Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in southern England. The kingdom was centered in the areas of Berkshire and Hampshire, but at times the power of the kings of Wessex extended to Essex and Kent in the east and Cornwall in the west. In the 900’s, the kings of Wessex united the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and became kings of all England.
Archaeologists sometimes apply the term Wessex to the large area of open chalk downs centered on Salisbury Plain. This area has been inhabited since Stone Age times and was the center of a Bronze Age culture known as the Wessex culture. The English author Thomas Hardy set some of his novels in an imaginary version of southwestern England, which he called Wessex.
