Earl of Wessex

Earldom of Wessex held with Earldom of Forfar
Arms of the Earl of Wessex
Creation date	19 June 1999[1]
Creation	Second
Created by	Elizabeth II
Peerage	Peerage of the United Kingdom
First holder	Godwin of Wessex
Present holder	Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
Heir apparent	James, Earl of Wessex[a]
Remainder to	the 1st Earl's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten.
Subsidiary titles	Viscount Severn[1]
Status	Extant
Seat(s)	Bagshot Park

Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice in British history – once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region of Wessex (the lands of the West Saxons), in the south and southwest of present-day England, became one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (one of the components of the so-called Heptarchy); in the tenth century the increasing power of the Kingdom of the West Saxons led to a united Kingdom of England.

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