Christianisation and loss of independence (600–860) After 491 the written history of Sussex goes blank until 607, when the annals report that Ceolwulf of Wessex fought against the South Saxons.ASC Parker MS. AD607. Threatened by Wessex, the South Saxons sought to secure their independence by alliance with Mercia. To the South Saxons, the more distant influence and control of a king from Mercia is likely to have been preferable to that of the West Saxons. The alliance between Mercia and the South Saxons was further sealed by Æðelwealh, king of Sussex, receiving baptism into the Christian church through the Mercian court, with Wulfhere acting as his sponsor, making Æðelwealh Sussex's first Christian king. Wulfhere gave Æðelwealh the Isle of Wight and the territory of the Meonwara (the Meon valley of present-day Hampshire).Bede, book IV, chap. 13, 225. Æðelwealh also married Eabe, a princess of the Hwicce, a Mercian satellite province.
Christianisation and loss of independence (600–860) After 491 the written his.tory of Sussex goes blank until 607, when the annals report that Ceolwulf of Wessex fought against the South Saxons.ASC Parker MS. AD607. Threatened by Wessex, the South Saxons sought to secure their independence by alliance with Mercia. To the South Saxons, the more distant influence and control of a king from Mercia is likely to have been preferable to that of the West Saxons. The alliance between Mercia and the South Saxons was further sealed by Æðelwealh, king of Sussex, receiving baptism into the Christian church through the Mercian court, with Wulfhere acting as his sponsor, making Æðelwealh Sussex's first Christian king. Wulfhere gave Æðelwealh the Isle of Wight and the territory of the Meonwara (the Meon valley of present-day Hampshire).Bede, book IV, chap. 13, 225. Æðelwealh also married Eabe, a princess of the Hwicce, a Mercian satellite province