History of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Sussex

welcome to the second episode in a legendarium series about the history of the anglo-saxon kingdoms today we'll be talking about Sussex we'll talk about how ale of the South Saxons the probable founder of the kingdom of Sussex fought against a possible historical model for King Arthur and how after being defeated the kingdom of Sussex simply vanished for over a hundred and fifty years we'll talk about how it returned in the six 60s or at least was written about again how it was converted to Christianity by st. Wilfred and finally its conquest by Murcia in the final days of Rome the bureaucracy and almost modern military structure of the Empire gave way to more ad hoc defenses for the Empire's troubled frontiers often centered around strongmen some Roman others not Saxon Shore forts in England were built from Hampshire in the south to the wash in the north these forts protected against the Seabourn Germanic Raiders who appeared as early as the mid 200s when Rome was engulfed in Civil War if a King Arthur did exist his historical model would have likely been a cavalry officer of noble birth who led a fast response force to Germanic invasions indeed the list of the 12th battles Arthur is said to have fought closely matches the names of the Saxon Shore force where he would have counter-attacked against Germanic invaders if as tradition holds Arthur lived during and after the final years of the Roman Empire then he would have very likely fought against hail the leader of the south Saxons who arrived in England around 477 ad hail arrived with three keel boats filled with Germanic migrants though Rome had fallen the previous year the south shore of Britannia was one of many romanized enclaves struggling against barbarian invasion according to local tradition ale and his men surprised and defeated the local romano Britons who took refuge in a huge forest called the weld a land his South Saxons established an enclave at cell C from which to expand the Venerable Bede wrote over 200 years later that the other Germanic migrants held ale in such esteem perhaps because of great deeds done back in Europe that they elected him Brett - Valda or hiking of the Germanic kings in Britain and this would mark the high point of Sussex as power over the next two decades ale led the south Saxons east along the coast perhaps to avoid provoking the still formidable romano britain forces led by that historical model for King Arthur however by 491 al grew strong and bold enough to attack the British fort at an dorita near modern heaven see the very spot where William the Conqueror would land almost 600 years later new sects and settlements began to dock the region now going back to King Arthur his historical counterpart may have been appointed or perhaps appointed himself count of the south Saxon Shore forts and maybe even held the rank of Dux uberta norm the ruler of the romanized Britons in 84 96 ale took a route northwards towards the tames Valley perhaps going through the weld on an old Roman Road still usable at the time l would have gathered men from the other sects and villages as he went and then the man said to be king Arthur led to the romano Britons against a US Army at Mount Baden around 84 and 96 and this historic Arthur who wasn't even given the name of Arthur until hundreds of years later inflicted a crushing defeat upon a land his South Saxons thus giving us the closest thing we have to a historical basis for King Arthur and it also means that Al the south Saxon could have been the inspiration for Mordred Arthur's great enemy of course we have no way to know for sure but that's what helps to make this era so fascinating now if our mysterious Dux Breton Oram was the great winner of this fight then al was surely the greatest loser the defeat may very well have cost him his life his kingdom or both the kingdom of the South Saxons is last-mentioned 5:14 is being ruled by a son of ale named sisse however for a hundred and fifty years after that we don't have any references to Sussex in the historical record we don't even have any Saxon burial mounds being located in Sussex during the 500s or early 600's now how can we explain the seeming disappearance of the South Saxon kingdom well there are a number of options to choose from number one the Kingdom of Sussex may have simply declined in importance to the point where the more powerful kingdoms like Wessex and Mercia simply took no notice of them and thus never wrote about them it is also possible that the South Saxons simply abandoned a Saxon ways and merged with the Romano Britons or maybe they simply abandoned their coastal Enclave altogether and either returned to Europe or headed west to join the Jutes who were helping to carve out the kingdom of Wessex under certain now one of the few things we can say for certain is that a separate Germanic band called the esteemed us probably Jutes from Kent seeking new land settled around the town that they would give their name Hastings so why did the