Cynric

Cynric (/ˈkɪnˌrɪtʃ/) was King of Wessex from 534 to 560. Everything known about him comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There, he is stated to have been the son of Cerdic, who is considered the founder of the kingdom of Wessex.[2] However, the Anglian King-list and parts of the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (which may partly derive from the Anglian King-list and was a source for the Chronicle), instead says that Cynric was the son of Cerdic's son Creoda.[3] Similarly, the paternal genealogy of Alfred the Great given in Asser's The Life of King Alfred, includes the name Creoda, while the account of the king's maternal ancestry in the same work calls Cynric son of Cerdic.[4]

Cynric
King of Wessex
Reign534–560
PredecessorCerdic, possibly Creoda
SuccessorCeawlin
Died560
IssueCeawlin
Cutha or Cuthwulf[1]
HouseWessex
FatherCerdic or Creoda

Name

The name Cynric has an ostensibly straightforward Old English etymology meaning "Kin-ruler". However, the normal Old English form of this name is Cyneric. As some scholars have proposed that both his predecessor, Cerdic, and successor, Ceawlin, had Celtic names,[5] an alternative etymology has been postulated, deriving the name from Brittonic "Cunorix", meaning "Hound-king" (which developed into Cinir in Old Welsh, Kynyr in Middle Welsh).[6][7][8]

Conquest

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes Cerdic and Cynric with five ships landing in the area around Southampton in 495.[9][10] According to the chronicle, the two are described as aristocratic "aldormen" but only assumed rule over the Gewissae (as the West Saxons were known before the late 7th century) in 519.[5] This implies that Cynric was not a royal leader, and he and his father were only elevated to kingship when they allegedly conquered the heartlands of the future Wessex.

Rule

During his reign, as described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxons expanded into Wiltshire against strong resistance and captured Searobyrig, or Old Sarum, near Salisbury, in 552. In 556, he and his son Ceawlin won a battle against the Britons at Beranburh, now identified as Barbury Castle.[11] If these dates are accurate, then it is unlikely that the earlier entries in the Chronicle, starting with his arrival in Britain with his father Cerdic in 495, are correct. David Dumville has suggested that his true regnal dates are 554–581.[12] Some note that Ceawlin's origin and his relationship with Cynric are obscure and that chroniclers merely suggested that they were relatives or that he was Cynric's son to legitimize the later Wessex lineage.[10]

In the 2004 film King Arthur, Cerdic and Cynric were depicted as Saxon invaders and were killed, respectively, by King Arthur and Lancelot at the Battle of Badon Hill (Mons Badonicus). Cynric was portrayed by Til Schweiger.

See also

Notes
  1. According to the Online DNB article on Ceol, he was the son of Cutha (probably Cuthwulf) and grandson of Cynric
  2. Bradbury, Jim (2004). The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. London: Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 9781134598472.
  3. Reno, Frank (2011). Arthurian Figures of History and Legend: A Biographical Dictionary. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 83. ISBN 9780786444205.
  4. David N. Dumville, 'The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex', Peritia, 4 (1985), 21–66 (esp. pp. 59–60).
  5. Kleinschmidt, Harald (2003). People on the Move: Attitudes Toward and Perceptions of Migration in Medieval and Modern Europe. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. p. 92. ISBN 9780275974176.
  6. Clemoes, p. 30
  7. Whittock, p. 193
  8. Sims-Williams, p. 30
  9. A theory specifically identifies the site of the landing, at Cerdicesora, as Christchurch Harbour so that the axis of penetration was along the Avon.
  10. Cunliffe, Barry (2014). Wessex to 1000 AD. Oxon: Routledge. p. 279. ISBN 9780582492806.
  11. Myres 1989, p. 162.
  12. Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3, p. 133.

References
  • Peter Clemoes, Simon Keynes, Michael Lapidge (1981). Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-03834-0
  • Laing, L.R. (1975). The archaeology of late Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. 400-1200 AD, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-416-82360-2
  • Myres, John Nowell Linton (1989). The English Settlements. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-282235-2.
  • Sims-Williams, P. (1983) The settlement of England in Bede and the "Chronicle" from Anglo-Saxon England, Vol. 12 pp. 1–41, Cambridge University Press.
  • Whittock, M.J. (1986) The Origins of England 410-600 Croom Helm.
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