"the Bishop of Lindisfarne, which stretched across Northumbria. In 638 Edinburgh was attacked by the English and at this point, or soon after, the Gododdin territories in Lothian and around Stirling came under the rule of Bernicia. After Oswald's death fighting the Mercians, the two kingdoms were divided again, with Deira possibly having sub-kings under Bernician authority, but from this point the English kings were Christian and after the Synod of Whitby in 664, the Northumbrian kings accepted the primacy of Canterbury and Rome. In the late 7th century, the Northumbrians extended their influence north of the Forth, until they"
"The seventh and eighth centuries were characterised by ongoing warfare by the northern and eastern Welsh kingdoms against the intruding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. That era of struggle saw the Welsh adopt their modern name for themselves, ""Cymry"", meaning ""fellow countrymen"", and it also saw the demise of all but one of the kindred kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland at the hands of then-ascendant Northumbria. The total area of Wales is , or 9% of the area of Great Britain. Much of the landscape is mountainous with treeless moors and heath, and having large areas with"
"the 7th century. The English went on to dominate north-east Wales from the 8th to 10th centuries. During the 8th century the royal house of Mercia displayed militaristic dominance and took advantage of the weakness of Powys to push their frontiers westwards. In 796 a battle between the Welsh and Mercians was fought at Rhuddlan and in the 8th century the Mercians established the earth boundaries of Wat’s Dyke and Offa’s Dyke between the Welsh kingdom of Powys and the English kingdom of Mercia. These boundaries pass just to the west of the site of Wrexham suggesting that during the"
"Ceolred of Mercia Ceolred (died 716) was King of Mercia from 709 to 716. By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years earlier. The kingdom of Mercia occupied what is now the English Midlands, bordered by Northumbria to the north, East Anglia to the east, and Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, to the south. Essex, the kingdom of the East Saxons, included London and lay between East Anglia and the kingdom of Kent. The main source for this period is"
"of the three remnant Brythonic areas in Britain, the other two being the Hen Ogledd and Cornwall. Wales was divided into a number of separate kingdoms, the largest of these being Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in east Wales. Gwynedd was the most powerful of these kingdoms in the 6th century and 7th century, under rulers such as Maelgwn Gwynedd (died 547) and Cadwallon ap Cadfan (died 634/5), who in alliance with Penda of Mercia was able to lead his armies as far as Northumbria in 633, defeat the local ruler Edwin and control it for approximately one year."
"Æthelwold of East Anglia Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald (Old English: ""Æþelwald"" ""noble ruler""; reigned c. 654–664), was a 7th-century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their ""regio"" (centre of royal authority) at Rendlesham. The two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Sutton Hoo, the monastery at Iken, the East Anglian see at Dommoc and the emerging port of Ipswich were all in the vicinity of Rendlesham. Æthelwold lived during a time of political and religious"
"where Old Welsh was also spoken. From the 8th century on, Wales was by far the largest of the three remnant Brittonic areas in Britain, the other two being the Hen Ogledd and Cornwall. Wales was divided into a number of separate kingdoms, the largest of these being Gwynedd in northwest Wales and Powys in the east. Gwynedd was the most powerful of these kingdoms in the 6th and 7th centuries, under rulers such as Maelgwn Gwynedd (died 547) and Cadwallon ap Cadfan (died 634/5) who in alliance with Penda of Mercia was able to lead his armies as far"
"him as dying in a crazed frenzy at a banquet, ""gibbering with demons and cursing the priests of God"". Æthelbald, a member of another branch of the Mercian royal line who had been forced into exile during Ceolred's rule, succeeded him. He was the brother of Saint Werburgh of Mercia Ceolred of Mercia Ceolred (died 716) was King of Mercia from 709 to 716. By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years earlier. The kingdom of Mercia occupied what is now the"
"Kingdom of Gwent Gwent () was a medieval Welsh kingdom, lying between the Rivers Wye and Usk. It existed from the end of Roman rule in Britain in about the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. Along with its neighbour Glywyssing, it seems to have had a great deal of cultural continuity with the earlier Silures, keeping their own courts and diocese separate from the rest of Wales until their conquest by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Although it recovered its independence after his death in 1063, Gwent was the first of the Welsh kingdoms to"
