ANGLO-SAXON AELLE (477)

Aelle was a ruler who is credited with the foundation of the kingdom of West Sussex. A South Saxon, Aelle is said to have landed near Selsea Bill in modern West Sussex in 477. He inmediately made war in the native Britons, and in 491 he and his son Cissa massacred a British garrison at the former Roman fort of Anderida (modern Pevensey, East Sussex). His subsequent fate is unknown, but the 8th-century historian Bede wrote that Aelle was the first king to be recognized as overlord of all the English peoples south of the Humber:


Aelle as the first bretwalda ("ruler of Britain").