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Ælle (; also Aelle or Ella) is recorded in early sources as the first king of the South Saxons, reigning in what is now called Sussex, England, from 477 to perhaps as late as 514.〔 According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Ælle and three of his sons are said to have landed at a place called Cymensora and fought against the local Britons.〔Heron-Allen. Selsey Bill. Historic and Prehistoric. Duckworth. Ch.VII pp 88-90 Heron-Allen discusses the confusion by historians about the location of Cymens'ora and argues the case for it being Keynor〕 The chronicle goes on to report a victory in 491, at present day Pevensey, where the battle ended with the Saxons slaughtering their opponents to the last man. Ælle was the first king recorded by the 8th century chronicler Bede to have held "imperium", or overlordship, over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', II 5.〕 In the late 9th-century ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (around four hundred years after his time) Ælle is recorded as being the first bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler", though there is no evidence that this was a contemporary title. Ælle's death is not recorded and although he may have been the founder of a South Saxon dynasty, there is no firm evidence linking him with later South Saxon rulers. The 12th-century chronicler Henry of Huntingdon produced an enhanced version of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' that included 514 as the date of Ælle's death, but this is not secure.〔〔Henry of Huntingdon. ''Historia Anglorum''. ed. Greenway. Sources section p.lxxxvi. "Henry was one of the 'weaver' compilers of whom Bernard Guenee has written. Taking a phrase from here and a phrase from there, connecting with one there, he wove together a continuous narrative which, deriviative though it mostly is, is still very much his own creation,..."〕 ==Historical context== Historians are divided on the detail of Ælle's life and existence as it was during the least-documented period in English history of the last two millennia.〔For example, James Campbell writes: "The natural vice of historians is to claim to know about the past. Nowhere is this claim more dangerous than when it is staked in Britain between AD 400 and 600" (''The Anglo-Saxons'', p. 20).〕〔Welch. ''Anglo-Saxon England''. p. 9. "The AS Chronicle was a product of the West Saxon court and is concerned with glorifying the royal ancestry of Alfred the Great. Manipulation of royal genealogies, in this and other sources, to enhance the claims of present rulers was common. Literary formulas associated with original myths are a common feature of earlier entries. When Aella and his three sons land from three ships on a beach named after one of the sons, we are reading legend rather than real history."〕 By the early 5th century Britain had been Roman for over three hundred and fifty years. The most troublesome enemies of Roman Britain were the Picts of central and northern Scotland, and the Gaels known as Scoti, who were raiders from Ireland. Also vexatious were the Saxons, the name Roman writers gave to the peoples who lived in the northern part of what is now Germany and the southern part of the Jutland peninsula. Saxon raids on the southern and eastern shores of England had been sufficiently alarming by the late 3rd century for the Romans to build the Saxon Shore forts, and subsequently to establish the role of the Count of the Saxon Shore to command the defence against these incursions. Roman control of Britain finally ended in the early part of the 5th century; the date usually given as marking the end of Roman Britain is 410, when the Emperor Honorius sent letters to the British, urging them to look to their own defence. Britain had been repeatedly stripped of troops to support usurpers' claims to the Roman empire, and after 410 the Roman armies never returned.〔Hunter Blair, ''An Introduction'', pp. 1–14.〕〔Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'' pp. 13–16.〕 Sources for events after this date are extremely scarce, but a tradition, reported as early as the mid-6th century by a British priest named Gildas, records that the British sent for help against the barbarians to Aetius, a Roman consul, probably in the late 440s. No help came. Subsequently, a British leader named Vortigern is supposed to have invited continental mercenaries to help fight the Picts who were attacking from the north. The leaders, whose names are recorded as Hengest and Horsa, rebelled, and a long period of warfare ensued. The invaders—Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians—gained control of parts of England, but lost a major battle at Mons Badonicus (the location of which is not known). Some authors have speculated that Ælle may have led the Saxon forces at this battle, while others reject the idea out of hand. The British thus gained a respite, and peace lasted at least until the time Gildas was writing: that is, for perhaps forty or fifty years, from around the end of the 5th century until midway through the sixth.〔Hunter Blair, ''An Introduction'', pp. 13–16.〕〔Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'' p. 23.〕 Shortly after Gildas's time the Anglo-Saxon advance was resumed, and by the late 6th century nearly all of southern England was under the control of the continental invaders.〔Hunter Blair (''Roman Britain'', p. 204) gives the twenty-five years from 550 to 575 as the dates of the final conquest.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ælle of Sussex」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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