Wessex
gigatos | March 1, 2022
Summary
Wessex (Old English: Westseaxna rīċe, literally the Kingdom of the West Saxons) was one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that existed from 519 to the unification of England by Atelstan in 927.
Located to the south of the island, the Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, but this may be a legend. The two main sources devoted to the history of Wessex turn out to be the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Royal Genealogy of the West Saxons, which sometimes present conflicting reconstructions. Wessex became a Christian kingdom after Cenwalh received baptism and expanded under his rule. Caedwalla later conquered Sussex, Kent, and the Isle of Wight. His successor, Ine, enacted one of the oldest surviving English legislative codes and established a second diocese of the West Saxons. Subsequently, the throne passed to a series of monarchs with unknown genealogies.
During the eighth century, despite the growth of Mercia”s hegemony, Wessex largely maintained its independence. It was during this period that the system of shires, or counties, was established. Under Aegbert, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex, and Mercia, along with some areas of Dumnonia, ended up conquered and absorbed. At that juncture, Aegbert also obtained supremacy over the crown of neighboring Northumbria. However, the independence of Mercia was already restored in 830. During the reign of his successor, Etelvulfo, a Danish army arrived threateningly in the Thames estuary, but the English managed to prevail. When Etelvulfo”s son, Etelbaldo, usurped the throne, the kingdom faced division to avert war. Etelvulfo was succeeded by his four sons, the youngest of whom was Alfred the Great.
Wessex faced a major invasion by Vikings in 871, an event that forced Alfred to have to pay them to leave. They returned in 876, at which time they were forced to retreat. In 878 they retaliated by managing to push Alfred on the run to the Somerset Plain, but ultimately lost the decisive Battle of Edington. During his rule, Alfred enacted a new legislative code, surrounded himself with intellectuals at his court and was able to allocate funds for shipbuilding, organize an army and establish a defensive system based on strategically placed strongholds, the so-called burh. Alfred”s son, Edward, took possession of the East Midlands and East Anglia at the expense of the Danes and became ruler of Mercia in 918, on the occasion of the death of his sister, Ethelfleda. Edward”s son, Atelstan, conquered Northumbria in 927, and England became a unified kingdom for the first time. Canute the Great, who conquered England in 1016, established the rich and powerful county of Wessex, but in 1066 Harold II reunited the county with the crown and Wessex ceased to exist.
Also read, biographies – Gabriel de Mortillet
Historical Context
The Wessex area had been known since the Neolithic because of the fine limestone cliffs near Dover, because of the resources of Cornwall, and because of the development of its own culture in the Bronze Age (1600
In the mid-fourth century, incursions into Roman Britain by peoples such as Picts, Scots, Abbots, and Franks, as well as Saxons, increased. In 367, these tribes invaded Britain simultaneously from the north, west, and east. The attackers reportedly faced a setback or agreed to share the authority of Roman forces in most of northern and western Britain. However, the Roman general Theodosius recaptured the bulk of the areas by the end of 368. In 380-381, Magnus Maximus took care to repel further assaults, but the growing crisis in the Roman Empire caused problems in defending the region. However, there was a growing After Maximus” death in 388, Roman authority in Britain continued to experience a noticeable decline. During the late 390s, Stilicho attempted to restore control with a campaign against the Picts, but the successes were thwarted when in 401 the general had to transfer troops to the continent to fight the Goths. After a series of usurpers declared themselves masters of the island at the beginning of the fourth century and local officials asked the capital for help, Emperor Honorius irreversibly exacerbated the crisis by inviting them to settle matters themselves. The economic decline that followed soon after determined the circulation of Roman coins and ceased the importation of objects from the empire.
