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Ceawlin Of Wessex
Ceawlin ( ; also spelled Ceaulin, Caelin, Celin, died ''ca.'' 593) was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' represents as the leader of the first group of Saxons to come to the land which later became Wessex. Ceawlin was active during the last years of the Anglo-Saxon expansion, with little of southern England remaining in the control of the native Britons by the time of his death. The chronology of Ceawlin's life is highly uncertain. The historical accuracy and dating of many of the events in the later ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' have been called into question, and his reign is variously listed as lasting seven, seventeen, or thirty-two years. The ''Chronicle'' records several battles of Ceawlin's between the years 556 and 592, including the first record of a battle between different groups of Anglo-Saxons, and indicates that under Ceawlin Wessex acquired significant territory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Of Wessex
This is a list of monarchs of the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) until 886 AD. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure. The names are given in modern English form followed by the names and titles (as far as is known) in contemporary Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Latin, the prevalent languages of record at the time in England. This was a period in which spellings varied widely, even within a document. A number of variations of the details below exist. Among these are the preference between the runic character '' thorn'' (Þ, lower-case þ, from the rune of the same name) and the letter '' eth'' (Ð or ð), both of which are equivalent to modern ⟨th⟩ and were interchangeable. They were used indiscriminately for voiced and unvoiced ⟨th⟩ sounds, unlike in modern Icelandic. ''Thorn'' tended to be more used in the south (Wessex) and ''eth'' in the North (Mercia and Northumbria). Separate le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain, also called post-Roman Britain or Dark Age Britain, is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the founding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hinted at the decay of locally made wares from a previous higher standard under the Roman Empire. It is now used to describe the period that began with the recall of Roman troops from Britannia to Gaul by Constantine III in 407 and ended with the Battle of Deorham in 577. This period has attracted a great deal of academic and popular debate, in part because of the lack of written records from the time. Meaning of terms The period of sub-Roman Britain traditionally covers the history of the parts of Britain that had been under Roman rule from the end of Roman imperial rule, traditionally dated to be in 410, to the arrival of Saint Augustine in 597. The date taken for the end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynegils
Cynegils () was King of Wessex from c. 611 to c. 642. Cynegils is traditionally considered to have been King of Wessex, even though the kingdoms of the Heptarchy had not yet formed from the patchwork of smaller kingdoms in his lifetime. The later kingdom of Wessex was centred on the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire but the evidence of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is that the kingdom of Cynegils was located on the upper River Thames, extending into northern Wiltshire and Somerset, southern Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and western Berkshire, with Dorchester-on-Thames as one of the major royal sites. This region, probably connected to the early tribal grouping known as the Gewisse, a term used by Bede for the West Saxons, lay on the frontier between the later kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. As for several other members of the ruling house of Wessex (including Cerdic, Ceawlin and Caedwalla) a Celtic, rather than Germanic, etymology for Cynegils's name has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Fiction
Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality". The political novel overlaps with the social novel, proletarian novel, and social science fiction. Plato's ''Republic'', a Socratic dialogue written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. The ''Republic'' is concerned with justice ( δικαιοσύνη), the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. Other influential politically themed works include Thomas More's ''Utopia'' (1516), Jonathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1726), Voltaire's ''Candide'' (1759), and Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852). Political fiction frequently employs satire, often in the utopian and dystopian gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woden
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Empire's partial occupation of Germania ( BCE), the Migration Period (4th–6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th–11th centuries CE). Consequently, Odin has hundreds of names and titles. Several of these stem from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym ''Wōðanaz'', meaning "lord of frenzy" or "leader of the possessed", which may relate to the god's strong association with poetry. Most mythological stories about Odin survive from the 13th-century ''Prose Edda'' and an earlier collection of Old Norse poems, the ''Poetic Edda'', along with other Old Norse items like ''Ynglinga saga''. The ''Prose Edda'' and other sources depict Odin as the head of the pantheon, sometimes called the Æsir, and bearing a spear and a ring. Wider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gewis