kingdom of Sussex reimburse around 661 with few written records to go on it is very hard to say however we get our first reference to a king of Sussex in 661 when a man named Ethel wall who was likely connected to the Mercian royal family married a woman named eighth thus becoming the new king of Sussex he also accepted Christianity as a means to gain the throne of the newly created or at least newly mentioned kingdom of Sussex in fact as a thank-you present for becoming Christian King Ethel wall of Sussex received may Anwar and the Isle of Wight from murcia now the kingdom of the South Saxons would have roughly coincided with what is today the counties of East and West Sussex despite its relatively small size and calm to geographic location on the south coast Sussex was a complicated political unit its earliest charters show that it was divided among a number of Kings with a key split between East Sussex likely centred on Lewis and West Sussex centred at chin Chester with both sites having their own King at various times the kingdom of Sussex was able to rule the sub kingdom of Hastings but Hastings often switched sites between them and Essex and Kent depending on who was strongest at the moment and socially Sussex developed in isolation not seen among the other anglo-saxon kingdoms indeed it was one of the last anglo-saxon kingdoms to become Christian yl King Ethel wall became a Christian in 661 most of his subjects remained pagans which as you can imagine made for an awkward situation fortunately that changed with the arrival of st. Wilfred a Northumbrian noble who had annoyed the kings of his homeland enough that they split up his bishopric seize the assets of his monasteries and even put him in prison for its time not surprisingly Wilfred decided to leave Northumbria and evangelize to the South Saxons with great success indeed he was so successful that st. Wilfred was granted a huge estate at Cecily by King aethelwold in many ways Wilfred lived more like a warlord than a church man with a vast retinue of loyal fighters and a huge estate to finance a truly extravagant lifestyle the bishop served huge quantities of pork and venison at his table his retainers were celebrated for consuming vast amounts of sour ale st. Wilfred often engaged in hunting and warfare when he wasn't teaching the Gospels in addition Saint Wilfred was a champion of the papacy within the anglo-saxon Church introducing Roman chance to England around 710 Wilfred died and later became a saint his relics being moved to Canterbury and sell C would become the center of the bishopric for Sussex it's worth noting that sell C was still granted important by the kingdom of Sussex over 200 years after the landing of King aelle which tells us that the kingdom of Sussex still remembered King aelle and his exploits unfortunately all of this Granger couldn't save Sussex from another round of foreign invasion the joint kings and hun and burthen who held power after the death of aethelwold were talked into declaring war on Kent by an exile Kentish Prince named edrick who promised the Hastings sub Kingdom to Sussex if they helped him retake the throne from his wicked usurping uncle lo there and while the usurper lo there was killed in battle by Anton and burthen in 8685 the larger kingdom of Wessex took advantage of the distraction to invade Sussex and demoted the kings of Sussex to sub Kings it would not be until almost a decade later that a Kentish nobleman named Wilfred drove out the foreign usurpers and vessels and restored the kingdom of Sussex after this it is likely that Kent and Sussex became a United Kingdom holding the line against the mighty mercy ins throughout the early seven hundreds however we can infer that their luck ran out sometime around 750 after that time the kings of Sussex are listed as being subbed Kings to King offa of Murcia meaning that Murcia not only gained control of the South of England at least in name but they may not have even had to fight a battle in order to do so at first the Mersey ins showed some mercy allowing the relations of the former kings of Sussex to rule as sub Kings however in time the kings of Murcia would simply sweep those old Sussex Kings aside and use Sussex as a sub Kingdom for lesser princes of the royal family to rule a sort of consolation prize for those who didn't get the big prize namely the throne of Murcia and the situation continued until 825 when King Egbert of Wessex drove them our sins out of the South of England and Sussex became little more than a province of Wessex and then finally a United England and that wraps things up for this episode of channel legendarium I hope that you enjoyed it if you liked what you saw press like if you want to see more press subscribe and if you've got anything to say please let me know in the comment section thanks again for joining me and I hope that you have a great rest of the day

Channel: Channel Legendarium

Views: 2,749

Keywords: Anglo-Saxons, Dark Ages, Britain

Id: i79STmBZT7U

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2019