Unfortunately, Cerdic is recognised by one of the defenders and banished by Aella for his role in the deaths of his brothers and father. He views this as an excuse used by Aella to get rid of a dangerous rival but accepts the decision and returns to Frisia. There he recruits another army to invade the lands west of his former homeland, roughly modern Hampshire and Dorset (495 CE per the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). During the voyage, he overhears his wife plotting his assassination and throws her overboard; the rest of the book covers his long and ultimately successful battle to establish the Kingdom of Wessex and his own dynasty. It ends with him musing that if the Christian faith in which he was brought up is true, he will spend certainly eternity in Hell but 'it was fun while it lasted.'