By around 700 AD, there appears to have been a ‘Heptarchy’ of seven kingdoms (Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex and Kent), while the main four in the ninth century were Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex. The boundaries fluctuated, and later divisions between England and other parts of mainland Britain were not yet in existence.

Thus the political historian sees the ninth century as the crucial period in the evolution of a unitary English kingdom. The four powerful and independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existing in 800—Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex—had been reduced by the end of the century to one, Wessex.

Explore what life was like in Anglo-Saxon England with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

31/07/2012 · Some authors have muddied the issue by using the term to refer to England as far back as the fifth century, when Roman military forces officially withdrew from the British Isles (in 410), to the 11th century, when William the Conqueror and the Normans invaded (in 1066). But none of the kingdoms were really established until the sixth century at the earliest, and they …

By the late 3rd century Mithras and Jesus Christ compete for attention. In 314 the winning side, the Christians, are sufficiently well organized to send three bishops from Britain to a council in Gaul. Britannia in decline: 5th - 6th century AD: The decline of Roman Britain is like the withering of a limb at the extremity of an ailing body.

Narrator: Most people in medieval England were farming peasants who lived in villages in the countryside. They had a hard life working all day on farms owned by …