Wessex
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Map of the British Isles circa 802 |
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 as a kingdom from the
6th century until the emergence of the English state in the
9th century, and as an
earldom between
1016 and
1066. The earldom was recently revived for
His Royal Highness The Prince Edward. "Wessex" has never had any official existence since that time, but it has remained a familiar term since
Thomas Hardy revived it for his
West Country novels and poetry. Today some wish to see it restored as a
region of England.
According to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC), Wessex was founded by
Cerdic and
Cynric, chieftains of a clan known as
"Gewisse", although the specific events given by the ASC are considered to be suspect.
Archæological evidence points to an origin in the upper
Thames and
Cotswolds area, and the ASC origin myth may have been political propaganda designed to justify a later invasion of the
Jutish province in southern
Hampshire and the
Isle of Wight. The first certain event in Wessex is the
baptism of
Cynegils around the year
640.
Wessex expanded its boundaries and clashed with its neighbours, notably
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 integrated system of fortified towns (the
"burhs") established under
Alfred the Great, described in both
Asser and the
ASC, and documented in a unique
hidage[The Burghal Hidage: Alfred's Towns, Alfred the Great website], 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.
Important West Saxon settlements included old Roman settlements such as
Dorchester and
Winchester, which Alfred made the capital in
871, and newly-founded
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, the northern boundary of Wessex was probably the
River Thames;
Southwark, facing London on the south bank of the Thames, was included among the
burhs, but
London fell beyond West Saxon territory. Its heartland was the present-day counties of
Hampshire,
Wiltshire,
Dorset,
Somerset, and
Berkshire.
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The flag of the Wessex Region as proposed by regionalist parties, showing a Wyvern |
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. 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 justify their eight-
shire definition of Wessex in terms both of history and of 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.
*
43rd (Wessex) Brigade - British Army's regional command for the South West region
*
Royal Wessex Yeomanry - British Army territoral unit
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Wessex Archaeology - An educational charity and the largest UK archaeological practice [
1]
*
Wessex culture - an archæological label used
anachronistically to describe a
bronze age culture whose remains are found in the Wessex area
*
Wessex League -
football league covering Hampshire and parts of the surrounding counties
*
Wessex Trains -
train operating company that use to operate in much of the South West region
*
Wessex Water - water supply and sewage company that covers much of the South West region
In an unusual move,
Prince Edward was made Earl of Wessex and
Viscount Severn in honour of his marriage to
Sophie Rhys-Jones (styled as Countess of Wessex) in
1999. The title Earl of Wessex had not been in use for over 900 years. The last earl, King
Harold Godwinson, was famously killed at the
Battle of Hastings in
1066.
*
Monarchs of Wessex*
The Case for Wessex (devolutionary movement)*
The Burghal Hidage*
Thomas Hardy's Wessex Research site by Dr
Birgit Plietzsch
