Early Wars of Wessex
Being Studies from England’s School of Arms in the West

Major's 1913 work used documentary, archaeological, place-name and landscape evidence to reinterpret the history of Anglo-Saxon Wessex.

Albany F. Major (Author), Charles W. Whistler (Edited by)

9781108010085, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2010

300 pages, 24 b/w illus. 10 maps
21.6 x 14 x 1.7 cm, 0.38 kg

This 1913 book was considered ground-breaking on first publication. While there are few documentary sources for Anglo-Saxon history, Major uses his intimate knowledge of the geography of the West County to re-interpret the surviving records. By examining physical and archaeological evidence, he sheds new light on the foundation and development of the kingdom of Wessex. He also uses modern boundaries, place names and local traditions, previously overlooked by scholars, to understand how Wessex history was shaped. He shows how the kingdom was first established, and its boundaries extended through warfare with its neighbours, between the late fifth to eighth centuries. Thereafter, famously led by Alfred the Great, Wessex fought and survived Viking invasions; but eventually fell to the Normans in 1066. Although much new archaeological evidence has been uncovered since the book was written, it continues to demonstrate the significance of landscape and folklore study to history.

Part 1. The Founding and Rise of Wessex: 1. The founding of the kingdom, 495 to 519 AD
2. Cerdic to Kenwealh 519 to 643 AD
3. The Frontier between Wessex and Dyvnaint
4. The wars of Kenwealh 643 to 672 AD
5. The wars of Kentwine 676 to 686 AD
6. The wars of Ine 688 to 710 AD
7. The final stages of the conquest of Dyvnaint 710 to 822 AD
8. Summary. The wider influence of local struggles
Part 2. Wessex and the Danes: 1. The earliest westward adventurers
2. The Danes in North Somerset
3. The Invasions in the ninth century
4. The invasions in the tenth and eleventh centuries
Part 3. The Wessex Campaigns of 876-7 AD: 1. The taking of Wareham and Exeter
2. Twelfth night to Whitsuntide, 878 AD
3. The battle of Ethandun, and the peace
4. The place-names of the campaign
5. The landing of Hubba
6. The fortress of the siege
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]