heptarchy

Heptarchy is a term used by historians to describe the early medieval political arrangement of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in what is now England: Kent, Sussex, East Anglia, Essex, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex. The term is a retrospective creation, not used in contemporary sources, and the boundaries and powers of the kingdoms varied over time.

From the 7th to the 9th century, these polities operated as largely autonomous realms, with occasional overlordships and shifting dominance. Kent and Wessex emerged early as important power centers, while East Anglia and Essex played significant political and Christian roles. Northumbria and Mercia rose to prominence at different times, then declined, reflecting a dynamic landscape in which kings governed with the support of traditional aristocracies and through church networks centered at Canterbury and York.

The Viking age disrupted the arrangement from the late 9th century onward. Danes established the Danelaw over large parts of the former Heptarchy, and repeated campaigns gradually eroded royal autonomy. In the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Alfred the Great of Wessex and his successors reconsolidated much of England, culminating in the unification of the realm under a single monarch by around 927.

Today, the term remains a common shorthand in historical writing, but it masks regional variation and the more complex, overlapping polities that characterized early English political life.