"rest of the 7th and all of the 8th century fighting the kingdom of Powys. The war reached its climax during the reign of Offa of Mercia, who is remembered for the construction of a 150-mile-long dyke which formed the Wales/England border. It is not clear whether this was a boundary line or a defensive position. The ascendency of the Mercians came to an end in 825, when they were soundly beaten under Beornwulf at the Battle of Ellendun by Egbert of Wessex. Christianity had been introduced into the British Isles during the Roman occupation. The early Christian Berber author,"
"the early 7th century), and before. The Norman presence in England, after 1066, was the most significant factor which disrupted this pattern. In 1067, the rulers of Gwynedd and Powys invaded England, in support of Eadric the Wild, a leader of continued Saxon resistance against the Normans. When Northern England revolted against in 1080, the Normans responded by preemptively attacking, and then occupying Wales, to prevent any further Welsh assistance to the English. In 1094, the Welsh decided to revolt, but Hugh of Chester, the nearest Norman magnate, successfully re-captured North Wales by the end of 1098 (with Norwegian assistance)."
"the Kingdom of the Suebi and possibly Ireland. The Anglo-Saxons obtained control of eastern England in the 5th century. In the mid-6th century they started expanding into the Midlands, then in the 7th century they expanded again into the south-west and the north of England. The unconquered parts of southern Britain, notably Wales, retained their Romano-British culture, in particular retaining Christianity. Some Anglo-Saxon histories (in context) refer to the Romano-British people by the blanket term ""Welsh"". The term Welsh is derived from an Old English word meaning 'foreigner', referring to the old inhabitants of southern Britain. Historically, Wales and the"
"area as the kingdom of the Frisians. This kingdom comprised the coastal provinces of the Netherlands and the German North Sea coast. During this time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. The 7th-century Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad, had its centre of power in Utrecht. Dorestad was the largest settlement (emporia) in northwestern Europe. It had grown around a former Roman fortress. It was a large, flourishing trading place, three kilometers long and situated where the rivers Rhine and Lek diverge southeast of Utrecht near the modern town of Wijk"
"Elmet Elmet () was an area of what later became the West Riding of Yorkshire, and an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century. The precise borders of Elmet are unclear. The term was used in medieval times as an affix to place names in the West of the old Barkston Ash and East of the old Skyrack wapentakes (between Leeds and Selby) including Burton Salmon, Sutton (east of Castleford), Micklefield, Sherburn in Elmet, Kirkby Wharfe, Saxton, Clifford and Barwick in Elmet. In the Tribal Hidage the extent of Elmet is described as 600 hides"
"Rædwald of East Anglia Rædwald ( , 'power in counsel'), also written as Raedwald or Redwald, was a 7th-century king of East Anglia, a long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the son of Tytila of East Anglia and a member of the Wuffingas dynasty (named after his grandfather, Wuffa), who were the first kings of the East Angles. Details about Rædwald's reign are scarce, primarily because the Viking invasions of the 9th century destroyed the monasteries in East Anglia where many documents would have been kept. Rædwald reigned from about 599"
"Picts, whose kingdoms eventually stretched from the river Forth to Shetland. In the west were the Gaelic (Goidelic)-speaking people of Dál Riata, who had close links with Ireland, from where they brought with them the name Scots. In the south were the British (Brythonic-speaking) descendants of the peoples of the Roman-influenced kingdoms of ""The Old North"", the most powerful and longest surviving of which was the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Finally, there were the English or ""Angles"", Germanic invaders who had overrun much of southern Britain and held the Kingdom of Bernicia (later the northern part of Northumbria), which reached into"
"Picts, whose kingdoms eventually stretched from the river Forth to Shetland. In the west were the Gaelic (Goidelic)-speaking people of Dál Riata, who had close links with Ireland, from where they brought with them the name Scots. In the south were the British (Brythonic-speaking) descendants of the peoples of the Roman-influenced kingdoms of ""The Old North"", the most powerful and longest surviving of which was the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Finally, there were the English or ""Angles"", Germanic invaders who had overrun much of southern Britain and held the Kingdom of Bernicia (later the northern part of Northumbria), which reached into"
