See History of Anglo-Saxon England for a historical discussion.
The penultimate set of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was fivefold. The map annotates the names of the peoples of Essex and Sussex taken into the Kingdom of Wessex, which later took in the Kingdom of Kent and became the senior dynasty, and the outlier kingdoms. From Bartholomew's A literary & historical atlas of Europe (1914)
The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms[1][2][3] of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex.
The term 'Heptarchy' (from the Greek ἑπταρχία, 'heptarchia'; from ἑπτά, 'hepta': "seven"; ἀρχή, 'arche': "reign, rule" and the suffix -ία, '-ia') is used because of the traditional belief that there had been seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, usually described as East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex.
The first known written reference to the historiographical traditional belief that there were these 'seven kingdoms' was in Henry of Huntingdon's 12th century work, Historia Anglorum;[4] the term Heptarchy is not known to have been used to describe them until the 16th century.[5]
^Pounds, N. J. G.; G, Pounds N. J. (2000). A History of the English Parish: The Culture of Religion from Augustine to Victoria. Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-521-63351-2. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
^Holladay, Joan A. (17 January 2019). Visualizing Ancestry in the High and Late Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-108-47018-6.
^Hopkins, Daniel J.; Staff, Merriam-webster (1997). Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. p. 1223. ISBN 978-0-87779-546-9. S Britain (except Wales and Strathclyde) divided into a number of petty kingdoms incl. the so-called Heptarchy
^Henry of Huntingdon (1996). Historia Anglorum (History of the English People). Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19822224-8. Retrieved 9 April 2010 – via Google Books.
^"heptarchy". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until...
865 the Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar, invaded the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. The Heptarchy was the collective name for the seven kingdoms East Anglia, Essex...
after Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now...
years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. During...
considered to have been King of Wessex, even though the kingdoms of the Heptarchy had not yet formed from the patchwork of smaller kingdoms in his lifetime...
Country, often considered interchangeable with Wessex Cotswolds Weald Heptarchy, former kingdom names which did not become counties have continued to...
Although the Kingdom of Essex to the south was a separate element of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England and did not identify as Angles but Saxons, many...
gradual unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy: East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. The...
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain and was one of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy. It was ruled by the Wuffingas dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries, but...
of Britain List of British monarchs, since 1707 England Bretwaldas / Heptarchy Angles Bernicia Deira East Anglia Elmet Essex Hwicce Isle of Wight Kent...
597. Kent was one of the seven kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, but it lost its independence in the 8th century when it became a sub-kingdom...
Overseas Territories Union Flag Crown Dependencies English independence Heptarchy History of the formation of the United Kingdom List of current heads of...
uniform manner as in the later Norman era. Anglo-Saxon kings, within the Heptarchy period and united English kingdom post-King Athelstan, often granted supporters...
foreign tongue to the various dialects of Old English spoken across the Heptarchy, these being part of the Anglo-Frisian branch of the West Germanic family...
v t e Kingdom of England History Timeline Anglo-Saxon England Heptarchy Kingdom of England Norman Conquest Anglo-Normans The Anarchy Angevin Empire England...
the Viking Age continued from the previous century. The kingdoms of the Heptarchy were gradually conquered by the Danes, who set up Anglo-Saxon puppet rulers...
Prehistoric Roman Britain Lloegyr History of Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxon England Heptarchy Settlement of Britain Middle Ages Kingdom of England Norman Conquest Angevin...
collapse of Mercia's supremacy over the other kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. Beornwulf became King of Mercia in 823 following the deposition of King...
the "Mercian Supremacy" was over. This period has been described as the Heptarchy, though this term has now fallen out of academic use. The term arose because...
Walter, Thornbury (1875–1887). "The Costume of English Women from the Heptarchy to the Present Day. Chapter III. Henry VII. Henry VIII". The Art Journal...
v t e Kingdom of England History Timeline Anglo-Saxon England Heptarchy Kingdom of England Norman Conquest Anglo-Normans The Anarchy Angevin Empire England...
Global Information