All the sub-kings who ruled over the South Saxons during this
period were kings of Kent, but under the overlordship of the kings
of Wessex.
Apparently, they were considered as possessing the thrones of
Kent and Sussex. They also governed Surrey. In short, after his
decisive victory at Ellendune in 825, Ecgberht decided to create a
large sub-kingdom of lesser kingdoms in the south-east which was to
be held as a province of greater Wessex.
Going by the dynastic reconstruction in the Nothgyth Quest,
Ecgberht's father, Eahmund of Kent, shared Cuthwulf Cuthwining as
his patrilineal four-times-great grandfather with the South Saxon
alderman, Aethelmund. This would have made them fifth cousins and
kinsmen as understood by the Justinian Law of Succession.
Cuthwulf Cuthwining has already been contended, in this
hypothesis, to have been the great grandson of Wine Cissing. It is
argued here that when Ecgberht installed his eldest son, Aethelwulf,
as king of Kent and Sussex, his candidate had good credentials for
both tribal thrones. When Ecgberht died in 839, Aethelwulf became
king of Wessex, appointing his eldest brother, Aethelstan as king of
Kent and Sussex, more properly referred to as Aethelstan II in
Sussex history.
Aethelstan II died in 851, and Aethelwulf appointed his eldest
son, Aethelbald, to succeed. Aethelwulf was a deeply religious man
and on his way home from a pilgrimage to Rome, with his youngest and
favourite son, the future King Alfred, he was informed that
Aethelbald had usurped the throne. It is thought that Aethelbald
believed that his father intended to leave Wessex to the young
favourite.
Aethelwulf did not contest his sons usurpation of the throne.
Instead the deposed king acquiesced to the will of his eldest son
and agreed to return to his former kingship over the sub-kingdom in
the south-east.
Aethelwulf's second tenure as the king of Kent and Sussex with
Surrey began in 856. He died in 858, and was buried in the church of
St Cuthman at Steyning. The royal body was later transferred to
Winchester, but the stone grave cover to Aethelwulf's original tomb
still stands in the porch of the present Norman church, dedicated to
St Andrew. The two crosses on the stone indicate a royal burial,
which would appear to confirm the traditional history.
The former Saxon church, founded by the shepherd preacher, was
pulled down by the Norman Lord of Bramber, William de Braose. Going
by the Nothgyth Quest, and assuming the people of Steyning would
have known if Aethelwulf had been a descendant of their great king,
Cissa Aelling, this royal burial might have been of considerable
significance in Sussex.
The last West Saxon sub-king in Sussex was Aethelberht II, the
brother of the King Aethelbald who installed him. Aethelberht
reigned from 858 to 860, when he inherited the kingdom of Wessex on
the death of his brother. Another sub-king was not appointed and the
early story of Sussex ends at this point.
A nineteenth century print showing Poynings church
in the middle distance, set against a view of the South Downs. This area
would have been heavily wooded in Saxon times, on the edge of the Low Weald.
The Weald was called Anderida by Latin speakers, perhaps the name of a
Celtic goddess, or from an ancestral Welsh form of (Coed) Ynn+deri+dân,
(Forest of) ash, oak and deer.
General Bibliography and Other Sources
The main reference material
employed for this hypothesis
A. Primary reading and reference
(alphabetical)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles - begun in circa
AD 890
Anglo-Saxon Genealogical Tables
BBCh 2g2 - Anglo-Saxon Isle of Wight AD
400-900
Domesday book - Place-names of Sudsexe,
1086
Howard Wiseman - Vortigern Studies, Web site
Kelly, S E - Charters of Selsey, 1998
Kelly's Post Office Directory (Sussex),
1867
Lambert and Gray - Kings and Queens, 1991
Old English at the University of Calgary - Web
site
Wendover, Roger of - Flowers of History, 1237
Wikipedia - Kings (and Aldermen) of Hwicce
B. Secondary reading and reference (in date order)
Aneirin, Y Gododdin, circa 595
Anonymous - Beowulf, circa 725
Bede - Ecclesiastical History of the English People,
731
Nennius - Hanes y Brythoniaid, 810
Cyfraith Hywel Dda (North European Tribal Law), completed
in 949
Brut y Tywysogion (from 680), fourteenth
century
Bosworth & Toller - Old English Dictionary,
1898/1921
Johnston, J B - The Place Names of England &
Wales, 1915
Jervis, J H - A History of France, New &
Revised Edition, Book 1
(with additional chapters by W J N Griffith), 1926
Alcock, Lesley - Arthur's Britain, 1978
Regia Anglorum - the society's web site
C. Further reading and reference (in date order)
Grundy, G B (ed) - Murray's Classical Atlas
for Schools, Second Edition reprint, 1963
Ohler, Norbert - The Medieval Traveller,
1995
Barraclough, Geoffrey (ed) - The Times Atlas
of World History, Fourth Edition
(edited by Geoffrey Parker), reprinted 1997
de la Bédoyèr, Guy - Roman Britain: A New
History
D. Recommended reading in Welsh
Smith, J B - Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Wales
University Press
About Llywelyn II, a powerful prince who established a
recognised Welsh state, based on an alliance of princes. The book
gives an insight into the kingdom-building abilities that must have
been required of Saxon rulers like Ceawlin of Wessex, even if set in
the thirteenth century rather than the sixth.
In 1793, Anna Catherina Halfpenny wrote out her own
translation, from French, of Pomet's History of Drugs. This right
hand page of the manuscript gives information on the astringent qualities
of oak bark and leaves. The oak has been called the Sussex weed. Further
west, the same tree has been called the Herefordshire weed, a county that
was once under the Hwicce.
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