Editing Cædwalla (section)

== Ancestry ==
A number of the early kings of Wessex had Celtic names, which may indicate [[Celtic Britons|Brythonic]] ancestry.<ref name=Yorke_138>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=138–139}}.</ref> Cædwalla's name ultimately derives from the [[Proto-Celtic]] *''Katu-welnā-mnos'', meaning "The One Who (-mnos) Leads (welnā-) into Battle (katu-)". However, the form "Cædwalla" appears to be a Saxon variant of "[[Cadwallon (disambiguation)|Cadwallon]]", a contemporary [[Welsh language|Welsh]] name.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crystal |first1=David |title=The story of English in 100 words |date=2011 |publisher=Profile |location=London |isbn=9781846684289 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiB6qzEv4a8C&q=his+is+a+distinctly+welsh+name |access-date=31 August 2022}}</ref>

Bede states that Cædwalla was a "daring young man of the royal house of the Gewissæ", and gives his age at his death in 689 as about thirty, making the year of his birth about 659.<ref name=Bede_275>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book V, Ch. 7, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 275.</ref> "[[Gewisse]]", a tribal name, is used by Bede as an equivalent to "West Saxon": the [[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies|West Saxon genealogies]] trace back to one "Gewis", an eponymous ancestor.<ref name=Kirby_48>{{Harvnb|Kirby|1992|pp=48, 223}}.</ref> According to the ''Chronicle'', Cædwalla was the son of [[Coenberht]], and was descended via [[Ceawlin]] from [[Cerdic of Wessex|Cerdic]], the first of the Gewisse to land in England.<ref name=Swanton_38>{{Harvnb|Swanton|1996|p=38}}.</ref><ref name=Yorke_133>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|p=133}}.</ref> However, it appears that the many difficulties and contradictions in the regnal list are caused partly by the efforts of later scribes to demonstrate that each king on the list was descended from Cerdic; thus Cædwalla's genealogy must be treated with caution.<ref name=Yorke_130>{{Harvnb|Yorke|1990|pp=130–131}}.</ref>