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Earl of Wessex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The title Earl of Wessex has been created twice in British history, once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The region of Wessex (the "West Saxons'), in the south and southwest of England, had been one of the seven major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (the Heptarchy) that preceded the unified Kingdom of England. As unification was accomplished under Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, the title has great historical significance.
The Earldom of Wessex was conferred on Godwin by King Canute the Great. The Earldom had previously been reserved by the king. The Earldom passed to Godwin's son, who later became King Harold II and died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Earldom was not continued.
- Godwin, 1st Earl of Wessex (c.1001-1053)
- Harold Godwinson, 2nd Earl of Wessex (c.1022-1066) also created Earl of East Anglia and Earl of Hereford; ascended to the throne of King of England in 1066
In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son, Prince Edward, married Sophie Rhys-Jones. Younger sons of the monarch are normally given dukedoms at the time of their marriage, and experts had suggested the former royal Dukedoms of Cambridge and Sussex as the most likely to be granted to Prince Edward. However, given the Prince's theatrical links and the Royal Family's policy of "slimming down" their size — and Edward's being seventh in the order of succession to the British throne, the Earldom of Wessex was recreated, Earl being a lesser title than Duke. This was despite the fact that Wessex has had no legal status (i.e., as a county) for centuries. When the Earldom was created, the Palace announced that the Earl of Wessex would be created Duke of Edinburgh after the death of his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, when that title merges with the Crown.
The Earldom has the subsidiary title Viscount Severn, available for use by the eldest son of the Earl as a courtesy title.
The 1998 film Shakespeare in Love featured an entirely fictional villainous Earl of Wessex, played by Colin Firth.