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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Wessex
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The *Anglo-Saxon kingdom which eventually asserted control over the rest of the country and established a unified England. The heartland of Wessex was the southern counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset. During the 7–8C there was much pressure from *Mercia to the north, but in the early 9C the kings of Wessex gained control of the region of Devon and Cornwall to the west and of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Sussex and Kent to the east.
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It was from this base, across the entire south of the island, that *Alfred in the late 9C successfully resisted the advance of the *Danes who had overrun eastern England and much of *Mercia. That achievement caused him to be considered the king of all the English; and when the reconquest of the Danish territories was completed by his grandson Athelstan (by about 930), the rulers of other regions formally accepted Athelstan's overlordship as king of England.
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