heptarchy
heptarchy. The description of 7th-cent. England as a ‘heptarchy’ probably derives, ultimately, from the historian Henry of Huntingdon, writing in the earlier 12th cent. It came into printed prominence in the works of historians of the late 16th and early 17th cents., beginning, probably, in Lambarde's work on Kent (1576). The idea was that there were seven kingdoms, Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex. Reality was more complicated. But the formulation was a useful one and had a long life as a term of art.
James Campbell
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heptarchy
