The Father of All English Kings | Cerdic of Wessex

From History Profiles

In the shadowed dawn of sub-Roman Britain, one name rises from the mist of legend and history alike: Cerdic. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle hails him as the founder and first king of Wessex, a war-leader who ruled from around 519 to 534 AD, and from whom all later kings of Wessex would claim descent. Yet Cerdic is no simple figure of recorded fact. His origins, his ethnicity, even his very existence are fiercely debated, leaving him poised between myth and memory. To his contemporaries, Cerdic would not have been known as a “West Saxon” king, but as the ruler of the Gewissae, a tribal people thought to be Germanic mercenaries who settled in Britain after the Roman withdrawal. Intriguingly, Cerdic’s name itself may not be Germanic at all. Many scholars believe it derives from the Brittonic Caratīcos, suggesting that Cerdic may have been a native Briton whose dynasty became Anglicised over generations. This possibility is shared in the names of his descendants—Ceawlin, Cedda, and Cædwalla—names that whisper of a hybrid world where cultures collided and merged. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written more than three centuries after Cerdic’s death during the reign of Alfred the Great, is undeniably shaped by time, politics, and myth-making. Yet within its pages, Cerdic stands immortalized as the first king of Wessex, his lineage traced back not merely to mortal ancestors, but to Woden himself, chief god of the Germanic pantheon. Whether man, myth, or something in between, Cerdic remains a towering figure at the birth of England—where legend was forged into kingship, and history was written by those who inherited his name. Let us delve into his life. 00:00 Introduction 02:09 Cerdic in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 04:57 Opinions of Historians 08:14 Legacy