Also read, biographies – Ludwig van Beethoven
Saxon settlement
Historian Peter Hunter Blair (1956) identifies two theories about the settlement of Saxons, Jutes, and Angles in Britain, namely a “Welsh” and an “English” strand. The former is exemplified by Gildas, in De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. In short, this theory states that, after the Romans left, the Britons were able to rule for a time without major interruptions. However, when the northern invaders eventually arrived, a ruler whose name remains unknown (referred to as a “proud tyrant” by Gildas) asked the Saxons for assistance in exchange for land. Conflict between the English and Saxons did not break out for some time, but following “a dispute over the supply of provisions,” the Saxons fought the English and caused severe damage in some areas of the island. In time, however, some Saxon troops left Britain; under Ambrosius Aurelian, the British later defeated those who remained. A long conflict ensued, as a result of which neither side gained any decisive advantage until the Britons defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Badon Mountain. After this event, a period of peace opened for the Britons, during which Gildas was living when he wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. The “English” theory of Saxon arrival unravels starting with Hengest and Horsa, two brothers who came from Germany. When Bede the Venerable wrote his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, he took Gildas” narrative and added details, including the identities of the people involved. He gave the “proud tyrant” the name Vortigern, while naming the Saxon commanders Hengest and Horsa. More details to the story were added in the Historia Brittonum, partially written by Nennio. According to the Historia, Hengest and Horsa fought the invaders of Britain on the condition of conquering the island of Thanet. Hengest”s daughter Rowena later arrived on a ship full of reinforcements and Vortigern married her. However, a war arose in Kent due to a dispute between Hengest and Vortigern”s son. After losing several battles, the Saxons finally outclassed the English by treacherously attacking them once the two factions had gathered for a meeting. Some additional details of the legend of Hengest and Horsa can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The latter then reports subsequent Saxon arrivals, including that of Cerdic, the founder of Wessex, in 495.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic and his son Cynric landed in southern Hampshire in 495, but this version is not considered reliable by historians because of discrepancies in the reconstruction and, above all, because of the archaeological evidence which shows that the area was first occupied by the Jutes. Although the document mentions Cynric as the son of Cerdic, a different source indicates him as the grandson of Cerdic, Creoda. The Chronicle then goes on to state that “Port, flanked by his two sons Bieda and Maegla,” landed at Portsmouth in 501 and killed a high-ranking British nobleman. In 508, Cerdic and Cynric took the life of the British king Natanleod along with 5,000 of his men (although the historicity of that ruler”s figure has been disputed), and Cerdic became the first ruler of Wessex in 519. The Saxons attacked Cerdicesford (Charford, Worcestershire) in 519, intending to cross the River Avon and block a road connecting Old Sarum and Badbury Rings, a British stronghold. Apparently, the clash ended without a clear winner, with the result that Wessex expansion ended for about thirty years. This was likely due to the losses suffered during the battle and an apparent peace agreement made with the Britons. It is believed that the Battle of Mount Badon was fought at the same juncture. Gildas affirms that the Saxons went out completely defeated in the battle, to which participated also king Arthur according to Nennio. The defeat is not narrated in the Chronicle. The thirty-year period of peace faced a temporary setback when, according to the Chronicle, the Saxons conquered the Isle of Wight in 530 in a battle that took place near Carisbrooke.
Cynric became the ruler of Wessex after Cerdic”s death in 534 and reigned for twenty-six years. It is not known whether Ceawlin, who succeeded Cynric in about 581, was really his son. Ceawlin”s reign is thought to be more reliably documented than those of his predecessors, although the dates provided by the chronicle from 560 to 592 differ from the revised chronology. Ceawlin quelled outbreaks of resistance by Britons active in the northeast, the Chilterns, Gloucestershire, and Somerset. The conquest of Cirencester, Gloucester, and Bath in 577, after the lull caused by the Battle of Mount Badon, opened the way to the southwest.
Ceawlin is one of the seven kings named in Bede”s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum as holding “imperium” over southern English: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle later reiterated this claim, referring to Ceawlin as a bretwalda, or “Briton ruler.” Ceawlin was later deposed, perhaps by his nephew Ceol, and died a year after that event. Six years later, around 594, Ceol was succeeded by a brother, Ceolwulf, who was succeeded in turn in about 617 by Cynegils. Genealogical reconstructions do not agree on Cynegils” origins: his father is variously reported as Ceol, Ceolwulf, Ceol, Cuthwine, Cutha, or Cuthwulf.
