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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Successor Cynric Cerdic (fro m the early British name represented by modern Welsh ''Caradog'') wa s probably the first King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex from 519 to 534, cite d by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the founder of the kingdom of Wesse x and ancestor of all its subsequent kings. '''Life and career''' Ac cording to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic landed in Hampshire in 49 5 with his son Cynric in three keels (ships). He is said to have fough t a British king named Natanleod at Netley Marsh in Hampshire and kill ed him thirteen years later (in 508) and to have fought at Cerdiceslea g (Charford, Cerdic's Ford[1]) in 519, after which he became first kin g of Wessex. The conquest of the Isle of Wight is also mentioned amon g his campaigns, and it was later given to his kinsmen, Stuf and Wihtg ar (who had supposedly arrived with the West Saxons in 514). Cerdic i s said to have died in 534 and was succeeded by his son Cynric. The e arly history of Wessex in the Chronicle is clearly muddled [2] and ent ers duplicate reports of events. David Dumville has suggested that Cer dic's true regnal dates are 538-554. Some scholars suggest that Cerdi c was the Saxon leader defeated by the British at the Battle of Moun t Badon, which was probably fought sometime between 490 and 518. Thi s cannot be the case if Dumville is correct, and others assign this ba ttle to Ælle or another Saxon leader. While Cerdic's area of operati on was, according to the Chronicle, in the area north of Southampton , there is also stronger archaeological evidence of early Anglo-Saxo n activity in the area around Dorchester-on-Thames. This is the late r location of the first West Saxon bishopric, in the first half of th e seventh century, so it appears likely that the origins of the kingdo m of Wessex are more complex than the version provided by the survivin g traditions.[3] Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that Ce rdic is purely a legendary figure, and had no actual existence, but th is is a minority view. However, the earliest source for Cerdic, the An glo-Saxon Chronicle, was put together in the late ninth century; thoug h it probably does record the extant tradition of the founding of Wess ex, the intervening four hundred years mean that the account cannot b e assumed to be accurate.[4][5] Descent from Cerdic became a necessar y criterion for later kings of Wessex, and Egbert of Wessex, progenito r of the English royal house and subsequent rulers of England and Brit ain, claimed him as an ancestor. '''Origins''' The Anglo-Saxon Chron icle provides a pedigree tracing Cerdic's ancestry back to Wōden an d the antediluvian patriarchs. However, this pedigree has been shown b y Kenneth Sisam to have resulted from a process of elaboration upo n a root pedigree borrowed from the kings of Bernicia, and hence prio r to Cerdic himself it has no historical basis.[6] Curiously, the nam e Cerdic is thought to be British – a form of the name Ceretic or Ca radog (in Latin Caratacus) – rather than Germanic in origin. One exp lanation for this is the possibility that Cerdic's mother was Britis h and that he was given a name used by his mother's people; if so, thi s would provide evidence for a degree of mixing, both cultural and bio logical, between the invaders and the native British. Alternatively, t he use of a British name may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton , and that his dynasty became Anglicised over time.[7] This view is su pported by the non-Germanic names of some of his successors includin g Ceawlin, Cedda and Caedwalla. Also Cerdic's father, Elesa, has bee n identified by some scholars with the Romano-Briton Elasius, the "chi ef of the region," met by Germanus of Auxerre.[8] If this were the cas e then the records of Cerdic landing in Britain, which were written do wn many generations after the events they purport to portray, must b e looked on as being in the realms of legend.