Kingdom of Wessex

Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, ruled southern Britain from about 519 until 927, when its line absorbed the whole of England. Legend names Cerdic and his son Cynric as founders; the record, carried by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the West Saxon king list, often disagrees with itself. Baptism under Cynegils and Cenwalh made it a Christian kingdom. Caedwalla seized Sussex, Kent and Wight, and Ine issued the oldest surviving English law code and founded a second bishopric. Through the eighth century Wessex kept its independence beneath the Mercian supremacy, and the shire system took shape on its soil. Egbert conquered Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex and Mercia itself and claimed the overlordship of Northumbria, though Mercia broke free in 830. Danish raiders probed the Thames under Aethelwulf and returned in force in 871. Alfred bought them off, fled to the Somerset marshes, and in 878 destroyed them at Edington, earning the name the Great. He issued laws, gathered scholars, built ships and raised the burh fortresses. His son Edward the Elder retook the Midlands and East Anglia, deposed the Mercian lady Aelfwynn in 918, and his grandson Aethelstan conquered Northumbria in 927, uniting England for the first time.