The tradition contained in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the genealogies of the West Saxon dynasty opens the way for considerable doubt. This is largely due to the fact that the progenitor of the dynasty and a number of his supposed descendants had Celtic and Britannic, rather than Anglo-Saxon Germanic, names. In fact, the name Cerdic is derived from the English name *Caraticos. This may indicate that the man was a native Briton and that his dynasty became Anglicized over time. Other members of the dynasty who possessed Celtic names included Ceawlin and Caedwalla. Caedwalla, who passed away in 689, turned out to be the last West Saxon king to possess a Celtic name.
Also read, biographies – Edvard Munch
Christian Wessex and the rise of Mercia
It was during Cynegils” reign that the first event in the history of West Saxony that can be dated with reasonable certainty occurred: the baptism of Cynegils by Birinus, which took place in the late 630s or perhaps in 640. Birinus then acted as bishop of the West Saxons, based in Dorchester on Thames. This was the first conversion to Christianity of a West Saxon king, but it was not accompanied by the immediate conversion of all West Saxons: Cynegils” successor (and perhaps his son), Cenwealh, who came to the throne around 642, was a pagan at the time of his appointment. However, he too was baptized only a few years later and Wessex was firmly established as a Christian kingdom. Cynegils” godfather was King Oswald, and his conversion may have been related to an alliance against King Penda of Mercia, who had previously attacked Wessex.
These attacks marked the beginning of heavy pressure from the expanding kingdom of Mercia. In time, such a policy would have deprived Wessex of its territories north of the Thames and Avon rivers, encouraging the kingdom”s redirection southward. Cenwealh married the daughter of the aforementioned Penda, and when he repudiated her, Penda invaded him again and drove him into exile for some time, perhaps three years. The dates remain uncertain, but it probably dates from late 640 or early 650. He spent his exile in East Anglia, where he embraced Christianity. After his return, Cenwealh faced further attacks from Penda”s successor Wulfhere, but he was able to expand West Saxon territory into Somerset at the expense of the Britons. He founded a second bishopric at Winchester, while the one at Dorchester was soon abandoned as Mercian power pushed southward.
After Cenwealh”s death in 673, his widow, Seaxburh, preserved the throne for a year; she was followed by Aescwine, who apparently descended from another brother of Ceawlin. This was one of several occasions when the kingship of Wessex is said to have passed to a remote branch of the royal family, with an unbroken male line of descent from Cerdic. Such claims may be genuine or may reflect the false claim of descent from Cerdic to legitimize a new dynasty. Aescwine”s reign lasted only two years and in 676 the throne returned to the immediate family of Cenwealh with the ascension to the throne of his brother Centwine. Centwine is known to have fought and won battles against the Britons, but the details have not survived.
Centwine was succeeded by another supposed distant relative, Caedwalla, who claimed to be descended from Ceawlin. Caedwalla reigned for only two years, but he achieved a significant expansion of the kingdom”s power, having subdued the kingdoms of Sussex, Kent, and the Isle of Wight, although the latter regained its independence almost immediately and the former followed a few years later. His reign ended in 688, when he abdicated and went on a pilgrimage to Rome where he was baptized by Pope Sergius I, and there he died shortly thereafter.
He was succeeded by Ine, who claimed to also be a descendant of Cerdic through Ceawlin, but again through a long-separated line of descent. Ine remained the most enduring of the West Saxon lords, having reigned for 38 years. He enacted the oldest surviving code of English laws besides those of the kingdom of Kent, and established a second West Saxon bishopric at Sherborne, covering the area west of Selwood Forest, which formed an important boundary between East and West Wessex. Toward the end of his life he followed in Caedwalla”s footsteps, abdicating and making a pilgrimage to Rome. The throne then passed to a series of other kings who claimed to be descended from Cerdic, but whose alleged genealogies and relationships to each other are unknown.
During the eighth century, Wessex was eclipsed by Mercia, whose power then appeared to be at its height, and the West Saxon monarchs may at times have recognized Mercia”s lordship. However, they were able to avoid the more substantial control that Mercia exercised over the lesser dominions. During this historical interlude, Wessex continued its gradual westward advance, overwhelming the British kingdom of Dumnonia (Devon). Wessex also gained de facto control over much of Devon, although the Britons maintained a degree of independence in the area until at least the tenth century: in this regard, William of Malmesbury claimed that Britons and Saxons inhabited Exeter “as equals” until 927. As a result of the Mercian conquest of the northern part of its early territories in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the Thames and Avon probably then formed the northern boundary of Wessex, while its heartland lay in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Dorset, and Somerset. The shire system, which was later to form the basis of local government throughout England, as well as Ireland, Wales and Scotland, originated in Wessex and saw the light of day in the mid-eighth century.