A number of royal genealogies of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, collectively referred to as the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, have been preserved in a manuscript tradition based in the 8th to 10th centuries. The genealogies trace the succession of the early Anglo-Saxon kings, back to the semi-legendary kings of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, notably named as Hengist and Horsa in Bede's ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum'', and further to legendary kings and heroes of the pre-migration period, usually including an eponymous ancestor of the respective lineage and converging on Woden. In their fully elaborated forms as preserved in the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicles'' and the ''Textus Roffensis'', they continue the pedigrees back to the biblical patriarchs Noah and Adam. They also served as the basis for pedigrees that would be developed in 13th century Iceland for the Scandinavian royalty. Documentary tradition The Anglo-Saxons, uniquely among the early Germanic peoples, pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cerdic
Cerdic ( ; ) is described in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Wessex, reigning from around 519 to 534 AD. Subsequent kings of Wessex were each claimed by the ''Chronicle'' to descend in some manner from Cerdic. His origin, ethnicity, and even his very existence have been extensively disputed. However, though claimed as the founder of Wessex by later West Saxon kings, he would have been known to contemporaries as king of the Gewissae, a folk or tribal group. In a charter dating to 686, Cædwalla was the first king of the Gewissae to call himself 'King of the West Saxons'. Etymology The name ''Ċerdiċ'' is thought by most scholars to be Brittonic rather than Germanic in origin. According to the Brittonic origin hypothesis, ''Ċerdiċ'' is derived from the British name ''*Caratīcos'' or ''Corotīcos'' (whose Old Welsh form was ''Ceretic'').Yorke, B. (1995) ''Wessex in the Early Middle Ages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred The Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, King of Wessex, Æthelbald, Æthelberht, King of Wessex, Æthelberht and Æthelred I of Wessex, Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon territory and the Viking-ruled Danelaw, composed of Scandinavian York, the north-east Midlands and East Anglia. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom again ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List
The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (also known as the West Saxon Regnal Table, West Saxon Regnal List, and Genealogical Preface to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'') is the name given in modern scholarship to a list of West-Saxon kings (which has no title in its medieval manuscripts, and is not strictly a genealogy). It is one of the main sources for understanding the early history of Wessex and the attempts of its dynasties (at the time of Alfred the Great and possibly before) to project an image of dynastic stability. Content The List begins with Cerdic (claiming that he arrived in Wessex in 494) and extends to Alfred (r. 871–99). Thus the list probably took its surviving form during Alfred's reign. The list generally simply gives the reign-length of each king and names his successor, sometimes adding extra information about each king's genealogy and especially his ultimate descent from Cerdic; Æthelwulf, Alfred's father, is given an especially full statement of pedigree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Excidio Et Conquestu Britanniae
(English: ''On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain'') is a work written in Anglo-Latin literature, Latin in the late fifth or sixth century by the Britons (historical), British religious polemicist Gildas. It is a sermon in three parts condemning the acts of Gildas' contemporaries, both secular and religious, whom he blames for the dire state of affairs in sub-Roman Britain. It is one of the most important sources for the history of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, as it is the only significant historical source for the period written by a near contemporary of the people and events described. Part I contains a narrative of British history from the Roman conquest of Britain, Roman conquest to Gildas' time; it includes references to Ambrosius Aurelianus and the Britons' victory against the Saxons at the Battle of Mons Badonicus. Part II is a condemnation of five kings for their various sins, including both obscure figures and relatively well-documented ones such as Maelgwn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gildas
Gildas (English pronunciation: , Breton language, Breton: ''Gweltaz''; ) — also known as Gildas Badonicus, Gildas fab Caw (in Middle Welsh texts and antiquarian works) and ''Gildas Sapiens'' (Gildas the Wise) — was a 6th-century Britons (historic), British monk best known for his religious polemic , which recounts the history of the Britons before and during Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, the coming of the Saxons. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during the Sub-Roman Britain, sub-Roman period, and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style. In his later life, he emigrated to Brittany, where he founded a monastery known as Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys. Hagiography Birthplace Differing versions of the ''Life of Saint Gildas'' exist, but both agree that he was born at a place called ''Arecluta'' which is described by the author as taking its name from a "certain river called the Clut, by which that district is, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mons Badonicus
The Battle of Badon, also known as the Battle of Mons Badonicus, was purportedly fought between Britons and Anglo-Saxons in Post-Roman Britain during the late 5th or early 6th century. It was credited as a major victory for the Britons, stopping the westward encroachment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms for a period. The earliest known references to the battle, by the British cleric Gildas, date to the 6th century. It is chiefly known today for the supposed involvement of the man who would later be remembered as the legendary King Arthur; although it is not agreed that Arthur was a historical person, his name first appears in the 9th-century ''Historia Brittonum'', where he is mentioned as having participated in the battle alongside the Brittonic kings as a war commander, though is not described as a king himself. Because of the limited number of sources, there is no certainty about the date, location, or details of the fighting. Almost all scholars agree that this battle did ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
