I start the ancestors' introduction with Cerdic, son of Elesa, our direct maternal great-grandfather (52 generations back)*. Cerdic was the first king and the founder of Wessex (West Saxon kingdom). He reigned between 519 and 534.
⇒ Then goes the mysterious Creoda, born in 493, possibly a son or grandson (?) of Cerdic. At this point, things are a bit complicated as it seems not to be clear whether Creoda's son was Cynric (born about 525) or the latter one was the son of Cerdic. Anyhow, Cynric was king of the West Saxons from 534 to 560 (the year of his death). Some sources say he might have ruled jointly with Cerdic (519-534).
⇒ Cynric's son was Ceawlin - he succeeded his father and reigned from 560 to 591. Cynric was exiled in 592 and killed a year later.
Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in ≈ 600
⇒ Cutha (Cuthwolf), born about 592, during the reign of King Ceol, his uncle. Cutha was banished, in his older years he probably moved to Devon. Cuthwolf's wife was Gwynhafar, princess of Dumnonia, daughter of Clemens ap Beldrich (king of Dumnonia).
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| Cliffs of Devon |
By the way, the capital of the kingdom of Dumnonia was where nowadays is the city of Exeter.
⇒ The next ancestor in our family tree line is Cutha and Gwynhafar's son Ceolweald. He was never a king and not much is known about him, besides that he had a son Coenred/Cenred.
⇒ Cenred born about 644 (our great-grandfather, 48 generations back) is the next ancestor in that family line. Possibly he co-ruled Wessex with his son Ine.
⇒ Then comes Cenred's son Ingild (b. ≈ 680/d. ≈ 718 ?),
⇒ his son Eoppa (b. ≈ 706/d. ?,
⇒ his son Eaba (b. ≈ 732/d. ≈ 762),
⇒ his son Ealhmund (b. ≈ 758/d. ≈ 786), King of Kent (in 784 and in 786)
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| Kingdom of Kent |
⇒ his son Egbert (Ecgberht) born ≈ 770 in Wessex, our direct maternal ancestor (43 generations back) was the king of West Saxons from 802 until his death in 839. He was also king of Sussex, Kent, Surrey, and Essex. Egbert succeeded in creating a very strong kingdom and is recognized as the first king of the entire England.
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| England during Egbert's reign |
⇒ His son Æthelwulf (b. ≈ 800/d. 13 Jan. 858) was sub-king of Kent, bishop of Winchester, later king of Wessex (from 839 to 838). He fought successfully against the Danes. Æthelwulf's first wife was the noblewoman of the name Obsurga, daughter of Oslac. The couple had one son
⇒ Alfred born ≈ 849 in Wantage, Berkshire (nowadays Oxfordshire), know as Alfred the Great, ruled as king from 871 to 899. When he was a boy, Alfred visited Rome twice. He was also confirmed in Rome, during the ceremony carried out by Pope Leo VI. Alfred - the Great King of Saxons fought the Danes, defeated them in May 878 (the battle of Edington).
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| Alfred the Great - Winchester |
Alfred made the defeated Viking leader (whose name was Guthrum) be baptized in Christian faith, and was Guthrum's godfather as well. He was a great ruler not only regarding the battlefield. To read more about him got to any encyclopedia or this article.
In 868, he married the noble lady Ealhswith whose ancestor was Coenwulf, king of Mercia. She is recognized by Christians as a saint and her feast day is on 20 July. I have tried to find out more about Ealswith the Saint - no success so far.
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| England in the year 878 |
⇒ Their son Edward (born 874), called the Elder. He reigned from the year 899 to 924. He annexed the kingdom of Mercia, captured the Danes, boroughs of Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham and Stanford. Edward had three wives. The third one, Eadgifu of Kent was the mother of
⇒ Edmund I (born ≈ 921) who became king when he was eighteen (939). Edmund succeeded in defeating the Vikings in the Midlands and Northumbria. When he was twenty-five, he was stabbed and killed by a thief. Edmund died in Dorset on 26 May 946.
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| Silver penny by Edmund I |
His first wife was Ælfgifu (Elgiva) of Shaftesbury. The name Ælfgifu means more or less "elf's gift". The wife of King Edmund was the patroness of Shaftesbury which she had received from her husband. Later, she became a nun at the Shaftesbury abbey where she died and was buried in 944. Many healings/miracles have been said to happen at her tomb, that was why she has been venerated as a saint. Her feast day is 18 May.