Also read, biographies – Nerva
The hegemony of Wessex and the Viking raids
In 802, the fortunes of Wessex took a new turn with the ascension to the throne of Aegbert, who came from a cadet branch of the ruling dynasty that claimed to be descended from Ine”s brother, Ingild. With his ascension to the throne he firmly established himself in the hands of a single lineage. Early in his reign he led two campaigns against “East Wales,” first in 813 and then again at Gafulford in 825. In the course of these operations, he subdued the western Britons still in Devon and reduced those beyond the Tamar River, now Cornwall, to the status of vassals. In 825 or 826 he overturned the political order of England by decisively defeating King Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellandun and wresting control of Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Essex from the Mercians. He also favored the separation of East Anglia from Mercia. In 829, he conquered Mercia, exiled its king Wiglaf and secured recognition of his lordship from the king of Northumbria. Thanks to this series of events, he assumed the role of bretwalda, or high king of Britain. The position of dominance did not last long, as Wiglaf returned and restored Mercia”s independence in 830, but Wessex”s expansion into southeastern England proved permanent.
The last years of Aegbert saw the beginning of Viking raids into Wessex, which occurred frequently from 835 onward. In 851 a huge Danish army, said to be carried on 350 ships, arrived in the Thames Estuary. After defeating King Beorhtwulf of Mercia in battle, the Danes moved to invade Wessex, but were decisively crushed by Aegbert”s son and successor, King Etelvulf in the extraordinarily bloody Battle of Aclea. This victory postponed the Danish conquests in England for fifteen years, although the raids into Wessex continued.
In 855-854, Etelvulfo made a pilgrimage to Rome, and his eldest surviving son Etelbaldo took advantage of his absence to seize his father”s throne. Upon his return, Etelvulfo agreed to divide the domain with his son to avoid bloodshed, ruling the new territories in the east while Etelbaldo held the longest held possessions in the west. Etelvulfo was succeeded by each of his four surviving sons who ruled one after the other: the rebellious Etelbaldo, then Etelbert, who had previously inherited the eastern territories from his father and reunited the kingdom upon Etelbaldo”s death, later Etelredo, and finally Alfred the Great. This occurred because the first two brothers died in wars with the Danes without heirs, while Etelredo”s sons were too young to rule when their father died.
Also read, biographies – Mikhail Gorbachev
Alfredo”s turning point and the restoration of control
In 865, many of the Danish commanders combined their forces into one large army and landed in England. In the following years, what became known as the Great Danish Army swept through the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia. When, in 871, a second pagan army arrived from Scandinavia to reinforce the main one the situation in Wessex seemed to falter. Although Aethelred and Alfred achieved some victories and managed to prevent the conquest of their kingdom, a series of defeats and heavy losses of men forced Alfred to pay the Danes to leave Wessex. The Danes spent the next few years subduing Mercia and settling partly in Northumbria, with the rest returning to Wessex in 876. Alfred reacted this time with resolve and succeeded, with little fighting, to make them retreat in 877. Part of the Danish army settled in Mercia, but in early 878 the remaining Danes mounted a winter invasion of Wessex, taking Alfred by surprise and overrunning much of the kingdom. The Englishman had to take refuge with a small retinue in the marshes of the Somerset plain, but after a few months he gathered an army and defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington, resulting in their final withdrawal from Wessex to settle in East Anglia. Simultaneous Danish raids on the northern coast of France and Brittany occurred in the 870s (prior to the founding of Normandy in 911): on this occasion, an alliance with Solomon of Brittany was formed. Cornwall may have experienced the loss of its autonomy with the death by drowning of King Donyarth in 875, as recorded in the Annales Cambriae. No monarch took over in the region after this event, although the chronicler Asser reports that Cornwall formed a separate kingdom from Wessex in the 890s.
