[King] Cerdic

Founder of Wessex

Born: 450s? in Britain? Died: 534 (or 554), believed bur. Cerdicesbeorg in N Hampshire, England Father: [Saxon] Elesa (Ashe in DoKA disputes this, see below) Mother: ? Spouse: ? Children: Cynric b470s? d560? others? Picture from www.chard.ic24.net/chfront.html ===>>

MBKQ: Cerdic is considered the first of the kings of Wessex, founder of that dynasty, reigning either 494-516, 519-34 or 538-54. Said by ASC to have come to Britain 494 (with his father Elesa and grown son Cynric) with 5 ships of soldiers, landing at Cerdiceford [N Hampshire], fighting [Welsh] Britons and establishing his [Saxon] kingdom. Curiously, the name Cerdic (like Ceredig, Caradoc) is Welsh, not Saxon! No independent record (besides ASC) establishes his existence.

DoKA: After fall of Rome, Saxon invasions made headway. Later, Arthur was able to fend them off for a 'breather' time, but Saxons (by then Christianized, civilized) eventually triumphed. Between fall of Rome and rise of Arthur, Cerdic was one of the early Saxon leaders to establish a beachhead, possibly coming from N France, landing near the Isle of Wight in 495 (ASC). At this time the Welsh (Roman) champion was Ambrosius. "As a country united under one sovereign, England grew from the early kingdom of Wessex, the realm of the West Saxons. The Wessex dynasty's founder was Cerdic, who dominated a few Saxon settlements near the Hampshire coast" (165). Both Cerdic and his son Cynric are called ealdormen, or 'princes,' implying Cynric was an adult, meaning Cerdic was at least in his 40s. Yet ASC shows Cerdic chief conqueror of Isle of Wight in 530, still an active warrior, living to 534. Cynric is still fighting in 556, dying 560. These dates are theoretically possible, but "under early Saxon conditions they are beyond reasonable belief. The motive may have been to forge genealogical links, or to associate the first chiefs with famous victories" (208).

In his Appendix (The Blood Royal: A Fancy), Ashe says: "The ASC gives Cerdic a Saxon pedigree which is clearly bogus. It comes down to a father called Elesa. A real 5C Saxon father would never have given his son a British [Welsh] name, so Elesa can be discounted; he and his forebears have been grafted on to Cerdic to give him desirable [Saxon] ancestors. Cerdic's actual parentage is an open question" (198). Ashe suggests the scheme below:

• Maximus
  
  • Severa, 1rst wife of Vortigern (2nd was a Saxon wife, m. c430)
    
    • ? (dau of Vortigern and 2nd [Saxon] wife) m. Arthur-Riothamus
      
      • Cerdic
        
        • Wessex royalty
          
          • English royalty
            

Here's his line of reasoning: "Vortigern's sons were apparently by his first marriage, and nothing suggests that any of them fathered a Cerdic. But Nennius also has a ... story about a dau ... who 'bore a son to the High King' ... [which] could have meant Arthur-Riothamus ... In the 450s Arthur married her. This was part of whatever arrangement made him High King, just as Vortigern's first marriage, to a dau of the Emperor Maximus, had been ... Cerdic, born in the 450s, was ... 3/4 British and 1/4 Saxon. Celtic custom allowed him to inherit ... [a] title from Vortigern via his mother. He went to Armorica [NW France] and became the father of Cynric in the 470s. Planning a return to Britain, he exploited his fractional Saxon blood to attract Saxons to his cause. In 495, when Cynric was an adult ... he led his expedition across and established a little domain on the Hampshire coast" (198). A younger son of Riothamus, Daniel, is said to have been "king of the Alamanni' [Germans], so possibly this family "dominated Germanic groups on the Continent, exactly as Cerdic would have had to do. Obviously, if Cerdic was Arthur's true heir, this was a matter which the Welsh would have preferred to forget. From their point of view Vortigern was an arch-villain, his dau the product of a traitorous marriage, Arthur should have known better than to marry her, and their son was a renegade" (199). An interesting possibility (modern English royalty [and I myself] would be descended from Arthur-Riothamus).

