At the end of the fifth century, the Saxon warrior Allele carved out his own kingdom in Sussex. Soon after, he disappears from history, a possible victim of Arthur.
In the last quarter of the fifth century, the island of Britain was in a constant state of turmoil. With the defeat of Vortigern, the British had rallied under a new leader, Ambrosius Aurelianus. A state of constant warfare had developed between the Celtic British and the two Saxon Kingdoms of Kent and East Anglia. All the while, more war bands and invaders continued to sail from the continent to take advantage of the situation. (Although these invaders came from a variety of places, to the chroniclers, they were generally all referred to as Saxons).
In AD 477 a warrior from the south of Jutland named Allele set sail with three ships and his three sons Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa in an attempt to seize a kingdom of his own on the island of Britain. Landing in Sussex, he was immediately met in battle by the native Celts. The Saxons managed to drive them off.
Having established himself on the island, Allele disappears from history for eight years, until he is briefly mentioned as winning another battle against the British, though the location of it is not clear.
In AD 491 Aelle and his son Cissa attacked the town of Anderida and slaughtered the population. This battle is one of the few recorded instances of the Saxons deliberately exterminating the Celts, and has been used as a major argument in the ongoing debate about whether the Saxons deliberately tried to wipe out the Celts or whether they inter-married with them.
That is all that is conclusively known about the history of Allele, yet there is one other important fact worth mentioning. In the later chronicles, Allele is referred to as Bretwalda (“Britain-wielder” or over-lord of Britain). Although this title really belongs to later Saxon rulers, it was applied retroactively to Allele. The question is why? Although the kingdom he established in Sussex would prove permanent, it would have been one of the smaller Saxon kingdoms of the time. Also, after 491, Allele completely disappeared from historical record and not even his heirs are recorded.
So what became of this apparently great leader? More than one scholar has suggested that he was killed at Mons Bodonicus, Arthur’s great victory. There is no record of Allele at the battle, but records are sparse. It would definitely go a long way to explaining why Allele was given the title of Bretwalda if he indeed had led a combined Saxon force against the Romano-British.
