Cerdic Gewissae of Wessex, 1st King of West Saxons (470 – 534)

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date December 8, 2021
193 Comments on Cerdic Gewissae of Wessex, 1st King of West Saxons (470 – 534)

Flag of Ancient Wessex

Map of Ancient Briton (c. 500 AD)

South Britain in the early 6th century

Cerdic Gewissae of Saxony conquered Wessex in the 5th century AD. He was the progenitor of Anglo-Saxon chieftains, known as Bretwaldas (Lords of Britain), that ruled either as overlords or kings in Britain, mainly in Wessex and Mercia, from the 5th century through the time of King Egbert of Wessex (775 – 839).

King Egbert consolidated his kingship control over Kent, Essex, Sussex, and East Anglia to the extent that he ruled ipso facto as the first Anglo-Saxon King of England afterward. His grandson Alfred The Great (849 – 899) 3rd King of England was Cerdic’s agnatic descendant. (Both Egbert and Alfred are honored in the Temple of Walhalla with commemorative plaques.)

Cerdic was an agnatic descendant of Sigge “Odin” Fridulfsson of Asgard (50 BC – 30 AD) 1st King of Scandinavia. He putatively conquered Scandinavia during the 1st century.

Harold Godwineson (1022 – 1066) was the last of the ancient royal Gewissae lineage to rule as an Anglo-Saxon King of England. He was slain by Norman knights under the command of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

View Archive

193 replies on “Cerdic Gewissae of Wessex, 1st King of West Saxons (470 – 534)”

[…] Cerdic Gewissae of Wessex, 1st King of West Saxons (470 – 534) 4GGF […]

Share this:

Related

By Steven Wood Collins

193 replies on “Cerdic Gewissae of Wessex, 1st King of West Saxons (470 – 534)”

Leave a comment