User:Jheald/sandbox/Cerdic

See also Ceretic (disambiguation) for two kings with a similar name.

Cerdic
Imaginary depiction of Cerdic from John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy".
King of Wessex
Reign	519–534
Predecessor	None
Successor	Cynric
Died	534
Issue	Cynric
House	House of Wessex

Cerdic (fl. early 500s) is celebrated in later Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and king lists as the first king of the West Saxons, the ancestor of all of the kings of Wessex, and of the kings of England from Athelstan onwards. By the late 7th century a claimed descent from Cerdic appears to have become a prerequisite for anybody considered to be a contender for the kingship and a member of the Royal House of Wessex.

According to the 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic was a Saxon raider, who first landed on the coast of Hampshire in 495, defeated a local British king, and later established himself as king, reigning from 519 to 534. This is now considered by historians to be later invention.

Instead the forerunners of the West Saxons appear to have originated in the upper Thames valley in present-day Oxfordshire, where they may have been known as the Gewisse. initially expanded westwards from where early Dorchester on Thames. It is possible that Cerdic was the first to establish this population as a unified entity.

As a name Cerdic itself is in fact of British, not Germanic, origin Caratacus, which seems to have been popular in the 5th century.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle account

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells of Cerdic landing in Hampshire in 495 with his son Cynric in five ships. He is said to have fought a Brittonic king named Natanleod at Natanleaga and killed him thirteen years later (in 508), and to have fought at Cerdicesleag in 519. Natanleaga is commonly identified as Netley Marsh in Hampshire and Cerdicesleag as Charford (Cerdic's Ford). The conquest of the Isle of Wight is also mentioned among his campaigns, and it was later given to his kinsmen, Stuf and Wihtgar (who had supposedly arrived with the West Saxons in 514). Cerdic is said to have died in 534 and was succeeded by his son Cynric:

495. This year two ealdormen came to Britain, Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships, at the place which is called Cerdicesora, and the same day they fought against the natives.

(500. In the sixth year of their arrival they encompassed the western part of Britain, now called Wessex -- Æthelweard)

501. This year Port, and his two sons Bieda and Mæagla, came to Britain with two ships, at a place which is called Portsmouth, and they soon effected a landing, and they there slew a young British man of high nobility.

508. This year Cerdic and Cynric slew a British king, whose name was Natanleod, and five thousand men with him. After that the country was named Natanleaga, as far as Cerdicesford.

514. This year the West-Saxons came to Britain with three ships, at the place which is called Cerdicesora, and Stuf and Whitgar fought against the Britons, and put them to flight.

519. This year Cerdic and Cynric obtained the kingdom of the West-Saxons; and the same year they fought against the Britons where it is now named Cerdicsford. And from that time forth the royal offspring of the West-Saxons reigned.

527. This year Cerdic and Cynric fought against the Britons at the place which is called Cerdicesleaga.

530. This year Cerdic and Cynric conquered the island of Wight, and slew many men at Wihtgarabyrg.

534. This year Cerdic, the first king of the West Saxons, died, and Cynric his son succeeded to the kingdom, and reigned from that time twenty-six years; and they gave the whole island of Wight to their two nephews, Stuf and Wihtgar.

544. This year Wihtgar died, and they buried him in Wihtgarabyrg.

Historians find a number of problems with this account, even having discounted the apparent 19-year duplication. (495, 500, 508 vs 514, 519, 527).

The names Port, Natanleod and Wihtgar, and the events associated with them, appear to be back-formations from contemporary placenames – a feature often found in foundation legends – rather than being historically or linguistically plausible. "Portsmouth" derives not from a person called Port, but from the Latin word portus (harbour), specifically the Roman Portus Adurni, which in Saxon times became Portchester. Natanleod is not a name of Celtic form; "Natanleaga" (Netley) in fact derives from the Saxon næt meaning wet plus leaga meaning "wood". "Wihtgarabyrg" means the stronghold of the Wihtgara, the people of Wight, in which the Saxon name "Wiht" derives from the Roman Uecta/Uectis.

The political geography is also wrong. Far from being the heartland of a developing West Saxon polity, Bede writes in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (731), informed by Bishop Daniel of Winchester, of southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight as having been the territory of Jutes, like the Kingdom of Kent. Archaeology finds both, but Jutish control. Wessex control only with...

There are good reasons too to be suspicious about the chrononology. Genealogical list. -- Kent.

Earliest annals may have been written as annotations to astronomical calendars Easter 19 year cycle.

