Ceawlin of Wessex - Early West Saxon Sources

Early West Saxon Sources

The two main written sources for early West Saxon history are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List. The Chronicle is a set of annals which were compiled near the year 890, during the reign of King Alfred the Great of Wessex. They record earlier material for the older entries, which were assembled from earlier annals that no longer survive, as well as, from saga material that might have been transmitted orally. The Chronicle dates the arrival of the future "West Saxons" in Britain to 495, when Cerdic and his son, Cynric, land at Cerdices ora, or Cerdic's shore. Almost twenty annals describing Cerdic's campaigns, and those of his descendants appear interspersed through the next hundred years of entries in the Chronicle. Although these annals provide most of what is known about Ceawlin, the historicity of many of the entries is uncertain.

The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List is a list of rulers of Wessex, including the lengths of their reigns. It survives in several forms, including as a preface to the manuscript of the Chronicle. As with Chronicle, The List was compiled during the reign of Alfred the Great, and both the List and the Chronicle are influenced by the desire of their writers to use a single line of descent to trace the lineage of the Kings of Wessex through Cerdic to Gewis, a descendant of Woden and the legendary ancestor of the West Saxons. The result served the political purposes of the scribe, but is riddled with contradictions for historians.

The contradictions may be seen clearly by calculating dates by different methods from the various sources. The first event in West Saxon history, the date of which can be regarded as reasonably certain, is the baptism of Cynegils, which occurred in the late 630s, perhaps as late as 640. The Chronicle dates Cerdic's arrival to 495, but adding up the lengths of the reigns as given in the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List, leads to the conclusion that Cerdic's reign might have started in 532, a difference of 37 years. Neither 495 nor 532 may be treated as reliable, however, the latter date relies on the presumption that the Regnal List is correct in presenting the kings of Wessex as having succeeded one another, with no omitted kings, no joint kingships, and that the durations of the reigns are correct as given. None of these presumptions may be made safely.

The sources also are inconsistent on the length of Ceawlin's reign. The Chronicle gives it as thirty-two years, from 560 to 592, but the Regnal Lists disagree: different versions give it as seven or seventeen years. A recent detailed study of the Regnal List dates the arrival of the West Saxons in England to 538, and favours seven years as the most likely length of Ceawlin's reign, with dates of 581–588 proposed. The sources do agree that Ceawlin is the son of Cynric and he usually is named as the father of Cuthwine. There is one discrepancy in this case: the entry for 685 in the version of the Chronicle assigns Ceawlin a son, Cutha, but in the 855 entry in the same manuscript, Cutha is listed as the son of Cuthwine. Cutha also is named as Ceawlin's brother in the and versions of the Chronicle, in the 571 and 568 entries, respectively.

Whether Ceawlin is a descendant of Cerdic is a matter of debate. Subgroupings of different West Saxon lineages give the impression of separate groups, of which Ceawlin's line is one. Some of the problems in the Wessex genealogies may have come about because of efforts to integrate Ceawlin's line with the other lineages: it was very important to the West Saxons to be able to trace their ancestors back to Cerdic. Another reason for doubting the literal nature of these early genealogies is that the etymology of the names of several early members of the dynasty do not appear to be Germanic, which is the origin of these peoples. The name, Ceawlin, is one of the names that does not have a convincing Anglo-Saxon origin; it seems more likely to be from the native Britons.

The earliest sources do not use the term "West Saxon". According to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the term is interchangeable with the Gewisse, meaning the descendants of Gewis. The term "West Saxon" appears only in the late seventh century, after the reign of Cædwalla.