Meonwara

The Meonwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a folkland located in the valley of the River Meon in Hampshire that was subsumed by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century.

In the 8th century the Venerable Bede referred to the Saxon and Jutish settlers that were living in the valley of the River Meon as (Meon People) and described the area as Provincia Meanwarorum (Province of the ). The origin of the name and its meaning is not known for sure, but possibly thought to be Celtic or Pre-Celtic for 'swift one'.

It is likely that the Jutes initially inhabited Kent () and from there they occupied the Isle of Wight () and also possibly the area around Hastings in East Sussex (Haestingas). They also settled in what was to become . As well as Bede's description, there is other evidence of Jutish occupation. Droxford, in the Meon valley, was the site of a large Jutish cemetery. Also one of the local manors had the medieval custom of gavelkind, similar to that in Kent. Further there is placename evidence, linking Kent and Southern Hampshire. In 686, Bede tells us, Jutish Hampshire extended to the western edge of the New Forest; however that seems to include another Jutish people, the Ytene, and it is not certain that these two territories formed a continuous coastal block.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a series of landings by Anglo-Saxon settlers, during the years 449–514, in the area that became Meonwara. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the founders of were a man named Port and his two sons Bieda and Maegla. Most academics regard this as legend rather than fact. Also the listed names may not be of Germanic origin, and Maegla appears to be a Brythonic word meaning "chief" or "prince" (i.e. cognate with Old British maglos, Welsh mael and the Breton given name Maël).