In the year 519, according to the "Saxon
Chronicle," "Cerdic and Cymric obtained the kingdom of the West Saxons;
and the same year they fought against the Britons where it is now named
Cerdicsford. And from that time forth the royal offspring of the West
Saxons reigned." That is all we know about it, and it is not enough
upon which to build an historical narrative or from which to draw any
clear idea even of what befell. All we can say with any sort of
certainty is that the Saxons, through long years of probably spasmodic
fighting, very gradually established themselves in southern England,
and out of it carved a dominion, the kingdom of Wessex, whose capital
was Winchester. Until the year 635 this kingdom, such as it was, was
pagan. In that year St Birinus converted the West Saxons and their King
Kynegils to Christianity. Though Kynegils seems immediately
to have begun to build a church in Winchester in which he
established monks and endowed it with the whole of the land
for a space of seven miles round the city, Winchester did
not become an episcopal See until the year 662.
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