The Anglo Saxon Kings of England: The History of the Before (Part Three)
For the six centuries between the end of Roman occupation and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Britain was not a united kingdom. It was, instead, a mishmash of tribal domains, petty kings and infighting.
Chief amongst these were the seven Anglo Saxon kingdoms of the Heptarchy. Five of them crowded round the south east of the island: Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex. The other two, Mercia and the enormous kingdom of Northumbria, were further west and further north, each as large as the five smaller kingdoms in its own right.
The story of these seven kingdoms is the story of Anglo Saxon Britain. Their struggles for power, imperium in the old Roman form, are the backdrop for six hundred years of history.
Out of these conflicts arose a series of High Kings of Britain, so called Bretwaldas (Britain rulers) of the Anglo Saxons. These kings, from Kent, Anglia and then for half a century from Northumbria, were elevated almost entirely by their strength in arms. They were, in reality, warlords.
Our guide to these less documented times has been the monk Bede, who lived in the seventh and eighth centuries. His Ecclesiastical History of the English People is the clearest and most detailed account of the Bretwaldas, even if Bede himself did not invent the term.
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Header Image: The Heptarchy of Anglo Saxon England. The kings of Mercia are represented by the central shield with the red saltire cross. Source: John Speed / Public Domain.
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