"Forth and beyond, and by the 7th century the Votadini were being squeezed between them and the Anglian Bernicians, who were expanding northward. Neither Gododdin nor Manaw Gododdin could have existed as a kingdom beyond the 7th century. The Kingdom of Northumbria was ascendant, and it would conquer all of Scotland south of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. The definitive years were the middle of the 7th century, when Penda of Mercia led an alliance of Mercians, Cymry (both from the north and from Gwynedd), East Anglians, and Deirans against Bernicia. Penda was defeated and killed at the Battle"
"rulers, including those of Wessex, East Anglia, Essex, and Kent, had begun to term themselves kings, living in ""villae regales"", royal centres, and collecting tribute from the surrounding ""regiones""; these kingdoms are often referred to as the Heptarchy. In the 7th century, the kingdom of Mercia rose to prominence under the leadership of King Penda. Mercia invaded neighbouring lands until it loosely controlled around 50 ""regiones"" covering much of England. Mercia and the remaining kingdoms, led by their warrior elites, continued to compete for territory throughout the 8th century. Massive earthworks, such as the defensive dyke built by Offa of"
"the 7th century under the protection of the ruling house of the Kingdom of East Anglia, which reached its summit under King Raedwald. The importance of this dock, and the surrounding town which served it, has been recognized through excavation over the past fifty years. The early town of Ipswich (then called Gipeswic), centred upon the quay, extended over more than 52 hectares, the area later enclosed by the Viking age ramparts (which curtailed the Anglo-Saxon township), making it one of the largest new early post-Roman townships and emporia in northern Europe. Imported pottery of Rhenish Merovingian types, imported lava"
"of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly as kings contended for supremacy. In the late 6th century, the king of Kent was a prominent lord in the south; in the 7th century, the rulers of Northumbria and Wessex were powerful; in the 8th century, Mercia achieved hegemony over the other surviving kingdoms, particularly with ""Offa the Great"". Yet, as late as the reigns of Eadwig and Edgar (955–75), it was still possible to speak of separate kingdoms within the English population. Alongside the seven kingdoms, a number of other political divisions also existed, such as the kingdoms (or sub-kingdoms) of: Bernicia"
"as far as Llanidloes. However, they gradually conquered eastern and southern Britain. At the Battle of Chester in 616, the forces of Powys and other British kingdoms were defeated by the Northumbrians under Æthelfrith, with king Selyf ap Cynan among the dead. It has been suggested that this battle finally severed the land connection between Wales and the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd (""Old North""), the Brythonic-speaking regions of what is now southern Scotland and northern England, including Rheged, Strathclyde, Elmet and Gododdin, where Old Welsh was also spoken. From the 8th century on, Wales was by far the largest"
"the kingdom of Mercia. A Latinisation of the Old English Mierce meaning ‘border people’. Possibly by the early 7th century some English had settled peacefully on surplus lands in the border region and gradually the line connecting Tarvin and Macefen along the river Gowy and Broxton Hills in Cheshire could have formed the dividing line between the British (Welsh) and the English during the 7th century. In 616 Aethelfrith of Northumbria defeated the combined forces of Gwynedd and Powys at the Battle of Chester and the royal Cynddylan dynasty of Powys was overthrown by the Mercians at the end of"
"Kingdom of Powys The Kingdom of Powys was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the top two thirds of the modern county of Powys and part of the West Midlands (see map). More precisely, and based on the Romano-British tribal lands of the Ordovices in the west and the Cornovii in the east, its boundaries originally extended from the Cambrian Mountains in the west to include the modern West Midlands region of England in the east. The fertile river valleys"
"Eastmarch invaded the land shortly after the Haldane Restoration. Sighere later swore fealty to King Cinhil I Haldane of Gwynedd, and the lands of Kheldour were incorporated into Gwynedd as the Duchy of Claibourne. Meara lies along the coast of the Atalantic Ocean at the western edge of the Eleven Kingdoms, bordered on the north and east by Gwynedd and The Connait to the south. It was founded as a sovereign principality in the seventh century, but generations of internal conflict and strife prevented the realm from any significant expansion. Meara became a vassal state of Gwynedd in 877, but"
"North Sea coast, and it is still the language most closely related to English among the living languages of continental Europe. By the seventh century a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Utrecht as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity."
