477 to 491. Legendary foundation of Sussex
The foundation of Sussex is described in the suspect 5th-century section of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, according to which Ælle and his three sons (Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa) land with three ships in 477 at Cymenesora (near Selsey Bill), and in the same year fight the Britons and kill many of them and drive others into the Weald. In 485 Ælle fights the Britons near the bank of the river Mearcredesburna (unidentified), and in 491 he and his son Cissa besiege the Roman fort near Pevensey and kill all the British inhabitants. Nothing more is told of Ælle or of his sons, though the place-names Lancing and Chichester seem to go back to the names of Ælle's sons Wlencing and Cissa.
The folkloric arrival in three ships, and the inclusion of people whose sole function seems to be to give their names to local settlements, suggest that these Chronicle entries should be treated as later fiction rather than recorded fact (see entry on c.450 to c.550). However, archaeological remains do suggest there were Anglo-Saxons at least in the eastern part of Sussex in the 5th century, and Bede in the 8th century notes "Ælle King of the South Saxons" as the first of a list of powerful English kings (HE, ii.5). It is possible then that Ælle was one of the early leaders of the South Saxons, and remembered as such in Bede's day. However, there is no way of determining when the historical Ælle reigned or what his sphere of influence was. There is no surviving royal genealogy for the South Saxons, and beyond a brief mention of a fight between Ceolwulf of Wessex and the South Saxons in 607 we know nothing of their fortune until their re-emergence into narrative history in the 660s (see entry on 661).
M. Welch, "The kingdom of the South Saxons: the origins", in S. Bassett (ed.), The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London: 1989), pp.75-83