List of monarchs of Wessex

Lists of the kings of Anglo-Saxon England
This article is part of a series
Essex	Mercia
East Anglia	Kent
Northumbria	Sussex
Wessex

"Kings of Wessex" redirects here. For the school, see The Kings of Wessex School.

This is a list of monarchs of Wessex until 924. For later monarchs, see the list of monarchs of England. 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 Anglo-Saxon English and Latin, being the prevalent 'official' languages of the time.

This was a time when spellings varied widely, even within a document. A number of variations of the details below exist. Amongst these are the preference between the runic letter "Thorn" (Þ) and the letter "Eth" (Ð), both of which are pronounced "Th" and were interchangeable. They were used indiscriminately for voiced and unvoiced sounds, unlike modern Icelandic. Thorn tended to be more used in the south (Wessex) and eth in the North (Mercia and Northumbria). "Th" was preferred in the earliest period in Northern texts.

The character "7" was used as the ampersand (&) in contemporary Anglo-Saxon writings. The era pre-dates the emergence of some forms of writing accepted today, notably rare were lower case and the letters "W" and "U". W was occasionally rendered "VV", but the runic letter "wynn" (Ƿ) was the normal way of writing the "W" sound. Again, in the earliest period, the Angles/Engle preferred 'VV', whilst the West Saxons preferred the letter derived from a rune. (Compare "Thorn" and "Eth")

Except in manuscripts, runic letters were an Anglian phenomenon. (The early Engle restricted the use of runes to monuments, whereas the Saxons adopted Wynn and Thorn for sounds which did not have a Latin equivalent. Otherwise they were not used in Wessex).

Monarchs of the West Saxons (Wessex)

Reign	Incumbent		Notes
The Kingdom of the Gewissae
Cerdicing Dynasty
519 to 534	Cerdic	CERDIC ELESING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CERDIC REX GEVVISSÆ	Celtic, Brythonic, name
534 to 560	Cynric	CYNRIC CERDICING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CYNRIC REX GEVVISSÆ	Possibly Celtic, Brythonic name
560 to 591	Ceawlin	CEAVVLIN CYNRICING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CEAVVLIN REX GEVVISSÆ	Celtic, Brythonic, name
591 to 597	Ceol	CEOL CVÞING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CEOL REX GEVVISSÆ
597 to 611	Ceolwulf	CEOLVVLF CVÞING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CEOLVVLF REX GEVVISSÆ
611 to 643	Cynegils	CYNEGILS CEOLING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CYNEGILS REX GEVVISSÆ
c. 626 to 636	Cwichelm	CVVICHELM CYNEGILSING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CVVICHELM REX GEVVISSÆ
643 to 645	Cenwalh	CENVVALH CYNEGILSING GEVVISSÆ CYNING CENVVALH REX GEVVISSÆ	Deposed
Mercian Dynasty
645 to 648	Penda	PENDA PYBBING MIERCNA 7 GEVVISSÆ CYNING PENDA REX MIERCNA ET GEVVISSÆ
The Kingdom of the West Saxons
fl. 571	Cuthwulf	CVÞVVLF VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CVÞVVLF REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Invaded Midland Britain and conquered the Britons in 571 at the Battle of Bedford (see also Bedford Castle and Bedford), probably under King Cadrod of Calchfynedd. Probably an associate of Ceawlin.
Cerdicing Dynasty
648 to 674	Cenwalh	CENVVALH CYNEGILSING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CENVVALH REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Restored; reigned jointly with his wife Queen Seaxburh 672 to 674
672 to 674	Queen Seaxburh	SEAXBVRG VVESTSEAXNA CVEN SEAXBVRH REGINA SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Reigned jointly with her husband Cenwalh until his death 674
674 to 674	Cenfus	CENFVS CENFERÞING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CENFVS REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
674 to 676	Æscwine	ÆSCVVINE CENFVSING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆSCVVINE REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
676 to 685	Centwine	CENTVVINE CYNEGILSING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CENTVVINE REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Deposed by Cædwalla
685 to 688	Caedwalla	CÆDVVALLA CENBRYHTING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CÆDVVALLA REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Usurper; abdicated, possibly of British origin
688 to 726	Ine (Ina)	INE CENREDING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING INE REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Abdicated
726 to 740	Æthelheard	ÆÞELHEARD VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆÞELHEARD REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
740 to 756	Cuthred	CVÞRED VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CVÞRED REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
756 to 757	Sigeberht	SIGEBRYHT VVESTSEAXNA CYNING SIGEBRYHT REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Deposed (and killed?) by Cynewulf
757 to 786	Cynewulf	CYNEVVLF VVESTSEAXNA CYNING CYNEVVLF REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Assassinated by Cyneheard, brother of Sigeberht
786 to 802	Beorhtric	BEORHTRIC VVESTSEAXNA CYNING BEORHTRIC REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
802 to 839	Egbert	ECGBRYHT EALHMVNDING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ECGBRYHT REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
839 to 856	Æthelwulf	ÆÞELVVLF ECGBRYHTING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆÞELVVLF REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
856 to 860	Æthelbald	ÆÞELBALD ÆÞELVVLFING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆÞELBALD REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
860 to 865	Æthelbert	ÆÞELBRYHT ÆÞELVVLFING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆÞELBRYHT REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
865 to 871	Æthelred	ÆÞELRED ÆÞELVVLFING VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆÞELRED REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM
871 to 899	Alfred (the Great)	ÆLFRED ÆÞELVVLFING ÐE GREAT VVESTSEAXNA CYNING ÆLFRED MAGNVS REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	The only English monarch to be given the nickname "The Great". First King of the united Anglo Saxons
899 to 924	Edward (the Elder)	EADVVEARD ÆLFREDING ÐE ELDRA WESTSEAXNA CYNING EADVVEARD REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Died 17 July 924
924 to 924	Ælfweard		Second son of Edward the Elder. Died 2 August 924, possibly before coronation
925 to 939	Athelstan	ÆÞELSTAN EADVVEARDING WESTSEAXNA CYNNING ÆÞELSTAN REX SAXONVM OCCIDENTALIVM	Became first King of England

After Æthelstan conquered Northumbria in 927, he adopted the title rex Anglorum (King of the English) becoming the first king of England.

References

• "Family tree of Kings of Wessex and England 802–1066" (PDF). The official website of the British Monarchy. http://www.royal.gov.uk/pdf/wessex.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-30.