Imaginative depiction of Cerdic from
John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy" (cf wiki)

Cerdic's son Cynric has a hybrid name, half Saxon and half Celtic. This suggests that Cerdic m. a Celt who became Cynric's mom (149). Cynric probably also m. a Celt, naming their son Ceawlin, an entirely Brit name. They speculate that the pact between Cunomorus and Cerdic was sealed by Cerdic m. Cunomorus' dau. If true, this means "the Wessex kings who eventually became the Saxon kings of all England were directly descended, via Cunomorus' dau, from the family that also included Arthur, the greatest hero of their sworn enemies, the Britons" (151). They see the 'cun' in his name (latin version of welsh 'cyn') as indicating Cunomorus' descend from Cunedda (hmmm, how about Cunobelin A22, descended from Beli Mawr? [look up Cunomorus o/l, who was his father?]). Referring to MBKQ p67 and assuming Cunomorus is descended from earlier Dumnonian Kings, the common 'Early Celt' ancestor of he and Cunedda would be either Beli Mawr or his son Caswallon (depending on whether Tasciovanus' (A10) father was Llud or Caswallon).

'About the year [AD] 500 a monk named Dionysius Exiguus ('the Little') came to Rome from the Balkans. He was a fine scholar whom the popes employed [to edit, organize, translate] ... by the 6C the Latin- v. Greek-speaking parts of the RE were drifting apart culturally. Eventually the RCC asked [him] to take on an enduring problem, the tables used to calculate the date of Easter. This got him interested in calender making in general, and he decided to prepare a new calender based upon the birth of Christ v. pagan history ... history would [now] lead to [His] birth (BC) and then away from it (AD 'anno Domini') ... [he calculated that] Jesus had been b. 754yrs after the fnd'ing of Rome [i.e. end of 1 BC, beginning of AD 1] ... [unfortunately] he'd miscalculated ... later scholars realized Herod had d. 4 BC [and the Bible indicates Jesus was b. before that]' (OoC p54-5).

After the fall of the W RE and resulting lack of centrally imposed order (and before due to inneffective same), W Europe adapted by developing 'feudalism' i.e. indep areas varying greatly in size and run mostly autonomously by kinglets, dukes, warlords who hired knights and other warriors to defend their domain, subjecting serfs and workers to their authority (safety in exchange for feudal service).

Norman Davies' 'Europe' cited 3 'grand historical processes' at work in the early centuries AD RE; 1 W migration of barbarians, 2 E/W rift growing, and 3 steady export of Christianity to barbarian tribes. Interestingly, Steven Ozment's book 'A Mighty Fortress' echoes the 1st and 3rd with his 'big 2' of 'barbarization of RE' (1) and 'Romanization of barbarians' (3).

Boethius' 'Consolation of Philosophy' has been called 'the last document of Classical Antiquity' (CoP p. v). Born in 480, he gained the favor of Theodoric the Great (King of Ostrogoths and RE 493-?) and was named consol at 34yo, later becoming effectively the RE's PM ('Magister Officiorum'). But then suddenly his fortunes crashed, he was arrested for treason, imprisoned, condemned w/o trial, and tortured to death! Why is unknown; perhaps his orthodox RCC faith v. Theodoric's Arianism or maybe Boethius' support for the Senate in a dispute w/the Emperor? He managed to write CoP in prison. He translated some Greek classics into Latin (mainly on Logic), but his efforts there were cut short by his death. HRW: While 'Theodoric had merely intended to rid himself of a traitor, he [ended up] rid[ding] the West of Aristotelian philosophy. No one else undertook the project, so for the next 500yrs' (6) it remained dormant. SWB says Aristotle's rediscovery in the 12C sparked the Renaissance.

S American cultures (Hyby p89):
- Olmec 1500-400 BC, Mexican Gulf Coast region, known for colossal stone heads
- Zapotecs 1500 BC - 700 AD, centered at Monte Alban in Oaxaca valley of S Mexico
- Teotihuacans 200 BC - 700 AD, mysterious people from N Mexico blt largest city in ancient America (~100k pop ~11 sq mi)
- Mayans 250-869 AD, forests of Guatemala, cities e.g. Tikal (height 450 #1) ruled by god-kings, e.g. Pakal at Palenque d683 (80yo r68yrs), fought each other, height of warring 750
- Mixtecs 900-1400 AD, rose to pwr after Zapotecs declined, took over Monte Alban
- Toltecs 900-1187 AD, from N Mexico, captured Mayan city of Chichen Itza 987, ruled it 200yrs
- Aztecs 1325-1521 AD, migrated into Mexico in 12C, ruled last grt civ of anc Mex
- Inca yrs? mtns of Peru/Chile, capital Cuzco, Macchu Piccu

See also Roman