"the extensive North Sea Empire for nearly 20 years, consisting of Denmark, England, Norway, southern Sweden and parts of northern Germany. During the 10th century the royal seat of the Danes was moved from Lejre to Jelling in central Jutland, marking the foundation and consolidation of the Kingdom of Denmark. In the British Isles, Danes landed three Viking ships at the isle of Portland, Dorset in 786 AD, where they met and killed a local reeve and his men. In 793 AD, a Viking raid and plunder of the monastery at Lindisfarne took place, but no further activity in England"
"and Herefordshire, and sometimes adjoining areas of Wales. However, at one time the Marches included all of the historic counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. After the decline and fall of the Roman Empire which occupied Britain until about AD 410, the area which is now Wales comprised a number of separate Romano-British kingdoms, including Powys in the east. Over the next few centuries, the Angles, Saxons and others gradually conquered and settled in eastern and southern Britain. The kingdom of Mercia, under Penda, became established around Lichfield, and initially established strong alliances with the Welsh kings. However,"
"seventh-century Anglian warlord in action, in the person of Æthelfrith of Northumbria, King of Bernicia (a kingdom with a non-English name), who rapidly built up a personal 'empire' by military victories over the Britons of the North, the Scots of Dalriada, the Angles of Deira and the Britons of north-eastern Wales, only ultimately to experience disaster at the hands of Rædwald of East Anglia. Where arable cultivation continued in early Anglo-Saxon England, there seems to have been considerable continuity with the Roman period in both field layout and arable practices, although we do not know whether there were also changes"
"shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize. Elmet Elmet () was an area of what later became the West Riding of Yorkshire, and an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century. The precise borders of Elmet are unclear. The term was used in medieval times as an affix to place names in the West of the old Barkston Ash and East of the old Skyrack wapentakes (between Leeds and Selby) including Burton Salmon, Sutton (east of Castleford), Micklefield, Sherburn in Elmet, Kirkby Wharfe, Saxton, Clifford and Barwick in Elmet. In the Tribal Hidage the extent of"
"Bernicia Bernicia (Old English: ""Bernice"", ""Bryneich"", ""Beornice""; Latin: ""Bernicia"") was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England. The Anglian territory of Bernicia was approximately equivalent to the modern English counties of Northumberland and Durham, and the Scottish counties of Berwickshire and East Lothian, stretching from the Forth to the Tees. In the early 7th century, it merged with its southern neighbour, Deira, to form the kingdom of Northumbria and its borders subsequently expanded considerably. Bernicia occurs in Old Welsh poetry as ""Bryneich"" or ""Brynaich"" and in"
"his ancestors, and his cause gained much support in Wales. Henry defeated King Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth with an army containing many Welsh soldiers and gained the throne as King Henry VII of England. Under Henry VII's son, Henry VIII of England, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 were passed, annexing Wales to England in legal terms, abolishing the Welsh legal system, and banning the Welsh language from any official role or status, but it did for the first time define the Wales-England border and allowed members representing constituencies in Wales to be elected to"
"commemorated by it), another possibility is Eorpwald. Alternatively, he might also have had his own ship-burial nearby. By the beginning of the 7th century, southern England was almost entirely under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. These peoples, who are known to have included Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians, began to arrive in Britain in the 5th century. By 600, a number of kingdoms had begun to form in the conquered territories, including the Kingdom of the East Angles, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Almost no documentary sources exist about the history of"