   #copyright

Wessex

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Geography of Great Britain

   Map of the British Isles circa 802
   Map of the British Isles circa 802

   Wessex was one of the seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (the Heptarchy)
   that preceded the Kingdom of England. It was named after the West
   Saxons and was situated in the south and southwest of England. It
   existed as a kingdom from the 6th century until the emergence of the
   English state in the 9th century, and as an earldom between 1016 and
   1066. The earldom was recently revived for His Royal Highness The
   Prince Edward. "Wessex" has not had any official existence since that
   time, but it has remained a familiar term since Thomas Hardy revived it
   for his West Country novels and poetry. Today some wish to see it
   restored as a region of England.

History

   According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC), Wessex was founded by
   Cerdic and Cynric, chieftains of a clan known as " Gewisse", although
   the specific events given by the ASC are considered to be suspect.
   Archæological evidence points to an origin in the upper Thames and
   Cotswolds area, and the ASC origin myth may have been political
   propaganda designed to justify a later invasion of the Jutish province
   in southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The first certain event in
   Wessex is the baptism of Cynegils around the year 640.

   Wessex expanded its boundaries and clashed with its neighbours, notably
   British Dumnonia (essentially modern day Devon and Cornwall), which it
   eventually came to dominate, and with Mercia. After Egbert defeated
   Mercia in 825 and the Northumbrians accepted his overlordship in 829,
   Egbert became the Bretwalda or lord of Britain, he was never referred
   to as King of England.

   The integrated system of fortified towns (the " burhs") established
   under Alfred the Great, described in both Asser and the ASC, and
   documented in a unique hidage, helped to prevent the conquest of
   southern England by the Danish invaders in the 870s. The hidage
   identifies thirty-three forts, which ensured that no one in Wessex was
   more than a long day's ride from a place of safety.

   Important West Saxon settlements included old Roman settlements such as
   Dorchester and Winchester, which Alfred made the capital in 871, and
   newly-founded burhs such as Wallingford.

   There is some evidence that kingship in Wessex was not rigidly
   hereditary. The strongest candidate from the pool of the senior
   families was elected or forced his control on the lesser kings. The
   internal feuding produced by this may have delayed the rise of Wessex
   as a full kingdom, but this is conjecture.

   After the Mercian conquest of its original territories in
   Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the northern boundary of Wessex was
   probably the River Thames; Southwark, facing London from the south bank
   of the Thames, was included among the burhs, but London fell beyond
   West Saxon territory. Its heartland was the present-day counties of
   Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Berkshire.

Revival

   The English author Thomas Hardy used a fictionalised south-west as a
   setting for many of his novels, reviving the term Wessex for southwest
   England. His Wessex included all the counties mentioned in the previous
   paragraph apart from Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, along with Devon.
   He gave the counties the following fictionalised names: Berkshire =
   North Wessex; Devon = Lower Wessex; Dorset = South Wessex; Hampshire =
   Upper Wessex; Somerset = Outer Wessex; Wiltshire = Mid-Wessex.
   Neighbouring Cornwall was described as Off-Wessex or Lyonesse. See
   Thomas Hardy's Wessex.

   There is a movement in modern day south-central England to create a
   regional cultural and political identity in Wessex. This consists of
   three distinct but interlinked organisations. The Wessex Regionalist
   Party is a registered political party which contests elections. The
   Wessex Constitutional Convention is an all-party pressure group in
   which those sympathetic to Wessex devolution who are not members of the
   Wessex Regionalist Party can also be represented. The Wessex Society is
   a cultural society which promotes a cultural identity for Wessex while
   remaining neutral on questions of political devolution.

   The boundaries of Wessex were unclear and subject to dispute. The
   Wessex Constitutional Convention and Wessex Society add Gloucestershire
   and Oxfordshire to Hardy's list; and the Wessex Regionalists, who
   currently use Hardy's definition of Wessex, are likely to follow suit
   in the near future.

   This definition of Wessex has been criticised from a number of
   quarters. A number of people within Devon, southern Somerset and parts
   of Dorset see those areas as sharing a Dumnonian Celtic identity with
   Cornwall, whereas some regard Hardy's definition as correct on the
   grounds that the counties north of the Thames, along with Berkshire and
   north-east Somerset, were part of Mercia for most of the Anglo-Saxon
   period. There are also a few in Hampshire who argue that southern
   Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were once a Jutish province in their
   own right and deserve to be treated differently to the rest of Wessex.

   The Wessex regionalist movements justify their eight- shire definition
   of Wessex in terms both of history and of modern regional geography and
   point to the impossibility of pleasing everyone as an argument against
   change at the present time, though they do not rule out the possibility
   of change in the future if the popular will demands it.

The present South West England region

   The government office region of South West England covers a different
   area, consisting of Hardy's Wessex, less Berkshire, Hampshire and the
   Isle of Wight, but including Cornwall and Gloucestershire. Wessex
   groups are currently campaigning for boundary revisions to the regions
   in order to more closely match their definitions of Wessex.

Modern uses

     * Wessex Stadium, home to Weymouth F.C.
     * 43rd (Wessex) Brigade - British Army's regional command for the
       South West region
     * Royal Wessex Yeomanry - British Army territorial unit
     * Wessex Archaeology - An educational charity and the largest UK
       archaeological practice
     * Wessex culture - an archæological label used anachronistically to
       describe a Bronze Age culture whose remains are found in the Wessex
       area
     * Wessex League - football league covering Hampshire and parts of the
       surrounding counties
     * Wessex Sound Studios - a renowned former recording studio
     * Wessex Trains - train operating company that used to operate in
       much of the South West region
     * Wessex Water - water supply and sewage company that covers much of
       the South West region
     * Wessex Cyclists Touring Club - cycling and events across the region
     * Wessex Sport - Southampton University Sports teams have adopted
       'Wessex' as a group identity

Earl of Wessex

   In an unusual move, Prince Edward was made Earl of Wessex and Viscount
   Severn in honour of his marriage to Sophie, The Countess of Wessex. The
   title Earl of Wessex had not been in use for over 900 years. The last
   earl, King Harold Godwinson, was famously killed at the Battle of
   Hastings in 1066.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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