House of Wessex family tree
The following chart is a family tree of the kings of the House of Wessex, a dynasty whose members were Kings of Wessex.
The chart shows their (claimed) descent from the traditional first king of Wessex, Cerdic, down to the children of Alfred the Great. A continuation of the tree into the 10th and 11th centuries can be found at English monarchs family tree.
Sources
The tree is largely based on the late 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (reproduced in several forms, including as a preface to the [B] manuscript of the Chronicle),[1] and Asser's Life of King Alfred. These sources are all closely related and were compiled at a similar date, and incorporate a desire in their writers to associate the royal household with the authority of being a continuation of a unified line of kingship descended from a single original founder.[2]
One apparently earlier pedigree survives, which traces the ancestry of King Ine back to Cerdic. This first appears in a 10th-century manuscript copy of the "Anglian collection" of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies. The manuscript is thought to have been made at Glastonbury in the 930s during the reign of King Æthelstan [3] (whose family traced their own royal descent back to Cerdic via a brother of King Ine), but the material may well date back to the earliest reconstructable version of the collection, c. 796; and possibly still further back, to 725-6.[4] Compared to the later texts, this pedigree gives an ancestry for Ceolwald as son of Cuthwulf son of Cuthwine which in the later 9th-century texts sometimes seems confused; and it states Cynric as son of Creoda son of Cerdic, whereas the Chronicle annals go to some length to present Cerdic and Cynric as a father-and-son pair who land in and conquer the southern part of Wessex together (a narrative now considered spurious by historians).[5]
Many of the links shown are disputed. Egbert, who became King of Wessex in 802, was probably of Kentish origin, and his ancestry back to Cerdic may have been invented to legitimize his claim to the throne of Wessex.[6] There are also a number of discrepancies between different sources.
| Cerdic King of Wessex ?–519-534 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cynric King of Wessex c.494–534-560 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ceawlin King of Wessex c.535–560-592 | Cutha | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cuthwine b. c.565 | Ceol King of Wessex ?–592-597 | Ceolwulf King of Wessex ?–597-611 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cedda b.590 | Cuthwulf b.592 | Cynegils King of Wessex ?–611-642 | Pybba King of Mercia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cenfus King of Wessex ?–674-674 | Cenberht 620-661 | Ceolwald | Cwichelm King of Wessex ?–626-636 | Seaxburh Queen of Wessex ?–672-674 | Cenwalh King of Wessex ?–642-645, 648-672 | sister of Penda | Penda King of Mercia c.606–c.626-655 King of Wessex 645-648 | Eowa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Æscwine King of Wessex ?–674-676 | Caedwalla King of Wessex 659–685-688 | Mul King of Kent 660-686-687 | Cenred b. 640 | Cuthred | Centwine King of Wessex ?–676-685 | Osmod | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ingild 672-718 | Aldfrith King of Northumbria ?–685–704/5 | Cuthburh d. c.718 | Cwenburh d. c.735 | Ine King of Wessex c.670–688-726 | Æthelburh | Æthelheard King of Wessex ?–726-740 | Cuthred King of Wessex ?–740-756 | Eanwulf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eoppa b. 706 | Cynric aethling d. 748 | Thingfrith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eafa b. 730 | Kentish Princess | Sigeberht King of Wessex ?–756-757 | Cyneheard d. 786 | Cynewulf King of Wessex ?–757-786 | Offa King of Mercia ?–757-796 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ealhmund King of Kent c.750–784-784 | Beorhtric King of Wessex ?–786-802 | Eadburh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Egbert King of Wessex 775–802-839 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Æthelwulf King of Wessex 795–839-858 | Osburh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Æthelstan King of Kent 830–839-855 | Æthelbald King of Wessex 831–856-860 | Burgred King of Mercia ?–852-874 | Æthelswith 833–889 | Æthelberht King of Wessex 835–860-865 | Æthelred I King of Wessex c.848–865-871 | Alfred the Great King of the Anglo-Saxons 849–871-899 | Ealhswith 852–905 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Æthelhelm c.865–c.890 | Æthelwold d. 901 | Æthelred Lord of the Mercians ?–c.881-911 | Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians 869–911-918 | Edward the Elder King of the Anglo-Saxons 871–899-924 | Æthelweard 875–922 | Ælfthryth 877–929 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ælfwynn Ruler of Mercia r. 918 | English monarchs tree | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- Barbara Yorke (1995), Wessex in the early Middle Ages, A&C Black, ISBN 071851856X; pp 79-83; table p. 81
- ↑ D.N. Dumville (1985), "The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex", Peritia 4 21–66 doi:10.1484/J.Peri.3.96
D.N. Dumville (1986), "The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List: Manuscripts and Texts", Anglia 104 1–32 doi:10.1515/angl.1986.1986.104.1 - ↑ A "political fiction", according to D.P. Kirby (1992), The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09086-5, p. 49)
- ↑ Kenneth Sisam (1953), "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", Proceedings of the British Academy 39 287–348
David Dumville (1976) "The Anglian collection of royal genealogies and regnal lists", in Anglo-Saxon England, Clemoes, ed., 5 (1976), pp. 23–50. doi:10.1017/S0263675100000764 - ↑ Dumville (1976), pp. 40, 42, 46. It is also possible that the material may first have been joined in with the collection in a copy made in Mercia c.840.
- ↑ Barbara Yorke (1989), "The Jutes of Hampshire and Wight and the origins of Wessex" in S.R. Bassett (ed), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0718513177 pp. 84-96.
Yorke's theory "has met with general acceptance (I cannot find any historian or archaeologist that disagrees with her conclusions)", according to Robin Bush at "Were the West Saxons guilty of ethnic cleansing?". Time Team Live 2001. Channel 4. 2001-08-28. Archived from the original on 2006-02-19. - ↑ Heather Edwards (2004), Ecgberht, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
External links
- "Family tree of Kings of Wessex and England 802–1066" (PDF). The official website of the British Monarchy. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
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