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Seaxburh ([ˈsæ͜ɑks.burˠx]; died c. 674) was a queen of Wessex. She is also called Queen of the Gewisse, an early name for the tribe which ruled Wessex. She is said to have ruled Wessex for between one and two years after the death of her husband, Cenwalh, in 672. Her accession to the throne is documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for that year which states that "This year king Kenwalk died, and Sexburga his queen reigned one year after him". It was extremely rare for a woman to reign suo jure in Anglo-Saxon England, and she was the only woman to appear in a regnal list. She may have reigned for over a year, as the next reign is entered in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 674.

However, Bede said that after the death of Cenwalh, "sub-kings took upon themselves the government of the kingdom", so the chroniclers may have tidied up a complicated situation. Writing decades after Cenwalh's life, when Bede lists Cenwalh's accession, he mentions Seaxburh as the unnamed second wife whom the king married after he had cast away his first wife, who was the sister of the Mercian king Penda. It has been suggested that Bede deliberately omitted mention of Seaxburh because he viewed her marriage to Cenwalh, and therefore her right to the throne, as illegitimate.

Seaxburh was succeeded in about 674 by Æscwine, a descendant of Cenwalh's great-uncle Ceolwulf of Wessex.

See also

• House of Wessex family tree

Notes

1. Marshall, William (1878). The Past, Present, and Future of England's Language. United Kingdom: Longmans. p. 26. OCLC 14975347.
2. Shay, Scott (2007). The History of English. United States: Wardja Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780615168173.
3. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Parker Manuscript. line 672. Her forþferde Cenwalh ⁊ Seaxburg a gear ricsode his cuen æfter him
4. ^ Yorke, Barbara (23 September 2004). "Seaxburh [Sexburga]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25149. Retrieved 8 May 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) (Subscription or UK public library membership required)
5. Williams, Ann; Smyth, Alfred P.; Kirby, D. P. (1991). A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales, C. 500–c. 1050. Psychology Press. p. 210. ISBN 9781852640477.
6. Foerster, Anne (2018). "Female Rulership: The Case of Seaxburh, Queen of Wessex". Hypotheses.org. doi:10.58079/rh3h. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
7. "Rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: (5th cent.–924)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 26 May 2005. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93213. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 8 May 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

• Seaxburg 2 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

• 670s deaths
• West Saxon monarchs
• Queens regnant in the British Isles
• 7th-century English women
• 7th-century queens regnant
• 7th-century English monarchs
• House of Wessex