Heptarchy

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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) Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.jpg
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.

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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]

History

The main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms' names are written in red British kingdoms c 800.svg
The main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms' names are written in red

By convention, the Heptarchy period lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages. Although heptarchy suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of a clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. The number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly during this period as competing kings contended for supremacy. [6]

In the late 6th century, the king of Kent was a prominent lord in the south. In the 7th century, the rulers of Northumbria and Wessex were powerful. In the 8th century, Mercia achieved hegemony over the other surviving kingdoms, particularly during the reign of Offa the Great.

Alongside the seven kingdoms, a number of other political divisions also existed, such as the kingdoms (or sub-kingdoms) of: Bernicia and Deira within Northumbria; Lindsey in present-day Lincolnshire; the Hwicce in the southwest Midlands; the Magonsæte or Magonset, a sub-kingdom of Mercia in what is now Herefordshire; the Wihtwara, a Jutish kingdom on the Isle of Wight, originally as important as the Cantwara of Kent; the Middle Angles, a group of tribes based around modern Leicestershire, later conquered by the Mercians; the Hæstingas (around the town of Hastings in Sussex); and the Gewisse.

The decline of the Heptarchy and the eventual emergence of the kingdom of England was a drawn-out process, taking place over the course of the 9th to 10th centuries. In the 9th century, the Danish enclave at York expanded into the Danelaw, with about half of England under Danish rule. English unification under Alfred the Great was a reaction to the threat from this common enemy. In 886, Alfred retook London, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that "all of the English people (all Angelcyn) not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred." [7]

The unification of the kingdom of England was complete only in the 10th century, following the expulsion of Eric Bloodaxe as king of Northumbria. Æthelstan is credited as the first to be King of all England. [8]

List of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

The four main kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England were:

The other main kingdoms, which were conquered and absorbed by others entirely at some point in their history, before the unification of England, are:

Other minor kingdoms and territories:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angles (tribe)</span> North Sea Germanic people, from the eponymous area

The Angles were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name England. According to Tacitus, writing around 100 AD, a people known as Angles (Anglii) lived east of the Lombards and Semnones, who lived near the Elbe river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bretwalda</span> Title given to some Anglo-Saxon rulers

Bretwalda is an Old English word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is unclear whether the word dates back to the 5th century and was used by the kings themselves or whether it is a later, 9th-century, invention. The term bretwalda also appears in a 10th-century charter of Æthelstan. The literal meaning of the word is disputed and may translate to either 'wide-ruler' or 'Britain-ruler'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jutes</span> North Sea Germanic ethnic group from the Jutlandic peninsula

The Jutes were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nations, along with the Angles and the Saxons:

Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rædwald of East Anglia</span> Bretwalda

Rædwald, also written as Raedwald or Redwald, was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the son of Tytila of East Anglia and a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, who were the first kings of the East Angles. Details about Rædwald's reign are scarce, primarily because the Viking invasions of the 9th century destroyed the monasteries in East Anglia where many documents would have been kept. Rædwald reigned from about 599 until his death around 624, initially under the overlordship of Æthelberht of Kent. In 616, as a result of fighting the Battle of the River Idle and defeating Æthelfrith of Northumbria, he was able to install Edwin, who was acquiescent to his authority, as the new king of Northumbria. During the battle, both Æthelfrith and Rædwald's son, Rægenhere, were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbria</span> Medieval kingdom of the Angles

Northumbria was an early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercia</span> One of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (527–918)

Mercia was one of the three main Anglic kingdoms founded 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 known as the Midlands of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecgberht, King of Wessex</span> King of Wessex (802–839)

Ecgberht, also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lists of monarchs in the British Isles</span> Lists of monarchs in the British Isles

Lists of monarchs in the British Isles are lists of monarchs that have reigned over the various kingdoms and other states that have existed in the British Isles throughout recorded history. They include monarchs of Britain as a whole, and monarchs of states that covered part or whole of what are now England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Æthelred of Mercia</span> 7th and 8th-century King of Mercia

