General Notes

1st King of West Saxons. Crowned at Winchester 532. Some say he ascended in 519. Founded a settlement on the west coast of Hampshire, England in 495. Assumed the title of King of the West Saxons in 519. Cerdic and his son, Cynric, conquered the Isle of Wight in 534.
CERDIC (fl. c 490-530?) was remembered in later Anglo-Saxon tradition as the first Germanic king of Wessex. The annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle record some very dubious traditions of his military exploits which are assigned dates between 495 and 534. The most intriguing thing about this shadowy personage is his name, which is not Germanic but Celtic; compare, for example, the king Cerdic of the British kingdom of Elmet in the early seventh century. Whatever may be the implications---and the possibilities are manifold---the presence of this anomalous name in the genealogies did not embarrass those who claimed to be his descendants: 'his kin goes back to Cerdic' was a regular boast of the chroniclers who recorded the doings of later kings of Wessex.
If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, Cerdic's operations occurred in that area of Hampshire and south Wiltshire extending northwards from Southampton towards Winchester and Salisbury. The rather meagre archaeological record of the early Anglo-Saxon period confirms that this region was one nucleus of the later kingdom of Wessex. Archaeology reveals much thicker Germanic settlement of the upper Thames valley, notably around Dorchester-on-Thames which was later, significantly, to be the site of the first West Saxon bishropric under Birinus; but on the early traditions of this region the literary sources are silent. It is a reminder (if one were needed) that the origins of the political entity later known as the kingdom of Wessex were more complex and diverse than we shall ever know. [Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England, Richard Fletcher, Shepheard-Walwyn Publishing Ltd, London, 1984]
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Cerdic (d. 534), founder of the West Saxon kingdom, or Wessex. All the sovereigns of England except Canute, Hardecanute, the two Harolds, and William the Conqueror are said to be descended from him. A Continental ealdorman who in 495 landed in Hampshire, Cerdic was attacked at once by the Britons. Nothing more is heard of him until 508, when he defeated the Britons with great slaughter. Strengthened by fresh arrivals of Saxons, he gained another victory in 519 at Certicesford, a spot which has been identified with the modern Charford, and in this year took the title of king. Turning westward, Cerdic appears to have been defeated by the Britons in 520 at Badbury or Mount Badon, in Dorset, and in 527 yet another fight with the Britons is recorded. His last work was the conquest of the Isle of Wight, probably in the interest of some Jutish allies.