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| Ruins of Shaftesbury Abbey |
⇒ Their son Edgar I, king of the English, born ≈ 944, ruled from 959 to 975. Edgar of the nickname The Peaceful was crowned and anointed as king in 933. The order of the coronation ceremony which was introduced then and among others included the citation from the Bible, has been practiced during the coronations of English rulers ever since.
Edgar's reign was the time of peace, working with bishops he created the conditions which led to the rebirth of religion/monasteries in the country. As a result of that, the church of England started sending missionaries to Scandinavia. King Edgar died on 8 July 975. He is revered as a saint, his feast day is 8 July.
Edgar's third wife was Ælfthryth (Elfrida). They married about 965. Ælfthryth was crowned and anointed as Queen of the Kingdom of England. The lady's reputation has been shadowed by two alleged murders. One - of her first husband Æthewald who married Elfrida although he knew king Edgar was interested in her as a candidate for queen. The second was the death of Elfrida's stepson Edward on 19 March 978.
⇒ Edgar and Elfrida's son Æthelred was born in ≈ 968. He was crowned when he was ten years old and ruled struggling from 978 to 1016. His knickname was The Unready. Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu who was also the mother of our great-grandpa (36 generations back).
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| Silver penny of Æthelred The Unready |
⇒ Edmund born ≈ 992, reigned from April to November 1016. He was quite a warrior, fought the Danes bravely in four battles - won three, lost one. No wonder, he earned the name Ironside. Edmund married Ealdgyth.
⇒ Their son Edward born ≈ 1016. He was an infant when his father died and the country had already been taken over by the Danish King Cnut the Great. Edward and his brother lived in exile. Supposedly, when they were babies, they were to be murdered but instead were saved and managed to survive. After many years, Edward returned to England in 1057 with his wife Agatha and their children. Sadly, Edward was murdered in the same year. His body was buried in the oldest part of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
⇒ His daughter Margaret of Wessex, known also as Margaret of Scotland. I have already written about her and explained how the family branch goes from her to our great-great-grandmother. That is why I will not repeat it here.
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| Flag of Wessex, designed by William Crampton in the 1970s |
In the next post I am going to come back to Plano, Collin County, Texas.
*based on my research
Sources:
- The online version of "Kings, Queens, Bones & Bastards: Who's Who in the English Monarchy from Egbert to Elizabeth II" by David Hilliam, ebook edition published in 2011,
- Online encyclopedia Britannica
- Czytelnia
- Wikipedia
Photos:
- Anglo-Saxon migration routes: By my work - Based on Jones & Mattingly's Atlas of Roman Britain (ISBN 978-1-84217-06700, 1990, reprinted 2007, pp. 317, 318), Haywood's Dark Age Naval Power (ISBN 1-898281-43-2, 1999, cemeteries on pp. 84–86, 121, region of "Romanisation" on p. 151), Lebecq's The Northern Seas (fifth to eighth centuries) (in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol I c.500–c.700, ISBN 13-978-0-521-36291-7, 2005, p. 643), and Wood's The Channel from the 4th to the 7th centuries AD in Carver's Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons (ISBN 978-0906780930, pp 93–97). The suggestion that settlements in Britain were made from the Bessin is from Haywood (Vron, for example, was abandoned c. 450).Jones & Mattingly also show 5th century cemeteries in the central English Midlands south of the River Trent, based on the dating of excavated cemeteries, but this is disputed by historians arguing for a 6th century Anglo-Saxon expansion into that region (see, for example Annals and the Origin of Mercia, pp. 20–24, by Wendy Davies, in Mercian Studies, 1977, ISBN 0718511484).The topographic map is from File:Europe relief laea location map.jpg, with copyright notice {{self|cc-by-sa-3.0}}, downloaded 9 Oct 2010, with modifications done by myself., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24156581
- Map Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in about 600: By Hel-hama - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20005086
- Kingdom of Kent: By Hel-hama - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20372945
- Devon cliffs: By Romazur - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32329800
- Alfred the Great - monument: By Odejea, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=295317
- Map - England during Egbert's reign - map of England By Mike Christie at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2986680
- Ruins of Shaftesbury Abbey: By Mike Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34189738
- Map - England in 878: By Hel-hama - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19885072
- Flag of Wessex: By Hogweard - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19961640
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