[9] J.N.L. Myres noted t hat when Cerdic and Cynric first appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle i n 495 they are described as ealdormen, which at that point in time wa s a fairly junior rank. Myres remarks that, It is thus odd to find i t used here to describe the leaders of what purports to be an independ ent band of invaders, who origins and authority are not otherwise spec ified. It looks very much as if a hint is being conveyed that Cerdic a nd his people owed their standing to having been already concerned wit h administrative affairs under Roman authority on this part of the Sax on Shore. Furthermore, it is not until 519 that Cerdic and Cynric ar e recorded as "beginning to reign", suggesting that they ceased bein g dependent vassals or ealdormen and became independent Kings in thei r own right. Summing up, Myres believed that, It is thus possible .. . to think of Cerdic as the head of a partly British noble family wit h extensive territorial interests at the western end of the Litus Saxo nicum. As such he may well have been entrusted in the last days of Rom an, or sub-Roman authority with its defence. He would then be what i n later Anglo-Saxon terminology could be described as an ealdorman. .. . If such a dominant native family as that of Cerdic had already devel oped blood-relationships with existing Saxon and Jutish settlers at th is end of the Saxon Shore, it could very well be tempted, once effecti ve Roman authority had faded, to go further. It might have taken matte rs into its own hands and after eliminating any surviving pockets of r esistance by competing British chieftains, such as the mysterious Nata nleod of annal 508, it could 'begin to reign' without recognizing in f uture any superior authority. Some would disagree with Myres, as Cerd ic is reported to have landed in Hampshire. Some also would say that t he Anglo-Saxon Chronicle proves that Cerdic was indeed a Saxon, howeve r it does not prove that he had no Celtic blood. Some scholars believ e that it is likely that his mother was a British Celt who left for th e Continent or perhaps was a Continental Celt. Geoffrey Ashe postulate s 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 historic al novel Conscience of the King (1951), by the English author Alfred D uggan. In the 2004 film King Arthur, Cerdic and Cynric were depicte d as Saxon invaders, and were killed, respectively, by Arthur and Lanc elot at the Battle of Badon Hill (Mons Badonicus). Cerdic was portraye d by Stellan Skarsgård. Bernard Cornwell names him as a rival of Ael le of Sussex, in his Warlord Chronicles. Rosemary Sutcliff makes hi m the half-British half-Saxon offspring of Hengest's daughter and th e British king Vortigern in her Arthurian saga, an ally of Arthur's tr eacherous son and the unifier of the Saxons. Cerdic's name may be com memorated in the name of the village of Chearsley, Buckinghamshire, wh ich appears in the Domesday Book (1086) as Cerdeslai. This is assume d to be the place mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Cerdicesle ah, where King Cerdic and his son Cynric defeated the Britons in 527 . '''References''' ^ British History Online, Victoria County History , North Charford with South Charford ^ Sir Charles Oman (Oman, Englan d Before the Conquest, 1910:244) found the Wessex annals in the Chroni cle "meagre and inexplicable", "confused and suspicious"; Oman's specu lation that events in the annals had been duplicated was taken up in d etail by Kenneth Harrison (Harrison, "Early Wessex Annals in the Anglo -Saxon Chronicle" The English Historical Review 86 No. 340 (July 1971: 527-533). ^ Fletcher, Richard (1989). Who's Who in Roman Britain an d Anglo-Saxon England. Shepheard-Walwyn. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-85683-089 -5. ^ Hunter Blair, Peter (1960). An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Engl and. Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–35. ^ Campbell, John; John , Eric & Wormald, Patrick (1991). The Anglo-Saxons. Penguin Books. pp . 26. ISBN 0-14-014395-5. ^ Sisam, Kenneth, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Geneal ogies", Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 39, pp. 287-348 (1953 ) ^ *Koch, J.T., (2006) Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, AB C-CLIO, ISBN 1851094407, pp. 392-393. ^ Grosjean, P., Analecta Bollan diana, 1957. Hagiographie Celtique pp. 158-226. ^ Howorth, H.H., "Th e Beginnings of Wessex", The English Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 5 2 (Oct., 1898), pp. 667-671 '''External links''' A pedigree depictin g his legendary descent from Woden A pedigree depicting his suggeste d connection to Arthurian legend The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which say s he and his son arrived in Hampshire (at Cerdic's Ore) from the conti nent