A History of the Earldom of Wessex

The Earl and Countess of Wessex

     The title Earl of Wessex has only been created twice in British history, and its use for Prince Edward was a surprise when it was announced in 1999. So here's a bit of information on Wessex and its ancient title.

     Wessex (referring to the West Saxons) was one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the early Middle Ages (collectively known as the Heptarchy), and was located in the southwestern region of England - encompassing present-day areas such as Cornwall, Wiltshire, Somerset, Hampshire, Devon, Bristol, and Dorset.

     During the Danish invasions of England in the 800's, Wessex became the last English kingdom standing after the other ones had fallen under the control of the invading forces. Under Alfred the Great, the Kingdom of Wessex not only defended its independence, but also pushed back against the Danes, and asserted dominion over the parts of England not ruled over by them. This only included much of southern and western England (including London), but Alfred was already declaring himself to be King of the Anglo-Saxons, and over the 9th and 10th centuries, his sons and grandsons would continue his program of pushing out the Danes and expanding Wessex's boundaries to the north and east. In 927, the northern kingdom of Northumbria was conquered by Wessex, and this resulted in the unification of England under the Wessex crown. The Kingdom of England was formally created under Æthelstan, a grandson of Alfred the Great.

     Nearly a century later, the Danes were back and conquered England under King Cnut. To help with the governance of the country, he established earldoms in the former kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria, and Wessex and placed trusted Englishmen to control of them. Wessex was administered personally by Cnut before he handed control of it to Godwin, one of his most loyal lieutenants, who became Earl of Wessex in 1020 at the age of nineteen. In time, Godwin and later his son Harold became the most powerful noblemen in the kingdom. Their authority was second to only that of the King, and Godwin particularly clashed from time-to-time with Edward the Confessor, the saintly monarch who restored the Crown to English control. When Edward died in 1066, Harold became King of England, and Wessex was reunited with Crown. Later that year, William the Conqueror took over and in the course of the Norman Conquest, the great English earldoms were abolished, including Wessex, which ceased to be a political entity after 1071.

     The current creation of the Earldom of Wessex occurred on June 19, 1999 as part of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created for Prince Edward on the day of his wedding to Sophie Rhys-Jones, which departed from the royal tradition of conferring a dukedom on the sons of a Sovereign. At the time, it was explained that Prince Edward would eventually succeed to his father's title, Duke of Edinburgh, but that in keeping with the tradition of receiving a title, he would be made Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn. Edward was drawn to the Wessex title by watching Shakespeare in Love, a 1998 film in which Colin Firth played the character with the said title, whilst Severn is a reference to his wife's Welsh ancestry and is used as a courtesy title for their son, James Mountbatten-Windsor.


Photo Credit: Surrey County Council News via Flickr cc

Royal Profile: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster

John of Gaunt was one of the great power brokers his time.

     On March 6, 1340, John of Gaunt was born. He was the third surviving son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, and has been referred to as "Gaunt" because that is the Anglicized form of Ghent, the Belgian town in which he was born.

     Upon the death of his elder brother, Edward (the Black Prince) in 1376, as well as his father in 1377, John's nephew - the Black Prince's son - acceded to the throne as Richard II of England. Richard was a minor, and John exercised an enormous amount of influence on the Crown until the King was of age. Among other things, he was one of the architects of taxation that lead to the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

     Six years later in 1386, John attempted to claim the throne of Castile (in Spain) through his marriage through his second wife, Constance. However, more trouble erupted at home as Richard II provoked a revolt of nobles - known as the Lord's Appellant - who believed that he was ruling as an absolute tyrant. They took control of the government, leaving Richard as a king in name only, as well as exercising power in his name and removing many of his favorites from the royal court. John returned home to help broker a compromise between his nephew and the Lord's, which resulted in nearly a decade of peace.

     John's power and influence came as a result of his vast land holdings. His first wife was Blanche, the younger daughter of the Earl of Lancaster, and upon his death in 1361, John inherited half of his lands as well as his title. In the following year, Blanche's elder sister died, allowing John to receive the remaining Lancastrian lands, and his father made him Duke of Lancaster. The Duchy of Lancaster had holdings in virtually every county in England, making John a very wealthy man during his time and allowing him to be so influential. During King Richards reign, John was also made Duke of Aquitaine in France.

     Upon his death, his lands and titles were seized by Richard, who kept them from John's son Henry Bolingbroke, who was serving a ten-year sentence of exile in France as a resolution to a dispute between him and another nobleman. Richard extended his cousin's sentence to life, but Henry eventually returned to depose Richard and had himself crowned King of England as Henry IV, inaugurating the House of Lancaster, a branch of the main Plantagenet dynasty. 

     John of Gaunt's other legacy are his descendants. Through his legitimate and illegitimate offspring (who were retroactively legitimized), as well as several rounds of royal intermarriage amongst cousins, he was the ancestor of kings and queens of England from the houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor, as well as (after 1437) kings and queens of Scotland. Since the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne in 1603, all sovereigns of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland, and the United Kingdom have been descended from Gaunt. 

     Gaunt is also the sixteenth richest person of all time, with estimated (inflation-adjusted) fortune of $110 billion.