Summary

Cerdic was the first ruler of the kingdom of Wessex. His reign is traditionally dated from 519 to 534. He is considered the ancestor of Egbert of Wessex and, through him, of the various English and then British royal dynasties up to the House of Windsor.

Cerdic is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is stated that he landed at Cerdicesora, in Hampshire, in 495, with five ships. He is said to have defeated and killed a Breton king named Natanleod at the battle of Netley in 508, and then became king of the "West Saxons" after a battle at Cerdicesford (Charford) north of Southampton.

These Saxons arrived in southern Britain in 514 with three ships, under the leadership of Stuf and Wihtgar, two relatives of Cerdic. The latter, in addition to the battle of Netley, fought another battle of unknown outcome against the Bretons in 527, at Cerdicesleag. He also conquered the Isle of Wight in 530. At his death, in 534, he gave it to Stuf and Wihtgar, whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle designates with the term nefa, which can indifferently designate a nephew, a grandson or a son-in-law in Old English.

His son (or grandson) Cynric would have succeeded him and reigned 17 (according to the introduction of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) or 26 years (according to the body of this same text).

For some historians, Cerdic was the Saxon leader defeated by the Romans at the battle of Mount Badon, somewhere between 490 and 516. However, others assign this battle to Ælle of Sussex or to another Saxon leader.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was written during the reign of Alfred the Great in the ninth century, probably on the basis of earlier traditions. Its validity as far as the end of the fifth century is concerned is uncertain. Indeed, the dates it gives fit poorly with the testimony of Gildas, who considers the first half of the sixth century as a period of relative security for the Bretons. In addition, the introduction states that Cerdic became king of the West Saxons six years after his arrival and ruled for sixteen years, which would place his reign between 501 and 517.

In addition, archaeological research seems to indicate that the kingdom of Wessex was formed around Dorchester on Thames, in Oxfordshire. This city was the seat of the first bishopric of Wessex, and the political heart of the kingdom until Mercian pressure caused it to lose its importance to Winchester. It was probably the capital of Ceawlin of Wessex, whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle considers as a son of Cynric, but whose exact parentage is disputed. The Germanic populations established around Southampton were, as Bede affirms, Jutes, some of whom (the Meonware) were present in the region as early as 450. A Jute kingdom, apparently originating from the domain of Stuf and Wightgar, was maintained in the Isle of Wight until the seventh century.

Generally speaking, the Chronicle mentions three Germanic groups active in Hampshire in the early sixth century:

None of these groups were active in Oxfordshire and Old Sarum was not conquered by Cynric and Ceawlin until 556.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives Cerdic a Saxon genealogy that traces him to the god Woden. It is, however, generally considered to be bogus. It incorporates elements of the royal lines of Sussex, Bernicia and Mercy, as well as the Danish ruling family. Her father's name, Elesa, could be Celtic and correspond to the Welsh Elisedd.

Cerdic is moreover qualified by Bede as "Dux Gewissorum", a term which until the 7th century will be a synonym of "West Saxons" or Wessex. It was however borne by two Breton kings, Vortigern and Eudaf Hen. It is not known what the term Gewissae originally meant. Several hypotheses have been proposed:

J. N. L. Myres points out that when Cerdic and Cynric first appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 495, they are described as ealdormen, a title which in the Wessex tradition corresponds to a Roman prefect or Carolingian earl. Myres notes that "it is strange that this title should be used to describe the leaders of what appears to be a band of independent invaders, whose origin and authority are nowhere specified. Moreover, it was not until 519 that Cerdic and Cynric were considered to be 'beginning to rule,' which suggests that they then ceased to be dependent vassals or earldormen and became independent kings."

In summary, Myres believes that "It is also possible to think that Cerdic was the head of a partly Brittonic noble family intending to extend its territory to the western part of the "Litus Saxonicum". He could also have been "vassalized" in late Roman times. He could have been what is known as an earldorman. If a dominant native family such as Cerdic's could have developed blood relations with the Jute and Saxon settlers, it may well have been tempted, after the fall of effective Roman authority, to go further. Cerdic may have taken matters into its own hands and, after eliminating the last pockets of resistance around Brittonic chiefs, such as the mysterious Natanleod of the entry for 508, "begin to rule" without recognizing any higher authority."

Others, such as John Morris, go further and make Cerdic a purely Breton prince who would have either concluded an alliance with, or used, Germanic groups settled on the Hampshire coast before establishing a kingdom there which would have gradually become Germanized. Cerdic would then have been at the center of an alliance between the Breton elites of Hampshire and the Saxon aristocracy. It should be noted, moreover, that the battle of Netley, where Cerdic is said to have killed a Breton king, took place on the territory of the Meonware, a Germanic people, and that nothing indicates in the text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that the battle of 514 was won by the West Saxons, nor that Cerdic was at their head.

Several identities have been attributed to Cerdic:

Sources

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2. Cerdic
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