In 879, a Viking fleet that had gathered in the Thames Estuary crossed the channel to begin a new campaign on the continent. The restless Viking army on the continent encouraged Alfred to protect his kingdom of Wessex. Over the next few years, Alfred carried out a drastic reorganization of the government and defenses of Wessex, building warships, organizing the army into two sections that remained on duty at all times in order to better repel attacks, and establishing a system of fortified “burhs” throughout the kingdom, including of course Wessex. The system is recorded in a tenth-century document known as the Burghal Hidage, which details the location and garrison requirements of thirty-three forts, the placement of which ensured that no one in Wessex was more than a long day”s journey from a place of safety. In the 890s these reforms enabled him to repel the invasion of another huge Danish army while suffering minimal losses, in part because of the help of Scandinavians already stationed in England who decided to support him.
In 2015, two townspeople unearthed a large treasure near Leominster, consisting mainly of Saxon jewelry and silver ingots, but also coins (the latter dated back to around 879). After the state had taken possession of it, accusing the two budding archaeologists of selling it on the black market, according to a newspaper reconstruction, “experts believe it was buried by a Viking during a series of raids known to have taken place in the area at the time,” while Wessex was ruled by Alfred the Great and Mercia by Ceolwulf II. According to the report, two imperial coins recovered by treasure hunters depict the two rulers, “sealing an alliance between the two kingdoms, at least for a period, that was previously unknown to historians.” An article in The Guardian on the subject adds that:
Alfred also reformed the administration of justice, enacted a new legislative code and encouraged culture and education as much as possible. During this phase Wessex experienced a period of great revival, thanks to the gathering at court of intellectuals from all over England and other parts of Europe. With their help, he translated a number of Latin texts into Old English, perhaps even personally doing some of the work and overseeing the composition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. As a result of these literary efforts and the political dominance of Wessex, the West Saxon dialect of this phase became the standard written form of Old English for the remainder of the Anglo-Saxon bracket and beyond.
The Danish conquests had caused extensive damage to the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia, as well as resulting in their near demise, and divided Mercia in half, with the Scandinavians settling in the northeast while the southwest was left to the English king Ceolwulf II, presumably a puppet in their hands. When Ceolwulf”s rule ended, he was succeeded as ruler of “English Mercia” not by another king but by a mere alderman, Ethelfleda, who recognized Alfred”s lordship and married his daughter Ethelfleda. The process by which this transformation of the state of Mercia took place is unknown, but it left Alfred as the only active English monarch.
Also read, history – Spice trade
Unification of England and the county of Wessex
After the invasions of the 890s, Wessex and Mercia continued to be attacked by Danish settlers in England and small groups of Danish raiders from abroad, but these raids generally ended in defeat. At the same time, there were no further far-reaching invasions from overseas. The balance of power thus hung steadily in favor of the English. In 911, the alderman Aethelfred died, leaving his widow, Alfred”s daughter Aethelfleda, in charge of Mercia. Alfred”s son and successor, Edward the Elder annexed London, Oxford, and the surrounding area, probably merging Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire from Mercia into Wessex. Between 913 and 918 a series of English offensives overwhelmed the Danes of Mercia and East Anglia, bringing all of England south of the Humber under Edward”s wing. In 918, Etelfledo died and Edward took direct control of Mercia, extinguishing what remained of its independence and ensuring that there would henceforth be one rule of the English. In 927, Edward”s successor Atelstan conquered Northumbria, bringing the entire island under a single ruler for the first time. Wessex thus ended up transformed into the Kingdom of England.
Although Wessex was effectively subsumed into the larger kingdom that the expansion executed by its rulers had made possible, like the other previous dominions, it continued for a time to have a distinct identity that periodically found renewed political expression. After the death of King Edredo in 955, who had no legitimate heirs, the government of England passed to his nephew, Edwing. The latter”s unpopularity with the nobility and the church led the thane of Mercia and Northumbria to declare their allegiance to his younger brother, Edgard, in October 957, although Edwig continued to administer Wessex. In 959, Edwig died and the whole of England therefore came under Edgar”s control.
