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Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies
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, pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heptarchy
The Heptarchy was the division of Anglo-Saxon England between the sixth and eighth centuries into petty kingdoms, conventionally the seven kingdoms of East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex. The term originated with the twelfth-century historian Henry of Huntingdon and has been widely used ever since, but it has been questioned by historians as the number of kingdoms fluctuated, and there was never a time when the territory of the Anglo-Saxons was divided into seven kingdoms each ruled by one king. The period of petty kingdoms came to an end in the eighth century, when England was divided into the four dominant kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex. History Although ''heptarchy'' suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of a clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. The number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly during this period ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglian Collection
The Anglian collection is a collection of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and regnal lists. These survive in four manuscripts; two of which now reside in the British Library. The remaining two belong to the libraries of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Rochester Cathedral, the latter now deposited with the Medway Archives. Compilation All manuscripts appear to derive from a common source, now lost. Based on content and the pattern of divergence, Dumville dates the composition of the common source to 796 in Mercia. Both the genealogies and the episcopal lists were part of this original compilation, and have passed in tandem, with the surviving manuscripts all several steps removed from this original. All the manuscripts include genealogies for the kingdoms of Deira, Bernicia, Mercia, Lindsey, Kent and East Anglia. Three of them (C, T and R) also contain a West Saxon genealogy (which may have been a source for the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List), and regnal lists for Nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Langfeðgatal
''Langfeðgatal''Sometimes written ''Langfedgetal'' or ''Langfedgatal''. (Old Norse pronunciation: , ) is an anonymous, twelfth-century Icelandic genealogy of Scandinavian kings. Manuscript ''Langfeðgatal'' is preserved in a manuscript that is part of the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection (AM 415), a body of medieval Scandinavian works collected by the late-seventeenth/early-eighteenth-century scholar and collector Árni Magnússon. The text was published, along with a Latin translation, in 1772 by Jacob Langbek in the first volume of ''Scriptores Rerum Danicarum Medii Ævi''. Origins ''Langfeðgatal'' falls within a group of medieval manuscripts that trace the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon royalty back to legendary and divine progenitors. Raymond Wilson Chambers suggested that it, together with the Anglian collection, the Ættartölur and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List were influenced by a common Anglo-Saxon archetypal genealogy that existed around 970 CE. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Of Worcester
John of Worcester (died c. 1140) was an English monk and chronicler who worked at Worcester Priory. He is now usually held to be the author of the . Works John of Worcester's principal work was the (Latin for "Chronicle from Chronicles") or ''Chronicle of Chronicles'' (), also known as John of Worcester's Chronicle or Florence of Worcester's Chronicle. The is a world history which begins with the Creation and ends in 1140. The chronological framework of the was presented by the chronicle of Marianus Scotus (d. 1082). A great deal of additional material, particularly relating to English history, was grafted onto it. Authorship The greater part of the work, up to 1117 or 1118, was formerly attributed to Florence of Worcester on the basis of the entry for his death under the year 1118, which credits his skill and industry for making the chronicle such a prominent work. In this view, the other Worcester monk, John, merely wrote the final part of the work. However, there are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asser
Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh people, Welsh monk from St David's, Kingdom of Dyfed, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne (ancient), Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent because of illness, Asser accepted. In 893, Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the ''Life of King Alfred''. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser's work which was included by other early writers, have made it possible to reconstruct the work. The biography is the main source of information about Alfred's life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Grego ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æthelwulf, King Of Wessex
Æthelwulf (; Old English for "Noble Wolf"; died 13 January 858) was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. In 825, his father, King Ecgberht, King of Wessex, Ecgberht, defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending a long Mercian Supremacy, Mercian dominance over Anglo-Saxon England south of the Humber. Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf with an army to Kingdom of Kent, Kent, where he expelled the Mercian sub-king and was himself appointed sub-king. After 830, Ecgberht maintained good relations with Mercia, and this was continued by Æthelwulf when he became king in 839, the first son to succeed his father as West Saxon king since 641. The Vikings were not a major threat to Wessex during Æthelwulf's reign. In 843, he was defeated in a battle against the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but he achieved a major victory at the Battle of Aclea in 851. In 853, he joined a successful Mercian expedition to Wales to restore the traditional Mercian hegemony, and in the same year, his daughter Æthelswit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egbert Of Wessex
Ecgberht (died 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne. Little is known of the first 20 years of Ecgberht's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain the independence of Wessex against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In 825, Ecgberht defeated Beornwulf of Mercia, ended Mercian Supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. In 829, he defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Ecgberht received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cerdic Of Wessex
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 Age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ine Of Wessex
Ine or Ini (died in or after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of what is now southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla of Wessex, who had expanded West Saxon territory substantially. By the end of Ine's reign, the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Essex were no longer under West Saxon sway; however, Ine maintained control of what is now Hampshire, and consolidated and extended Wessex's territory in the western peninsula. Ine is noted for his code of laws (''Ines asetnessa'' or "laws of Ine"), which he issued in about 694. These laws were the first issued by an Anglo-Saxon king outside Kent. They shed much light on the history of Anglo-Saxon society, and reveal Ine's Christian convictions. Trade increased significantly during Ine's reign, with the town of Hamwic (now Southampton) becoming prominent. It was probably during Ine's reign that the West Saxons began to mint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nennius
Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the ''Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considered a secondary (10th-century) tradition. Nennius was a student of Elvodugus, commonly identified with the bishop Elfodd of Bangor who convinced British ecclesiastics to accept the Continental dating for Easter, and who died in 809 according to the '' Annales Cambriae''. Nennius is believed to have lived in the area made up by Brecknockshire and Radnorshire in present-day Powys, Wales. Thus, he lived outside the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, isolated by mountains in a rural society. Because of the lack of evidence concerning the life of Nennius, he has become the subject of legend himself. Welsh traditions include Nennius with Elbodug and others said to have escaped the massacre of Welsh monks by Ethelfrid in 613, fleeing to the north. Authorsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Brittonum
''The History of the Britons'' () is a purported history of early Britain written around 828 that survives in numerous recensions from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Brittonum'' is commonly attributed to Nennius, as some recensions have a preface written in that name. Some experts have dismissed the Nennian preface as a late forgery and argued that the work was actually an anonymous compilation. Overview The ''Historia Brittonum'' describes the supposed settlement of Britain by Trojan settlers and says that Britain was named for Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas. The "single most important source used by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical ''Historia Regum Britanniae''" and through the enormous popularity of the latter work, this version of the early history of Britain, including the Trojan origin tradition, was incorporated into subsequent chronicles of the long-running history of the land, such as the Middle English '' Brut of England'', also known as ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Lindsey
The Kingdom of Lindsey or Linnuis () was a lesser Anglo-Saxon kingdom, which was absorbed into Northumbria in the 7th century. The name Lindsey derives from the Old English toponym , meaning "Isle of Lind". was the Roman name of the settlement which is now the City of Lincoln in Lincolnshire. ( was shortened in Old English to and then .) was a Latinised form of a native Brittonic name which has been reconstructed as *''Lindon'' (; cf. modern Welsh '). States and territories disestablished in the 7th century Geography Lindsey lay between the Humber estuary and the Wash, forming its inland boundaries from the courses of the Witham and Trent rivers, and the Foss Dyke between them. A marshy region south of the Humber known as the Isle of Axholme was also included. It is believed that Roman Lindum ( Lincoln) was the capital of Lindsey: the continuity of the place name suggests continuity of settlement traditions: in 625, Bede recounts, the missionary Paulinus of York was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
