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90-509: Not all sites are medieval: villages reduced in size or disappeared over a long period, from as early as Anglo-Saxon times to as late as the 1960s, due to numerous different causes. Over the centuries, settlements have been deserted as a result of natural events, such as rivers changing course or silting up , flooding (especially during the wet 13th and 14th centuries) as well as coastal and estuarine erosion or being overwhelmed by windblown sand. Many were thought to have been abandoned due to

180-496: A brief period in the 8th century the kingdom included west Kent. During this period, Essex kings were issuing their own sceattas (coins), perhaps as an assertion of their own independence. However, by the mid-8th century, much of the kingdom, including London, had fallen to Mercia and the rump of Essex, roughly the modern county, was now subordinate to the same. After the defeat of the Mercian king Beornwulf around AD 825, Sigered ,

270-627: A church; so in 597 Augustine built the church and founded the See at Canterbury. Æthelberht was baptised by 601, and he then continued with his mission to convert the English. Most of the north and east of England had already been evangelised by the Irish church. However, Sussex and the Isle of Wight remained mainly pagan until the arrival of Saint Wilfrid , the exiled Archbishop of York , who converted Sussex around 681 and

360-515: A clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. The number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly during this period as competing kings contended for supremacy. The four main kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England were East Anglia , Mercia , Northumbria (originally two kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira ), and Wessex . Minor kingdoms included Essex , Kent , and Sussex . Other minor kingdoms and territories are mentioned in sources such as

450-645: A fact which Edward would surely have known, having been elected himself by the Witenagemot . Kingdom of Essex The Kingdom of the East Saxons ( Old English : Ēastseaxna rīce ; Latin : Regnum Orientalium Saxonum ), referred to as the Kingdom of Essex / ˈ ɛ s ɪ k s / , was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy . It was founded in the 6th century and covered

540-512: A lower status than that of the Anglo-Saxons. Discussions and analysis still continue on the size of the migration, and whether it was a small elite band of Anglo-Saxons who came in and took over the running of the country, or mass migration of peoples who overwhelmed the Britons. An emerging view is that two scenarios could have co-occurred, with large-scale migration and demographic change in

630-676: A nation-state. It is certain that the concept of "Englishness" only developed very slowly. As the Roman occupation of Britain was coming to an end, Constantine III withdrew the remains of the army in reaction to the Germanic invasion of Gaul with the Crossing of the Rhine in December 406. The Romano-British leaders were faced with an increasing security problem from seaborne raids, particularly by Picts on

720-523: A safe haven, and they provided a safe place for the king's moneyers and mints. A new wave of Danish invasions commenced in 891, beginning a war that lasted over three years. Alfred's new system of defence worked, however, and ultimately it wore the Danes down: they gave up and dispersed in mid-896. Alfred is remembered as a literate king. He or his court commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which

810-546: A third time. This rebellion was suppressed by Wulfhere of Mercia who established himself as overlord. Bede describes Sigehere and Sæbbi as "rulers […] under Wulfhere, king of the Mercians". Wulfhere sent Jaruman, the bishop of Lichfield , to reconvert the East Saxons. Wine (in 666) and Erkenwald (in 675) were appointed bishops of London with spiritual authority over the East Saxon Kingdom. A small stone chest bearing

900-766: Is at Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire , because of the extensive archaeological excavations conducted there between its discovery in 1948 and 1990. Its ruined church and its former fishpond are still visible. In Northamptonshire , around 100 villages can be classified as deserted: there are articles relating to many of them, such as Onley , Althorp , Canons Ashby , Church Charwelton and Coton along with Faxton , Glendon , Snorscombe , Wolfhampcote and Wythmail . Other examples are at Gainsthorpe and Burreth in Lincolnshire . Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England covers

990-591: Is not clear to what extent, if any, Christianity persisted by the time of the pagan East Saxon kings in the sixth century. The earliest English record of the kingdom dates to Bede 's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , which noted the arrival of Bishop (later Saint) Mellitus in London in 604. Æthelberht (King of Kent and overlord of southern England according to Bede) was in a position to exercise some authority in Essex shortly after 604, when his intervention helped in

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1080-579: Is now regarded as the traditional view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain. He suggested a mass immigration, with the incomers fighting and driving the sub-Roman Britons off their land and into the western extremities of the islands, and into the Breton and Iberian peninsulas. This view is based on sources such as Bede, who mentions the Britons being slaughtered or going into "perpetual servitude". According to Härke