After the conquest of England by the Dane Canute in 1016, counties were established based on the ancient kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia: at the beginning, however, he personally administered Wessex. Within a few years, the region suffered the same fate as the other areas, and the newly created county ended up encompassing all of England south of the Thames. Canute appointed Godwin, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, to manage it. For nearly half a century, the very wealthy holders of this earldom, first Godwin and then his son Harold II, proved to be the most powerful men in English politics after the crown. Eventually, upon the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066, Harold became king, reuniting the county of Wessex with the crown. No new earls were appointed before the subsequent Norman conquest of England, and because the Norman monarchs soon eliminated the great counties of the late Anglo-Saxon period, 1066 coincided with the extinction of Wessex as a political unit.
Also read, battles – Battle of Marathon
Viverna or dragon
Wessex is often symbolized by a viverna or dragon. Both Henry of Huntingdon and Matthew of Westminster speak of a golden dragon displayed at the Battle of Burford in 752 by the West Saxons. The Bayeux tapestry depicts a fallen golden dragon, as well as a red one
A section of the eighteenth-century stained glass window in Exeter Cathedral indicates that an association with the image of a dragon in southwest Britain predates the Victorian era. However, the association with Wessex was not popularized until the 19th century, particularly through the writings of E.A. Freeman. By the time the College of Arms granted the coat of arms to the Somerset County Council in 1911, a dragon (red) had become the accepted heraldic emblem of the former kingdom. This precedent was followed in 1937 when Wiltshire Council again executed and confirmed the same procedure. Two Wessex gold dragons were subsequently granted to the county of Dorset in 1950.
In the British Army, the viverna has been used to represent Wessex: the 43rd Infantry Division and Regional 43 Wessex Brigade of the postwar period adopted a formation sign consisting of a golden viverna on a black or dark blue background. The regular Wessex brigade of the 1960s adopted a cap badge with the heraldic beast until the regiments resumed individual regimental badges in the late 1960s. The Wessex Regiment affiliated with the Territorial Army continued to wear the Wessex Brigade badge until the late 1980s, when its individual companies also repurposed their regular badges for regimental hats. The now-disbanded West Somerset yeomanry adopted a rampant Wessex wyvern as the central symbol for its cap badge, while the still-active Royal Wessex yeomanry adopted a similar custom in 2014, when the Regiment switched from wearing individual squadron county yeomanry cap badges to a unique badge in form.
When Sophie Rhys-Jones, Countess of Wessex, was granted the insignia, the right section of the personal coat of arms depicts a blue viverna, described by the College of Arms as “a heraldic beast long associated with Wessex.”
In the 1970s, William Crampton, founder of the British Flag Institute, designed a flag for the Wessex region that depicts a golden viverna on a red background.
Also read, biographies – Sarah Bernhardt
Coat of arms
The coat of arms attributed by medieval heralds to the Kings of Wessex appear in a 13th century manuscript and include a blue background with a fleur-de-lis cross with patented arms (alternatively floral) between four gold battlements.
The attributed arms of Wessex are also known as the “Insignia of Edward the Confessor,” and the features are based on an emblem historically used by Edward the Confessor on the reverse side of pennies minted by him. The heraldic design continued to represent both Wessex and Edward in classical heraldry, being found on a number of church windows in derivative shields such as the Coat of Arms of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster (Westminster Abbey, founded by the king).
Thomas Hardy recreated a fictionalized version of Wessex as the setting for many of his novels, adopting his friend William Barnes” term “Wessex” for their county of Dorset and neighboring counties in the south and west of England. Hardy”s Wessex excluded Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but the city of Oxford, called “Christminster,” is described as part of Wessex in Jude the Obscure. He assigned each of his Wessex counties a fictional name, as in the case of Berkshire, reported as “North Wessex.”
The film Shakespeare in Love included a character named “Lord of Wessex,” a title that did not exist in Elizabethan times. The ITV television series Broadchurch takes place in the Wessex area, primarily in the county of Dorset. It features government agencies such as the Wessex Police and the Royal Court.
In the book and in the television series The Last King, Wessex forms the main setting, focusing on the rule of Alfred the Great and the war against the Vikings.
Wessex remains a common term used to refer to the historic area. Many organizations that originated in the Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire area employ the term in the name of their company or organization: think of Wessex Bus, Wessex Water, and the Wessex Institute of Technology. The Wessex Constitutional Convention and the Wessex Regionalist Party are smaller groups that seek greater political autonomy for the region.
Sources
