House of Wessex

The House of Wessex, also known as the House of Cerdic, the House of the West Saxons, the House of the Gewisse, the Cerdicings and the West Saxon dynasty, refers to the family, traditionally founded by Cerdic of the Gewisse, that ruled Wessex in Southern England from the early 6th century. The house became dominant in southern England after the accession of King Ecgberht in 802. Alfred the Great saved England from Viking conquest in the late ninth century and his grandson Æthelstan became first king of England in 927. The disastrous reign of Æthelred the Unready ended in Danish conquest in 1014. Æthelred and his son Edmund Ironside attempted to resist the Vikings in 1016, but after their deaths the Danish Cnut the Great and his sons ruled until 1042. The House of Wessex then briefly regained power under Æthelred's son Edward the Confessor, but lost it after the Confessor's reign, with the Norman Conquest in 1066. All kings of England since William II but not only the monarchy have been descended from the House of Wessex through William the Conqueror's wife Matilda of Flanders, who was a descendant of Alfred the Great through his daughter Ælfthryth. Additionally, kings since Henry II have been descended from English kings from the House of Wessex through Henry I's wife Matilda of Scotland, who was a great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside.
==History==
The House of Wessex became rulers of a unified English nation under the descendants of Alfred the Great (871–899). Edward the Elder, Alfred's son, united southern England under his rule by conquering the Viking occupied areas of Mercia and East Anglia. His son, Æthelstan, extended the kingdom into the northern lands of Northumbria, which lies above the Mersey and Humber, but this was not fully consolidated until after his nephew Edgar succeeded to the throne. 
Their rule was often contested, notably by the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard who invaded in 995 and occupied the united English throne from 1013 to 1014, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready and his son Edmund Ironside. Sweyn, his son Canute and his successors ruled until 1042. After Harthacanute, there was a brief Anglo-Saxon restoration between 1042 and 1066 under Edward the Confessor, who was a son of Æthelred, who was later succeeded by Harold Godwinson, a member of the House of Godwin, possibly a side branch of the Cerdicings (see Ancestry of the Godwins). After the Battle of Hastings, the victorious Duke of Normandy became William I of England. Anglo-Saxon attempts to restore native rule in the person of Edgar the Ætheling, a grandson of Edmund Ironside who had originally been passed over in favour of Harold, were unsuccessful and William's descendants secured their rule. Chroniclers describe conflicting stories about Edgar's later years, including a supposed involvement in the First Crusade; he is presumed to have died around 1126. A Northumberland pipe roll mentions an "Edgar Adeling" in 1158, and 1167, by which time Edgar would have been over 100 years old.Freeman, Edward A. The History of the Norman Conquest of England (1869), Vol. III p.766 citing Hodgson, J., and Hinde, J. H. History of Northumberland (1820–1858), Part III, Vol. III, pp. 3, 11 Beyond this, there is no existing evidence that the male line of the Cerdicings continued beyond Edgar Ætheling. Edgar's niece Matilda of Scotland later married William's son Henry I to consilidate his claim to the throne, since his father, William the Conqueror already had a tenuous claim to the English throne, and he had an even more tenuous one, forming a link between the two dynasties. Henry II was a descendant of the House of Wessex in the female line, something that contemporary English commentators noted with approval.Harper-Hill, C. and Vincent, N. (2007) Henry II: New Interpretations, Boydell Press, p. 382.
The House of Wessex predominantly ruled from Winchester (Wintan-ceastre). Going back to Cynegils, several kings and consorts of the dynasty were buried at the cathedral in Winchester, first in the Old Minster and then the New Minster. The remains of many of these rulers and others were vandalized during the English Civil War; currently the bones rest jumbled in different mortuary chests in the current cathedral.
Though London was already a prominent city in pre-Conquest England, only one king from the House of Wessex was buried there (Æthelred the Unready, at Old St. Paul's, now lost). Edward the Confessor favored Westminster as a residence, and his construction of a large Romanesque church there would lead to its later prominence. Other kings from the Wessex dynasty are buried at Sherborne, Wimborne, and Brookwood.
