and 5,000 men in 508 after which all the land was named 'Natanleaga' up to Cerdices Ford. He then fought another battle against the Britons at Cerdices Ford in 519 based on the ''Anglo Saxon Chronicle's'' account.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wessex: pt 1 of 3 |url=https://www.dot-domesday.me.uk/wessex.htm |access-date=26 March 2024 |website=www.dot-domesday.me.uk}}</ref> Natanleaga is often identified as [[Netley Marsh]] in [[Hampshire]], however, it could refer to the region of the [[New Forest]] and Cerdices Ford is associated with [[North Charford]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol4/pp560-563 |title=Parishes: North Charford with South Charford &#124; British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref> which was called 'Cerde Ford' in the [[Domesday Book]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=[North] Charford {{!}} Domesday Book |url=https://opendomesday.org/place/SU1719/north-charford/ |access-date=26 March 2024 |website=opendomesday.org}}</ref> The conquest of the [[Isle of Wight]] is mentioned among his campaigns, and it later was given to his kinsmen Stuf and Wihtgar (who supposedly arrived with the West Saxons in 514). Cerdic is said by the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' to have died in 534, succeeded by his son Cynric. 

The early history of Wessex in the ''Chronicle'' has been considered unreliable, with duplicate reports of events and seemingly contradictory information.<ref>Sir [[Charles Oman]] (Oman, ''England Before the Conquest'', 1910:244) found the Wessex annals in the ''Chronicle'' "meagre and inexplicable", "confused and suspicious"; Oman's speculation that events in the annals had been duplicated was taken up in detail by Kenneth Harrison (Harrison, "Early Wessex Annals in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", ''The English Historical Review'', ''86'', No. 340 (July 1971:527–533).</ref> By careful analysis of the ''Chronicle'' and the [[West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List]], which drew on a list of kings now lost, [[David Dumville]] showed that the earliest texts mentioning Cerdic must have put his reign as 538–554. (Through adaptation of this chronology, the beginning of Cerdic's reign was moved first from 538 to 519 and then again to 500. The resulting chronological gap between the beginning of Cerdic's dynasty and the reliably datable, seventh-century kings was bridged by expanding the reign of Cerdic's distant successor Ceawlin from seven years (581–588) to thirty-two (560–591)).<ref>David N. Dumville, 'The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex', ''Peritia'', 4 (1985), 21–66 (pp. 58–59); {{doi|10.1484/J.Peri.3.96}}.</ref>

Because [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] mentions a Cheldric as a Saxon war leader who fought at Bath in the same period, some scholars once suggested that (due to similarities of names) Cerdic was the Saxon leader defeated by the Britons at the [[Battle of Badon|Battle of Mount Badon]], probably fought in 490 (and possibly later, but not later than 518). This cannot be the case if Dumville is correct, and others assign this battle to [[Ælle of Sussex|Ælle]] or another Saxon leader, so it appears likely that the origins of the kingdom of Wessex are more complex than the version provided by the surviving traditions.<ref name=Fletcher_22>{{cite book |last=Fletcher |first=Richard |title=Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England |pages=22–23 |year=1989 |publisher=Shepheard-Walwyn |isbn=0-85683-089-5}}</ref>

Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that Cerdic is purely a legendary figure, but this is a minority view. The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', the earliest source for Cerdic, was put together in the late ninth century; though it probably does record the extant tradition of the founding of Wessex, the intervening 400 years mean that the account cannot be assumed to be accurate.<ref name=BlairAITASE_34>{{cite book |last=Hunter Blair |first=Peter |title=An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England |pages=34–35 |year=1960 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref><ref name=Campbell_26>{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=John |last2=John |first2=Eric |last3=Wormald |first3=Patrick |title=The Anglo-Saxons |page=26 |year=1991 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-014395-5}}</ref> The annals of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', along with the genealogical descents embedded in that source's accounts of later kings, describe Cerdic's succession by his son Cynric. However, the Genealogical Regnal List that served as preface to the ''Chronicle'' manuscripts instead interposes a generation between them, indicating that Cerdic was father of [[Creoda of Wessex|Creoda]] and grandfather of Cynric.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Arthurian Figures of History and Legend: A Biographical Dictionary |last=Reno |first=Frank |publisher=McFarland |year=2011 |isbn=9780786444205 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |page=83}}</ref>

Descent from Cerdic became a necessary qualification for later kings of Wessex, and he was claimed ancestor of [[Ecgberht, King of Wessex]], progenitor of the English royal house and subsequent [[List of English monarchs|rulers of England]] and [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|Britain]].