Talk:Kingdom of Essex

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IF ANYONE CAN FIND OUT THE ??? queries i would be thankful. -- Fonzy

[edit] Saelred

I can only find a few (often leading back to Wikipedia) references to this king being called Saelred. It seems much more widely accepted (eg in the DNB) for him to be known as Selered. I can also find no source for the assertion that he is known as Swebert. Can someone enlighten me please?--Silver149 16:07, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

He is known as Saelred on this page: [1] and I can see it dotted around a few other places on the net. Interestingly that page gives totally different dates for the start of his reign - though both agree that he died in 746. The AKA was added by user:JohnArmagh in this revision: [2] not sure what his source was, he doesn't say in the edit comment box MrWeeble 22:08, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Apologies - I have now added the sources - both of which show the detail in question. I have also changed the <thorn> and <eth> back to þ and ð because the thorn and eth were displaying incorrectly on my PC and I couldn't get them to display properly so I think that others may experience the same problem. --JohnArmagh 19:56, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Can you give any more detail about a primary source for the Swebert reference - ie does either book provide a reference to source documentation. I ask because I can find no details elsewhere and this is the first I have heard of it. Certainly Barbara Yorke in Kings and kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England (1990 rev 1997) publ Routledge does not mention it - and this is usually seen as one of the primary books on the subject. (Yorke is Professor of Early Medieval History at University of Winchester). The references to Saelred as a spelling for Selered also seem to be limited and mainly derive from sites associated with David Nash Ford. Again can you provide any detail on this derivation of the name? --Silver149 16:15, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

I have to say that I think it is more likely that it was the name Swaefbert which was sometimes rendered 'Swebert', which seems more likely than Saelred, but I can't find a source which says so. It appears from information such as http://www.geocities.com/meister_z/ANSAXNVA.htm that Swebert was used (and this source also uses Saelred for Selered) - but here it is as an alternative to Swaefbert, as I assert. In all likelihood the two sources I quote are mistaken in their text. --JohnArmagh 17:09, 16 July 2005 (UTC)