The English Monarchs

Saxons

In the eighth century England consisted of seven Anglo-Saxon sub-kingdoms. Wich means that England was not 1 big country, but that the land that we know as England now, was split in 7 parts, and in all of the 7 parts there was another King or queen, but the only thing they had in common was that they were all Saxons. It sometimes happened that a king of one of the larger kingdom’s that england was split into(Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria) was accepeted bye the others as an overlord. One of these was Egbert, of the House of Wessex. Now i’ll discuss the first king of England further with you.

Egbert, in Old English Ecgbehrt, was born around 770-780. He was the son of Ealhmund, King of Kent. His reigning period was from 827-839. Before reigning in England, he made a big journey wich included a visit to France and the Wales. Only after that, when he got to England, he was accepted as an overlord by the other of the 2 larger kingdom’s. That whas that about Egbert.

But there’s still one thing I would want to discuss with you about the period when the House of Wessex reigned. The oldest surviving epic poem in English literature. Most suprising, even to me, it is the story of Beowulf. I think most people have seen the movie or read the book. Beowulf wa s a Warrior in the fifth century coming from Sweden. The manuscripture dates from 1010, though they now that the first manuscript about Beowulf was written in 1000. I won’t tell you the whole story of Beowulf becouse it is a really long one, i’ll just keep it short.

Beowulf was a warrior that sailed down from his hometown for killing monsters in the southern lands. He mostly succeded. But one of the monsters he had to kill, Grendel, was not an easy one. When he managed to kill Grendel, he discovered something terrible, Grendel had a mother. His mother became so angry at Beowulf that after a furious battle between Beowulf and the mother of Grendel, Beowulf almost died. After Grendel, Beowulf returns to his homeland and reclaims his throne as a king. 50 years later, Beowulf suffered a deadly wound wich a dragon has made on him. That was the story of Beowulf, and i put it under this title, becouse the story i just told, was firstly told by the Saxons, the people who reigned from 827-1066. There were ofcourse many kings and queens, but i won’t discuss all of them, i’ll just put a timeline undere the Saxons so you can see how many Saxon Monarchs there were.