List of monarchs of Wessex

This is a list of monarchs of Wessex until 927. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. Details for many of the later English monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources. But the earliest kings of Wessex predate many written sources. Wessex was one of the seven kingdoms of the British Heptarchy. This is a later name given to the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England during the early Middle Ages. Besides Wessex it included Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex. 
The year 865 saw the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in East Anglia. One by one the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were defeated by the Danes (Vikings). By the close of the ninth century the last four independent kingdoms of England had been reduced to just one. Wessex was the only remaining kingdom not destroyed by the Vikings. Under Alfred the Great Wessex became the core of a unified England. His grandson, Athelstan was the first King of England.