11/04/2007
Chambers's Encyclopaedia: 1880 Edition
HEPTARCHY
HEPTARCHY, THE, is the name given to seven kingdoms said to have been established by the Saxons in England. See ANGLO-SAXONS. The common idea is, that these seven kingdoms were contemporaneous; but all that can be safely asserted is, that England, in the time of the Saxons, was peopled by various tribes, of which the leading occupation was war; and that sometimes one was conquered, sometimes another. At no time was there a counterpoise of power among seven of them, so that they could be said to have a separate, much less an independent existence. Still, seven names do survive (some authorities adding an eighth). The king of the one that had the fortune to be most powerful for the time being, was styled Bretwalda or ruler of Britain, but in most instances the power of this supposed ruler beyond the limits of his own territory must have been very small. Under Egbert, Wessex rose to be supreme, and virtually swallowed up the others. The following is a brief account of the seven kingdoms commonly said to have formed the Heptarchy:
1. Kent, after the battle of Creccanford, in which 4 000 Britons were slain, was abandoned by the Britons, and became the kingdom of their conquerors, a band of Jutes, who had come in 446 A.D. to serve Vortigern, king of the Picts, as mercenaries, under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa, who were little other than pirates. Hengist became king of Kent, and his son Eric or Aesc succeeded him, and from him his descendants, the kings of Kent, were called Aescingas. In 796, Kent was conquered by Cenwulf, king of Mercia; and about 823 both were conquered by Egbert, king of Wessex, who appointed his son Ethelwulf king of Kent, which hereafter, though separate in name, was really subordinate to Wessex.
2. Sussex, partially conquered about 477, and wholly, before 491, by Ella the Saxon, who was the first bretwalda of Britain. Sussex submitted to Egbert of Wessex in 828, and his son Athelstane governed it under him.
3. Wessex, though fluctuating in extent, as all the kingdoms did, included Surrey, Hants, the Isle of Wight, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and part of Cornwall. It was founded about 494 by Cerdic and Cynric gis son, "Ealdormen' or leaders of the 'old Saxons.' King Egbert, who returned from a flight to Gaul in 800, and ruled from that year till his death in 836, was, as a conqueror, the most successful of all these Saxon kings. When he died, his dominions were divided between his sons, Ethelwulf and Athelstane, the former taking Wessex Proper, and the latter Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Surrey. Another Athelstane, who succeeded in 925 to Mercia and Wessex, conquered Exeter, and assumed Northrumbia, exacted tribute from the Welsh, and some formal submission from the Britons of the west, as well as the Danes and Scots. He appears occasionally to have held witenagemotes of Saxon parliaments of subordinate chiefs (subreguli), and at one of these, Constantine, king of Scotland, appeared as a subregulus. But Athelstane and his successors, as ell as his predecessor, Alfred the Great, belong to the history of England, as indeed do all the Saxon states and kings after Egbert.
4. Essex, which comprised also Middlesex, if ever independent, was so about 530 A.D.; but early in the 7th c. it became subject to Mercia, and fell with it to Wessex in 823. This state and Sussex and Wessex were founded by the old Saxons; the remaining three by the Angles who came from Holstein, and gave their name to England.
5. Northumbria consisted of Bernicia and Deira, which were at first separate and independent states. The former comprised Morthumberland and all Scotland south of the Forth, and was founded by Ida about 560. The latter comprised Cumberland, Durham, York, and Lancaster, and was founded by Ella the Angle about the same date. These two were united about 655, and as Northumbria, they submitted to Egbert in 829.
6. East Anglia, comprising Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge, was founded about 571 by Uffa, and from him its kings were named Uffingas. In 883, it was conquered by the Danes, and was only restored to Saxon rule by Athelstane in 925.
7. Mercia included the counties in the centre of the kingdom, and is said to have been founded by Crida or Creoda in 585. Thee-quarters of a century leter, it was conquered for a time by Northumbria, but it recovered its independence, and retained it until Egbert subdued it. Canute the Dane had it and Northumbria ceded to him in 1016, just before Edmund Ironside's death allowed him to become king of England, and the Danes to obtain the ascendency over the Saxons, for which they had been striving, at intervals, for five generations. Compare Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth (2 vols. Lond. 1832).
Perhaps you have an article or information relating to the Heptarchy? Contact me at the email address for consideration. nrbcpastorkev@yahoo.com.au
11/04/2007
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