Any purported connection between Cerdic and southern Hampshire or the Isle of Wight is certainly suspect and probably spurious. While Cerdic's area of operation was, according to the Chronicle, in the area west of Southampton, there is also stronger archaeological evidence of early Anglo-Saxon activity in the area around Dorchester-on-Thames. This is the later location of the first West Saxon bishopric, in the first half of the seventh century. The first English settlers in the Isle of Wight were Jutes and a later Chronicle entry states that the island was conquered by Wessex (only) in the seventh century. There was also an early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Abingdon. All this indicates that the original Kingdom of Wessex (then known as the Gewissae) was probably in the Thames Valley below Oxford. The name of Chearsley in Buckinghamshire was Cerdeslai in the Domesday Book, which makes it a good candidate for Cerdicesleag; and Notley, a mile from Chearsley on the River Thame, is a credible possibility for Natanleaga. These possibilities, though unproven, would locate the battles in the Chronicle within or close to the most credible original borders of Wessex.

The early history of Wessex in the Chronicle is clearly muddled and enters duplicate reports of events. David Dumville has suggested that Cerdic's true regnal dates are 538–554. Some scholars suggest that Cerdic was the Saxon leader defeated by the Britons at the Battle of Mount Badon, which was 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 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.

Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that Cerdic is purely a legendary figure, and had no actual existence, but this is a minority view. However, the earliest source for Cerdic, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was put together in the late ninth century; though it probably does record the extant tradition of the founding of Wessex, the intervening four hundred years mean that the account cannot be assumed to be accurate.

Descent from Cerdic became a necessary criterion for later kings of Wessex, and Egbert of Wessex, progenitor of the English royal house and subsequent rulers of England and Britain, claimed him as an ancestor.

Origins

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides a pedigree tracing Cerdic's ancestry back to Wōden and the antediluvian patriarchs. However, Kenneth Sisam has shown that this pedigree resulted from a process of elaboration upon a root pedigree borrowed from the kings of Bernicia, and hence prior to Cerdic himself it has no historical basis.

Curiously, the name Cerdic is thought to be Brittonic – a form of the name Ceretic rather than Germanic in origin. The name derives, ultimately, from the British name *Caraticos. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became Anglicised over time. This view is supported by the potentially non-Germanic names of some of his descendants including Ceawlin, Cedda and Caedwalla. Conversely some Welsh princely dynasties derive from early ancestors with potentially Germanic names such as Tewdrig (Theodoric) and his father Teithfallt. This suggests that ethnicity was possibly not as important in the establishment of rulership within the proto-states of Post-Roman Britain as has been traditionally thought. Cerdic's father, Elesa, has been identified by some scholars with the Romano-Briton Elasius, the "chief of the region", met by Germanus of Auxerre.

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. Myres remarks that,

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,

It is thus possible … to think of Cerdic as the head of a partly British noble family with extensive territorial interests at the western end of the 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.

Some would disagree with Myres, as Cerdic is reported to have landed in Hampshire. Some also would say that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle proves that Cerdic was indeed a Saxon; however, it does not prove that he had no Celtic blood. Some scholars believe it likely that his mother was a British Celt who left for the Continent, or perhaps a Continental Celt. Geoffrey Ashe postulates he may be a son of Riothamus.

Modern times

The name "Cedric" (in place of "Cerdic") arose from a misspelling in the novel Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott.

Cerdic is the main protagonist in the historical novel Conscience of the King (1951), by the English author Alfred Duggan.

Cerdic was the primary antagonist of the 2004 film King Arthur. He and Cynric were depicted as Saxon invaders, and were killed, respectively, by Arthur and Lancelot at the Battle of Badon Hill (Mons Badonicus). Cerdic was portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård.

Bernard Cornwell names him as a rival of Aelle of Sussex, in his Warlord Chronicles.

Rosemary Sutcliff makes him the half-Briton half-Saxon offspring of Hengest's daughter and the British king Vortigern in her Arthurian saga, an ally of Arthur's treacherous son and the unifier of the Saxons.

In Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner trilogy, Cerdic is presented as King Arthur's son by his divorced first wife, Winifred. Later, he marries Arthur's former lover, Mathild, and she gives birth to Cynric. It is unceirtan whether Cynric is Cerdic's or Arthur's son.

Cerdic's name may be commemorated in the name of the village of Chearsley, Buckinghamshire, which appears in the Domesday Book (1086) as Cerdeslai. This is assumed to be the place mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Cerdicesleah, where King Cerdic and his son Cynric defeated the Britons in 527.

External links

• Cerdic 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England