Our first secure historical date for the people who became the West Saxons occurred at some point in the 630s when a missionary called Birinus baptised their king, Cynegils, at his royal palace near Dorchester on Thames. According to traditions which circulated among later generations of West Saxons they already had a century of history prior to this date, but this history as it has come down to us is often vague and contradictory. In this episode I will go over that history.
