Heptarchy
Sign in to save488x488px|thumb|The penultimate set of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was fivefold. The map annotates the names of the peoples of Kingdom of Essex|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)]]
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The Heptarchy refers to the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that existed in early medieval England, though the map shows a later period when this number had been reduced to five major kingdoms including Wessex, Essex, Sussex, and Kent. The concept matters because it describes a formative period of English history when these separate kingdoms gradually consolidated, with Wessex eventually emerging as the dominant power.
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Article
6 sectionsContents
- History
- List of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
488x488px|thumb|The penultimate set of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was fivefold. The map annotates the names of the peoples of Kingdom of Essex|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 was the division of Anglo-Saxon England between the sixth and eighth centuries into petty kingdoms, conventionally the seven kingdoms of East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex. The term originated with the twelfth-century historian Henry of Huntingdon and has been widely used ever since, but it has been questioned by historians as the number of kingdoms fluctuated, and there was never a time when the territory of the Anglo-Saxons was divided into seven kingdoms each ruled by one king. The period of petty kingdoms came to an end in the eighth century, when England was divided into the four dominant kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex.