REGIA ANGLORUM
THE 7 KINGDOMS OF THE ENGLISC 600 – 800 AD

A red sunset; and a long night; a pale, misty dawn! But as the light grows it becomes apparent to remote posterity that everything has changed. Night had fallen on Britannia. But dawn had risen on a New England, humble, poor, barbarous, degraded and divided, but alive. A new story had begun a story of a New England, but the story and history of the English People is an old one, but would continue in a New Land.

After the initial impetus of settlement, the Englisc went through a period of consolidation during which many small kingdoms sprang up. In time, the more powerful of these swallowed their neighbours, and by the end of the seventh century there were seven main kingdoms whose rulers were vying for position as overlord of the Englisc.

Before the Viking attacks in the last quarter of the ninth century, the new homeland of the Englisc was divided into several kingdoms, governed mainly by rulers who traced their ancestry back to the god Woden. There were seven main kingdoms,

1) Northumbria, (Angles living North of the River Humber.) This eventually stretched to Edinburgh – created by Edwin a Saxon war lord (Edwins Town.)
2) Mercia (Middle Angles.)
3) East Anglia (East Angles.)
4) Essex (East Saxons.)
5) Wessex (West Saxons.) This eventually took in Cornwall, which became fully English.
6) Sussex (South Saxons.)
7) Kent (Formed from the original Jutes who landed with Hengist in 449 AD and who formed the ‘Men of Kent’)


Hence late in the sixteenth century the term “Heptarchy” was coined to describe this period of our history. Sometimes competing or warring with each other, sometimes helping each other. England was not be properly unified until 937 AD. But read on and discover the regions of England and their origins.

Though there was a tradition, which was given wide circulation by Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, that the English consisted of three tribes - Angles, Saxons, and Jutes – they were conscious of kinship, as coming from “three very powerful nations of the Germans”; this sense of unity was reinforced by their feeling of difference from the Brythonic peoples of Britain, and, after the conversion to Christianity, by the establishment of an English Church which rose above political boundaries.

But there was a further unifying feature: for much of the period all the kingdoms south of the Humber were controlled by a single overlord. Bede called the area over which an overlord exercised authority an empire, or dominion, Ethelbald of Mercia, who held it in the eighth century, in using Latin title Rex Britanniae, was doubtless translating the vernacular term Bretwalda, “Ruler of Britain”, first recorded in annal 827 of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Little is known of the powers of the earliest overlords, Ælle of Sussex and Ceawlin of Wessex, but from the time of Ethelbert of Kent (whose over-lordship at the time of St Augustine’s arrival in 597 AD is the reason why Canterbury holds the primacy over English sees) it was certainly no empty title. The overlord’s safe conduct was valid over the whole area; vassal-kings led their forces to serve under his banner; they dared not harbour his fugitives; they required his consent when making grants of lands; he could dispose of estates in their territories, and no doubt he also demanded tribute. In return, the sub-kingdoms received his protection.

The English shield wall resists the Brythons

In the seventh century, when the over-lordship was held by three successive Northumbrian kings, Edwin, Oswald, and Oswy, the whole of Anglo-Saxon England was under a single overlord; but after 657 AD Northumbria declined and never recovered its political supremacy. Its glory was to lie in a different direction, in the amazing flourishing of learning, literature and art which made, in the age of Bede, this outpost of civilisation the leader of European culture. In the late eighth century Northumbria supplied Charlemagne with a scholar, Alcuin, to direct his educational reforms.

Penda - The First Great Mercian

Meanwhile political power had passed to the Mercians, originally a small people dwelling in the basins of the Upper Trent and its tributaries, and receiving their name, which means “border folk”, from their proximity to lands under Brythonic control. Even in the days of the great Northumbrian kings, they expanded their power far beyond this area. Their Prince Penda defeated the West Saxons in 628 AD and annexed the West Saxon settlement in the valley of the lower Severn; in 653 AD he put his son Peada over the Middle Angles, whose territories stretched right across the Midlands to the borders of East Anglia and Essex; he caused the death in battle of both Edwin and Oswald of Northumbria, though this did not lead to any lasting influence in Northumbria, whereas East Anglia came under his direct rule, after the killing of three of their kings. According to Bede he had thirty “royal leaders” in his army at the battle of Winwaed, which brought an end to his triumphant career in 654 AD.

The last Pagan English King. The Great King Penda of Mercia kills another English King. The White Dragon of the English flies over Penda. Artist: Mark Taylor

The exploits of such a leader would have been celebrated in song, and it is probably from poetic source that the Anglo-Saxon chronicler got his figures of thirty years for Penda’s reign and fifty for his age at his accession, these being the favourite round numbers in Anglo-Saxon verse. The picture of this grand old champion of the pagan faith, meeting his death in battle at the age of eighty, has passed into history; and yet it must be fiction, for he left two sons who were minors, and his sister married later than 642 AD.

Penda’s death was only a temporary eclipse in Mercian power, for three years later the Mercians rebelled against Northumbrian control, setting up Penda’s son Wulfhere, and he not only recovered what Penda had held but also became overlord of the East Saxons, thus gaining control of London. Moreover, he obtained the West Saxon territories on both sides of the Upper Thames and also became overlord of Surrey (or The South Region people.) The King of Sussex was his godson, and he gave to him the Isle of White when he captured it in 661 AD, probably with the aim of creating a barrier against West Saxon expansion eastwards. Though in his last year he was defeated by Ecgfrith of Northumbria, and lost the province of Lindsey, this was recovered by his brother and successor Ethelred (674-704), who retained control of all the area between the Humber and the Thames and who made raids into Kent. But with the rise of the strong West-Saxon Kings Ceadwalla (685-688), and Ine (688-726), the land south of the Thames passed out of Mercian domination. Nothing more seems to have been lost even in the reigns of two weak kings of Mercia. The second of these two kings, Ceolred, was followed in 717 AD by a formidable character, Ethelbald.

As a member of a rival branch of the royal house, Ethelbald spent his early life in exile, where he became a friend of the hermit St Guthlac, who prophesied his future success (but not, apparently, his tragic end). Bede tells us that by 731 all provinces south of the Humber were subject to him, and this is confirmed in other sources. He was in unquestioned control of London and Essex and had influence in Kent; he granted away lands in Somerset, Wiltshire, and Berkshire, and Cynewulf of Wessex acknowledged his overlordship. Ethelbald held his throne for forty years, and his internal government is praised in a letter written from Germany by St Boniface and seven other Anglo-Saxon missionary bishops. The purpose of the letter was to complain of his personal immorality and disregard of certain ecclesiastical privileges, but it speaks of good order and firm peace he maintained in his kingdom, of his defence of widows and the poor, and of his generosity in almsgiving.

He was generous in grants to churches, and, in fact, throughout the reigns of the Mercian Kings after Wulfhere (657-674), one can glimpse a steady advance in the foundation of monasteries and the consolidation of Christianity. Nor should it be forgotten that this is the period when the Anglo-Saxon church carried out its great missionary activities to the continental Germans. Though the Frisian mission received its main support from Northumbria, and though St Boniface and several of his followers were West Saxons, all the kingdoms showed an eager interest in the work, supplying books and other gifts, and probably personnel. Chroniclers tend to confine themselves to recording warfare, but it would be far from the truth to regard the period as barbaric or chaotic. It was not ‘the Dark Ages’, as we know much of what happened.

The Anglo-Saxon "King of Britan"

It is sad to learn that Ethelbald, who had been loyally accompanied in his early exile by faithful companions, was murdered in 757 AD by members of his own household, bribed, one may suspect, by a rival. The throne was seized by a certain Beorhred, who, however, was soon driven out by Offa, the greatest of the Mercian Kings, but it was some years before he could re-establish the Mercian dominion. Cynewulf of Wessex recovered the disputed lands on the banks of the upper Thames, and kept them until his defeat at Bensington in 779 AD brought him under subservience to Offa.

In Kent, Offa was in power by 764 AD, but as there is no sign of his influence there for nine years after the battle of Otford in 776 AD, and Kentish Kings issued Charters without his permission during this period, it is likely that the Men of Kent recovered their independence at Otford. However, from 785 AD until his death in 796 AD Offa was again supreme. He was overlord of West Sussex by 770 AD at the latest, and conquered the people of Hastings (east Sussex) in 771 AD. Coins show him using an East Anglian mint, and his execution of Ethelbert of East Anglia in 794 AD was probably prompted by an attempted revolt. He refrained from interference in Northumbria, which he allied to himself by giving a daughter in marriage to its king, Ethelred, in 792 AD, but south of the Humber he was supreme as no other King had been.

He became a figure of importance in the eyes of the Pope and if Charlemagne (the Ruler of the Franks on the continent and a powerful influence,) who regarded Offa as competent to speak for the whole country, an in the course of a personal quarrel with him, closed the ports of his Kingdom to all from the Island of Britain and the English race. When the quarrel was ended, Charlemagne was at great pains to deny that he had out of hostility given asylum to fugitives from “his dearest brother” – though he undoubtedly had one of his letters, which includes a grant of immunity to bona fide pilgrims passing through the Frankish Kingdom, is of great interest in showing that trade between England and the Franks was important enough to engage the interest of their respective rulers.

King Ethelbald had announced the dignity of his position by high-sounding titles in his charters: “King not only of the Mercians but also of all the provinces which are called by the general name of South English”, or “King of Britain”. Offa used other means. Partly in imitation of Frankish practice, he inaugurated a remarkable new coinage, replacing the mainly anonymous sceattas with coins for which numismatists reserve the name “penny”. These were struck on broader flans, which left more room for legend and design. He put his name and sometimes his portrait on his coins, and they have been much admired for their artistic merit and the variety of their designs. They were sometimes copied on the Continent. He also issued coins with the name of his Queen, Cynethryth, being the only Anglo-Saxon King to do so, and in this he was probably inspired by Roman coins with portraits of empresses. In addition to his silver pennies, there survive from his reign two gold coins, one imitation of an Arabic dinar. They may represent issues of “mancuses” struck for presentation to churches, for Offa was a generous donor: he promised on behalf of himself and his successors to send annually to St Peter’s at Rome “as many mancuses as the year had days”, for support of the poor and the provision of lights. The new coinage was introduced in the interests of trade, but it carried Offa’s name, not only over his own Kingdom, but on the Continent as well.

The great dyke, whom he built along the whole of the Welsh frontier from the estuary of the Dee to that of the Severn has kept Offa’s name alive throughout the centuries. The dyke’s purpose was more than to defend vulnerable areas; it defined a frontier, and probably dates from late in the reign after periods of war with Wales. It is a work that shows great engineering skill, and in spite of differences in method of construction in various sectors, it bears the mark of a single conception. To carry through so great an undertaking required enormous resources, and only a strong ruler could induce his subjects to supply the labour involved. It is a worthy memorial to a mighty King, whether or not he intended it to be.

Offa’s awareness of his own dignity is seen in his dealings with Charlemagne, and also in his ecclesiastical policy. It was his insistence on his equality with Charlemagne that caused their quarrel, for he refused to give a daughter in marriage to Charlemagne’s son unless he would reciprocate by letting one of his daughters marry Offa’s son Ecgfrith. Offa’s ambitions for this son was one of the reasons for his persuading Pope Hadrian to send papal legates in 786 AD – the first to visit this New England since its conversion. They came “to renew the friendship with us and the catholic faith which Pope Gregory taught us”, but Offa used them for two purposes of his own.

He caused the legates to consecrate his son Ecgfrith King, making him the first English King to receive ecclesiastical consecration. In this, Offa was imitating Pippin, King of the Franks, who had had his sons Charles and Carlo man consecrated by Pope Stephen when visited by him in 754 AD. Offa took more sinister action for his son’s sake, to judge by the words of Alcuin (an English scholar at Charlemagne’s court) to a Mercian ealdorman soon after Ecgfrith had died, only one hundred and forty-one days after his father: “You know very well how much blood his father shed to secure the Kingdom on his son”.

Offa’s second purpose was connected with his scheme to detach Mercia from the primacy of Canterbury by making it a separate ecclesiastical province with an archiepiscopal see at Lichfield. He was on bad terms with the Archbishop of Canterbury, but this was perhaps not the only reason for this action; it would seem fitting to him that the leading should receive the dignity of an archbishop of its own. He succeeded against strong opposition, but the new arrangement did not long outlast his lifetime; the Archbishopric of Lichfield was suppressed in 802 AD. A scheme of his successor Coenwulf to transfer the Primacy from Canterbury to London met with Papal opposition and was dropped. As Offa had secured the election of a Mercian abbot to the see of Canterbury in 792 AD, one reason for removing the Mercian church from domination of Canterbury had been eliminated.

Alcuin addresses Offa as “glory of Britain, trumpet of proclamation, sword against foes, shield against enemies”, and soon after his death he is referred to as “King and glory of Britain” and as “of blessed memory”. But, alas, we have no contemporary biography. The picture of his achievement must be built from scattered sources, and much remains obscure. King Alfred made use of his laws, but they have not survived to inform us of his internal government. We learn incidentally that he had a special devotion to St Peter and founded several monasteries in his honour; that he interested himself in the spread of education “that the light of wisdom might shine in his Kingdom”; and that he possessed a manuscript of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. There is little reason to suspect a decline of scholarship in his reign. The most probable date for some of the surviving vernacular poetry, including Beowulf is in the period. We do not know if he was himself the subject of poems; but we do know that a sword which he owned, was handed down in the West Saxon royal house until 1015.

Mercian power did not crumble at once after his death, being upheld by Coenwulf till his death in 821AD. Nevertheless, after 802AD when Egbert of Wessex came to the throne, there was never again a single lord of all England south of the Humber, except for one year, 829-830AD, when Egbert temporarily conquered Mercia and was proudly added by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicler to Bede’s list of Kings who had been Bretwaldas. Yet the almost unbroken period of Mercian control in the reigns of Ethelbald and Offa must have accustomed men to the idea of a unified rule. When Northumbria, East Anglia, Essex and half of Mercia had been ceded to the Viking Danes, Alfred was accepted as King by “all the English People not under subjection to the Danes”. His son, daughter and grandsons re-conquered the Dane-law, and King Athelstan (924-939) sometimes put on his coins the title Rex Tot(ius) Brit(anniae) – “King of all Britain”.