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Ceawlin Of Saxony

Male - 593


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  • Name Ceawlin Of Saxony 
    Gender Male 
    Died 593 
    Person ID I1057  MyTree
    Last Modified 15 Aug 2009 

    Father Cerdic Of Saxony,   b. 534,   d. 560  (Age 26 years) 
    Family ID F4552  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Children 
    +1. Cuthwine Of Saxony,   d. 584
    Last Modified 17 Jul 2017 
    Family ID F4551  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • CEAWLIN (d. 593) was King of Wessex, according to the Anglo -Saxon
      Chronicle, whose chronology however is not reliable for this period,
      from 560 to 593. The annals in the Chronicle relating to his career
      are cast in a tone which suggests that they may derive from a lost Old
      English epic poem. For what they are worth, they conjure up a Germanic
      warlord of the sort celebrated in the surviving epic Beowulf. They
      show Ceawlin engaged in warfare with his neighbors both Anglo-Saxon
      and British, winning battles as at Dyrham in 577, capturing towns such
      as Bath, acquiring booty and perishing probably by violence. Bede
      allotted him an imperium or overlord-ship like that attributed to
      Aelle of Sussex: whatever this may have meant to Bede, to us Ceawlin's
      imperium is as opaque as Aelle's. It is possible that Ceawlin was
      responsible for the construction of some or all of the great earthwork
      known as Wansdyke. If this were so, he might have had a greater degree
      of ordered power at his disposal than the bloody record of the
      Cbronicle suggests.

      Ceawlin, son of Cynric, undertook the government of the West Saxons,
      560, and reigned thirty winters. "In 568, Ethelbert came to the
      kingdom of Kent and was Defeated. He Defeated three other British
      Kings (Conmail, Condidan and Farinmail) at Dyrham (577), 5 miles north
      of Bath which he captured with Circencester and Glouchester. In his
      day the holy Pope Gregory sent us baptism. And Columba, the mass
      -priest, came to the Picts . . . 591. This year there was a great
      slaughter of Britons at Wanborough; Ceawlin was driven from his
      kingdom . . . 593. This year died Ceawlin." (ASC 560, 568, 591, 593,
      854; CCN 227).