Cerdic, birth unknown, was a Saxon 'Earldorman' who in 495, founded a settlement on the coast of Hampshire, England. He assumed the title of and reigned as King of the West Saxons from 519 until his death in 534.

Cerdic, the Saxon Chieftain who founded the Kingdom of Wessex is also considered the virtual founder of the British Monarchy. Earlier genealogy is considered legendary. The only qualification for kingship in early days was that they should be descended from Cerdic. Otherwise, fitness to rule was the only other factor taken into consideration. Any genealogy prior to Cerdic should be considered a reignal one and not one of blood; as this always borders on legend.

Cerdic's Saga Cerdic was born in Lower Saxony in 467. He lived in the northern part of Saxony on the west shore of Jutland, in boglands opposite Odense, which was a city named after the most renowned king of Saxons, Oden. Cerdic was a direct descendant of Oden and Freya, Saxon conquerors and later gods. Cerdic's father was Elesa, son of Esla, but Cerdic's mother's name is not known to me. Western Jutland was the home of the Gewissae, a Saxon tribe of Jutes descended from Gewis, who was also the ancestor of Vortigern, the British king who invited the Saxon Hengist to Britain, with unfortunate results. This was a time of transition following the defeat of Rome by the Celts, when tribes once loosely classified as Celts by the Romans were beginning to migrate, expand and form larger units in the early stages of nation-building. Hence, Cerdic, Cynric, Elesa, Esla and other related names are of Celtic origin.

In 495, the Saxon Ealdorman (chief man, tribal chief or elder) Cerdic sailed west from Jutland in 5 ships with his young son Cynric and landed at Cerdic's-ore (Cerdic's mouth), a point of land later called Caldshore, then Calshot Castle, on the mouth of a bay called Southampton Water in the area of Britain called Hampshire. At Cerdic's-ore, Cerdic battled British tribes called Welsh of the Horn (Cornwalls), and continued to move north up Southampton Water to the River Test to fight the British forces of King Natanleod, who was slain with five thousand of his men at a site the Saxons named in honour of the burial-place of the defeated king (Netley Marsh, Nettlebury).

Forced west by the British fighters of King Arthur, Cerdic once again met the Welsh at Cerdic's Ford (Charford) on the River Avon. Moving north to Mount Badon (Bath), Cerdic fought Arthur in the British king's last major victory, earning the name Caradoc Vreichvras (Cerdic Strong-Arm) of Arthurian legend. Although Cerdic was turned back by Arthur, it would become a pyrrhic victory for the British king. As Arthur tried to regroup his forces at the eastern stronghold of Fort Guinnion (Caer Guinn, Guinnii Castrum or Winchester), Cerdic moved freely through the land, defeating earlier Saxon tribes who had followed Hengist and had settled in the area of Wantage (Dog River) northwest of Fort Guinnion (Winchester), after slaughtering the Britons at Stonehenge in the Night of the Long Knives. There, in the upper valley of the Thames, Cerdic established the kingdom of West Saxons (Wessex) in 519, which centred around Wantage, birthplace of AElfred the Great. Cerdic thus became the first king of West Saxons (Wessex) in England.

Meanwhile, Cerdic's nephews Stuff and Wihtgar, who had sailed with three ships to Cerdic's-ore in 514, battled the Britons in the valley of the Itchen (Jute's River) south of Fort Guinnion (Winchester) and consolidated the Jutish territories of south Hampshire on the east shore of Southampton Water. Cerdic, having strengthened his forces with the Saxon turncoats and the fighters of Stuff and Wihtgar, battled King Arthur's forces at the plain called Cerdic's Lea outside Fort Guinnion in 527, and won the day. This signalled the downfall of the Britons and their Roman allies in Hampshire, and the ascendancy of the Anglo-Saxon (English) culture. After establishing the English monarchy at Winchester, Cerdic died in 534.