The transmission of 'The West Saxon Royal Genealogy': a phylogenetic approach.

This article focuses on applying phylogenetic and computational analyses to the Old English West Saxon royal genealogy (WSRG) to clarify its manuscript transmission and textual history. The WSRG, a key source for early English royal history compiled during King Alfred the Great's reign (871–899), survives in seven principal medieval manuscripts dating from the late ninth to the early twelfth centuries. Using Maximum Parsimony phylogenetic methods alongside other statistical analyses, the study confirms previously hypothesized manuscript relationships—such as the strong pairing of C173 and BL34 linked to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle—and identifies a novel textual grouping between TR35 and C383, suggesting a lost eleventh-century exemplar from Canterbury. The research demonstrates the effectiveness of combining traditional textual criticism with computer-based phylogenetic tools to yield new insights into Old English textual traditions.