Our school history says that when the Romans departed Britain in the early 5th century AD, leaving the Brits to their own defence, the void was filled by the Anglo-Saxons. Marauding across the North Sea, from modernday Denmark and Germany, they occupied the south-east, fraternised and conquered, pushing the Brits further west. Over time, seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms emerged (the ‘Heptarchy’), one being the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) in south and south-west England, a geographical expression later adopted by Dorset author Thomas Hardy. If any of the seven became top dog, its leader was known as ‘Bretwalda’, or overall king. This is the story of how Wessex became pre-eminent, simultaneously forging the nation of ‘England’.
EGBERT
So, where to start? Well, there’s going to be a lot of Ethels and Eds in this story but we’ll start with an Egg (or Eg) in the form of Egbert, who was King of Wessex between 802 and 839. Son of the King of Kent (another of the seven kingdoms), Egbert took over Wessex on the death of the previous incumbent, Beorhtric, who had been lording it over ‘Wessex’, which hadn’t yet coalesced on the counties of Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire.
Egbert did his bit to promote Wessex as the fulcrum of England, achieving suzerainty over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (e.g. Mercia and Northumbria) as well as defeating some of the Brits (the Cornish). He was recognised as Bretwalda in 829. However, Mercia wriggled free the following year, after which Egbert was merely King of Wessex and its dependent kingdoms such as Kent.
In 835 he suffered a