==Timeline==
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DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:519 till:1066
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ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:10 start:520
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 bar:eon color:eon
 from:519 till:645 color:w text:Wessex
 from:645 till:648 color:m text:[[Iclingas|Iclingas (Mercia)]]
 from:648 till:1013 color:w
 from:1013 till:1014 color:d text:[[House of Knýtlinga|Knýtlinga (Denmark)]]
 from:1014 till:1016 color:w
 from:1016 till:1042 color:d
 from:1042 till:1066 color:w
 from:1066 till:1066 color:eon text:[[House of Godwin]]
 from:1066 till:1066 color:w
 width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till
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 from:519 till:534 color:w text:"[[Cerdic of Wessex|Cerdic]]"
 from:534 till:560 color:w text:"[[Cynric of Wessex|Cynric]]"
 from:560 till:591 color:w text:"[[Ceawlin of Wessex|Ceawlin]]"
 from:591 till:597 color:w text:"[[Ceol of Wessex|Ceol]]"
 from:597 till:611 color:w text:"[[Ceolwulf of Wessex|Ceolwulf]]"
 from:611 till:643 color:w text:"[[Cynegils of Wessex|Cynegils]]"
 from:626 till:636 color:w text:"[[Cwichelm of Wessex|Cwichelm]]
 from:643 till:645 color:w text:"[[Cenwalh of Wessex|Cenwalh]]" "(first reign)"
 from:645 till:648 color:m text:"[[Penda of Mercia|Penda]]
 from:648 till:674 color:w text:"[[Cenwalh of Wessex|Cenwalh]]" "(second reign)"
 from:672 till:674 color:w text:"[[Seaxburh of Wessex|Seaxburh]] 
 from:674 till:674 color:w text:"[[Cenfus of Wessex|Cenfus]]" (disputed)"
 from:674 till:676 color:w text:"[[Æscwine of Wessex|Æscwine]]"
 from:676 till:685 color:w text:"[[Centwine of Wessex|Centwine]]"
 from:685 till:688 color:w text:"[[Cædwalla of Wessex|Cædwalla]]" (abdicated)"
 from:688 till:726 color:w text:"[[Ine of Wessex|Ine]]"
 from:726 till:740 color:w text:"[[Æthelheard of Wessex|Æthelheard]]"
 from:740 till:756 color:w text:"[[Cuthred of Wessex|Cuthred]]"
 from:756 till:757 color:w text:"[[Sigeberht of Wessex|Sigeberht]]"
 from:757 till:786 color:w text:"[[Cynewulf of Wessex|Cynewulf]]"
 from:786 till:802 color:w text:"[[Beorhtric of Wessex|Beorhtric]]"
 from:802 till:839 color:w text:"[[Egbert of Wessex|Egbert]]"
 from:839 till:858 color:w text:"[[Æthelwulf, King of Wessex|Æthelwulf]]"
 from:858 till:860 color:w text:"[[Æthelbald of Wessex|Æthelbald]]"
 from:860 till:866 color:w text:"[[Æthelberht of Wessex|Ætheberht]]"
 from:866 till:871 color:w text:"[[Æthelred I, King of Wessex|Æthelred I]]"
 from:871 till:899 color:w text:"[[Alfred the Great]]"
 from:899 till:924 color:w text:"[[Edward the Elder]]"
 from:924 till:924 color:w text:"[[Ælfweard of Wessex|Ælfweard]]" (disputed)"
 from:924 till:939 color:w text:"[[Æthelstan]]"
 from:939 till:946 color:w text:"[[Edmund I]]"
 from:946 till:955 color:w text:"[[Eadred]]"
 from:955 till:959 color:w text:"[[Eadwig]]"
 from:959 till:975 color:w text:"[[Edgar the Peaceful]]"
 from:975 till:978 color:w text:"[[Edward the Martyr]]"
 
 from:978 till:1013 color:w text:"[[Æthelred II]] (first reign)"
 from:1013 till:1014 color:w text:"[[Sweyn Forkbeard]] 
 from:1014 till:1016 color:w text:"[[Æthelred II]] (second reign)"
 from:1016 till:1016 color:w text:"[[Edmund II Ironside]]"
 from:1016 till:1035 color:d text:"[[Cnut the Great]]"
 from:1035 till:1040 color:d text:"[[Harold Harefoot]]"
 from:1040 till:1042 color:d text:"[[Harthacnut]]"
 from:1042 till:1066 color:w text:"[[Edward the Confessor]]"
 from:1066 till:1066 color:eon text:"[[Harold Godwinson]]
 from:1066 till:1066 color:w text:"[[Edgar Ætheling]]" (disputed)"
 barset:skip
==Genealogy==
For a family tree of the House of Wessex from Cerdic down to the children of King Alfred the Great, see:
* House of Wessex family tree
A continuation into the 10th and 11th centuries can be found at
* English monarchs family tree
==See also==
* List of monarchs of Wessex
* Wessex
* List of English monarchs
==References==
== Sources ==
* Stephen Friar and John Ferguson (1993), Basic Heraldry, W. W. Norton & Company, 
* 
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Wessex