The Old English annal for 757 and West Saxon dynastic strife

The article seeks to place the unusual entry for 757 in the Parker Chronicle into the context of eight- and ninth-century controversies about hereditary succession in the Kingdom of Wessex: The argument proceeds in three steps. Firstly, I try to differentiate between the level of the recorded events and the level of the record and argue that a complicated process of transmission from the first to the second level may have to be assumed. Secondly, I seek to show that the entry displays a critical attitude against Ine's eighth-century successors in Wessex. Thirdly, I link such criticisms to the dynastic politics of Ine and the descendants of Ine's brother Ingeld, who ruled Wessex throughout the ninth century.