1 Arrival of the House of Wessex

In 519, a man called Cerdic landed on the southern coast of England with 5 ships and a band of Saxon adventurers. 1,500 years later his descendants still provide the monarchs of England. This History of England Podcast covers Cerdic and the start of the kingdom he formed by 530.

1 Arrival of the House of Wessex rm

 

The invaders of the 5th and 6th Centuries famously came from 3 tribes - the Jutes, Angles and Saxons, and each formed kingdoms that eventually became the 7 English Kingdoms - or the Heptarchy.

At first the Britons appealed to Rome to come back and help them. They sent a piteous note to Aetius, the last effective Roman general which read:

‘ The Barbarians push us back to the sea, the sea pushes us back to the barbarians; between these two kind of deaths we are either drowned or slaughtered’.

Who was Cerdic ?

The background of the founder of the British Monarchy is not simple. Cerdic is a British name, not Saxon. So who was he ? He may simply have had a British mother - and so be a Saxon with a British name. Or he may have been a local Romano British official. Or maybe he was a British prince come to seek his fortune.

The start of the Kingdom of Wessex

 

 

Cerdic arrived at the mouth of the River Test, and over the next 6 years he fought the local British kings, as you can see in the map. These culminated in the battle at Netley Marsh, where he defeated Nathanleod.

Cerdic died in 534, was bruied at Hurstboourne Tarrant in hampshire, and handed the kingdom on to his Grandson, Cynric.

 

  
 

 

Comments

[Jonathan]

Nicely done!

[brocks]

Just discovered this, and I'm very impressed. One suggestion: for easy preview and review, you might put a little more detailed outline of the material (names, dates, etc.) on the webpage for those of us whose memories are not what they used to be. I look forward to the rest of the lectures.

[The History of England]

Excellent ! Glad you like it. Yup, there's been more than one comment that there's a lot of names to remember in particualr. I habour an ambition to do a 'who's who', but difficult to find the time to go back to old posts., But I'll probably do so going forward (from episode 39 at the time of writing!)

[Matt]

I'm new to your podcast, and so far it is excellent. However the maps/images on your website are too small to read even when i click on them. Is there any chance of providing links to full size versions?

[Matt]

Awesome just found these! Is there any way we can go back even before the Anglo Saxons? I'd love to hear about as early as we know.

[Laura Miller]

Hi. My mother and I have just discovered your fabulous blog but we're having a problem downloading the first podcast. When we click 'download podcast' it just plays but doesn't download. We are both technically challenged so please help!!!! Thanks for a great blog! x

[Sam]

I found your podcast thanks to a recommendation at History Books Review. I enjoyed the first one and plan
to catch up to the current one.

[The History of England]

Hi Sam - thank you and welcome. They get better, I promise...took me until Alfred really to have any idea of what I was doing. I love your email address by the way!

[Donna Schindler]

So excited about finding this!!! Will be listening to one a day or perhaps two in chronological order with my child!

[Matt Boisen]

How do I get the program to play all the way through? My media player episode list only goes back to the Oct 2014 podcasts, and I want to listen to program 1 (house of Wessex), but it stops right after "in 446..." when I click to play it on this page. Am I missing an app? When I click on "podcast Subscribe" I just get pages and pages of script.

Thanks

[Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook]

I have exactly Matt's problem! I'd love to listen but I've tried three times and can't get any further than the introduction to Episode 1.

[Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook]

If anyone's having problems getting the audio to stream here, this site seems to work and to have an up-to-date episode listing: http://podbay.fm/show/412308812

[The History of England]

Thanks Hanna...

[Ken Macdonald]

I just discovered this podcast and am enjoying it quite a bit. It requires repeated playing to take it all in. Thanks!

[Phil]

Hi there. I would love to listen to all the podcasts from the beginning, but I cant seem to download them. I can listen to them on my computer but cant get them on my device. Any help would be appreciated.

[The History of England]

Phil, I am rubbish at the technical stuff. But you can get them all on iTunes...

[Rachel]

Stealing the link Hanna posted (thanks Hanna!) this website has IPhone and Android listening options!

Also if anyone is having trouble with the player stopping randomly, this website also streams uninterrupted

http://podbay.fm/show/412308812