Æthelred was king of Mercia from 675 until 704. He was the son of Penda of Mercia and came to the throne in 675, when his brother, Wulfhere of Mercia, died from an illness. Within a year of his accession he invaded Kent, where his armies destroyed the city of Rochester. In 679 he defeated his brother-in-law, Ecgfrith of Northumbria, at the Battle of the Trent: the battle was a major setback for the Northumbrians, and effectively ended their military involvement in English affairs south of the Humber. It also permanently returned the kingdom of Lindsey to Mercia's possession. However, Æthelred was unable to re-establish his predecessors' domination of southern Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wulfhere of Mercia</span> 7th-century King of Mercia

Wulfhere or Wulfar was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that region. His campaigns against the West Saxons led to Mercian control of much of the Thames valley. He conquered the Isle of Wight and the Meon valley and gave them to King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons. He also had influence in Surrey, Essex, and Kent. He married Eormenhild, the daughter of King Eorcenberht of Kent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penda of Mercia</span> King of Mercia c.626 – 655

Penda was a 7th-century king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the defeat of the powerful Northumbrian king Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin of Northumbria</span> King of Deira and Bernicia from 616 to 632/633

Edwin, also known as Eadwine or Æduinus, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christianity and was baptised in 627. After he fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, he was venerated as a saint.

A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it. Alternatively, a petty kingdom would be a minor kingdom in the immediate vicinity of larger kingdoms, such as the medieval Kingdom of Mann and the Isles relative to the kingdoms of Scotland or England or the Viking kingdoms of Scandinavia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Anglo-Saxon England</span>

Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from soon after the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan. It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway in the 11th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings of the Angles</span> Legendary lists of English monarchs

The Angles were a dominant Germanic tribe in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, and gave their name to the English, England and to the region of East Anglia. Originally from Angeln, present-day Schleswig-Holstein, a legendary list of their kings has been preserved in the heroic poems Widsith and Beowulf, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald, was a 7th-century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio at Rendlesham. The two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Sutton Hoo, the monastery at Iken, the East Anglian see at Dommoc and the emerging port of Ipswich were all in the vicinity of Rendlesham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of East Anglia</span> Anglo-Saxon kingdom in southeast Britain (6th century – 918)

The Kingdom of the East Angles, today known as the Kingdom of East Anglia, was a small independent kingdom of the Angles comprising what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens. The kingdom formed in the 6th century in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. It was ruled by the Wuffingas dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries, but fell to Mercia in 794, and was conquered by the Danes in 869, to form part of the Danelaw. It was conquered by Edward the Elder and incorporated into the Kingdom of England in 918.

Events from the 7th century in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercian Supremacy</span> Period of history when the kingdom of Mercia dominated in England

The Mercian Supremacy was the period of Anglo-Saxon history between c. 716 and c. 825, when the kingdom of Mercia dominated the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy in England. Sir Frank Stenton apparently coined the phrase, arguing that Offa of Mercia, who ruled 757–796, effectively achieved the unification of England south of the Humber estuary. Scholastic opinion on the relationship between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia at this time remains divided.

A number of royal genealogies of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, collectively referred to as the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, have been preserved in a manuscript tradition based in the 8th to 10th centuries.

References

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. Henry of Huntingdon (1996). Historia Anglorum (History of the English People). ISBN   978-0-19822224-8 . Retrieved 9 April 2010 via Google Books.
  5. "heptarchy" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  6. Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages1993:163f.
  7. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Freely licensed version at Gutenberg Project. Note: This electronic edition is a collation of material from nine diverse extant versions of the Chronicle. It contains primarily the translation of Rev. James Ingram, as published in the Everyman edition. Asser's Life of King Alfred, ch. 83, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources (Penguin Classics) (1984), pp. 97–8.
  8. Starkey, David (2004). The Monarchy of England: The beginnings. Chatto and Windus. p. 71. ISBN   9780701176785 . Retrieved 24 August 2018.

Bibliography