1170-543: Is often used for Scandinavian culture in England. Edgar died in 975, sixteen years after gaining the throne, while still only in his early thirties. Some magnates supported the succession of his younger son, Æthelred , but his elder half-brother, Edward was elected, aged about twelve. His reign was marked by disorder, and three years later, in 978, he was assassinated by some of his half-brother's retainers. Æthelred succeeded, and although he reigned for thirty-eight years, one of

1260-750: The Groans of the Britons ), even though Honorius , the Western Roman Emperor, had written to the British civitas in or about 410 telling them to look to their own defence. There then followed several years of fighting between the British and the Anglo-Saxons. The fighting continued until around 500, when, at the Battle of Mount Badon , the Britons inflicted a severe defeat on the Anglo-Saxons. There are records of Germanic infiltration into Britain that date before

1350-456: The Battle of Dyrham ). This expansion of Wessex ended abruptly when the Anglo-Saxons started fighting among themselves, resulting in Ceawlin retreating to his original territory. He was then replaced by Ceol (who was possibly his nephew). Ceawlin was killed the following year, but the annals do not specify by whom. Cirencester subsequently became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom under the overlordship of

1440-508: 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, Tertullian , writing in the 3rd century, said that "Christianity could even be found in Britain". The Roman Emperor Constantine (306–337) granted official tolerance to Christianity with the Edict of Milan in 313. Then, in

1530-469: The Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. Their success was short-lived, as Oswald (one of the sons of the late King of Northumbria, Æthelfrith) defeated and killed Cadwallon at Heavenfield near Hexham. In less than a decade Penda again waged war against Northumbria, and killed Oswald in the Battle of Maserfield in 642. Oswald's brother Oswiu was chased to the northern extremes of his kingdom. However, Oswiu killed Penda soon afterwards, and Mercia spent

1620-573: The Diocese of London , re-established in 604 as the East Saxon see, and its boundaries continued to be based on the Kingdom of Essex until the nineteenth century. The East Saxons also had intermittent control of Surrey . For a brief period in the 8th century, the Kingdom of Essex controlled west Kent. The modern English county of Essex maintains the historic northern and the southern borders, but only covers

1710-505: The Heptarchy , remain conjectural. The historical identification of the kings of Essex, including the evidence and a reconstructed genealogy are discussed extensively by Yorke. The dynasty claimed descent from Woden via Seaxnēat . A genealogy of the Essex royal house was prepared in Wessex in the 9th century. Unfortunately, the surviving copy is somewhat mutilated. At times during the history of

1800-648: The Humber . His son, Æthelstan , annexed Northumbria in 927 and thus became the first king of all England. At the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, he defeated an alliance of the Scots, Danes, Vikings and Strathclyde Britons. Along with the Britons and the settled Danes, some of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms disliked being ruled by Wessex. Consequently, the death of a Wessex king would be followed by rebellion, particularly in Northumbria. Alfred's great-grandson, Edgar , who had come to

1890-516: The North Sea and to the west Mercia . The territory included the remains of two provincial Roman capitals, Colchester and London . The kingdom included the Middle Saxon Province , which included the area of the later county of Middlesex, and most if not all of Hertfordshire Although the province is only ever recorded as a part of the East Saxon kingdom, charter evidence shows that it

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1980-497: The Roman Empire 's withdrawal from Britain at the beginning of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon history thus begins during the period of sub-Roman Britain following the end of Roman control , and traces the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th and 6th centuries (conventionally identified as seven main kingdoms : Northumbria , Mercia , East Anglia , Essex , Kent , Sussex , and Wessex ); their Christianisation during

2070-631: The Tribal Hideage : At the end of the 6th century the most powerful ruler in England was Æthelberht of Kent , whose lands extended north to the River Humber . In the early years of the 7th century, Kent and East Anglia were the leading English kingdoms. After the death of Æthelberht in 616, Rædwald of East Anglia became the most powerful leader south of the Humber. Following the death of Æthelfrith of Northumbria , Rædwald provided military assistance to

2160-564: The 4th century (late Roman period); indications include the remains of a probable church at Colchester, dating from some time after 320 AD, shortly after the Constantine the Great granted freedom of worship to Christians in 313 AD. Other archaeological evidence includes a chi rho symbol etched on a tile at a site in Wickford , and a gold ring inscribed with a chi rho monogram found at Brentwood . It

2250-519: The 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages . Although heptarchy suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of

2340-599: The 7th century; the threat of Viking invasions and Danish settlers ; the gradual unification of England under the Wessex hegemony during the 9th and 10th centuries; and ending with the Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. The Normans persecuted the Anglo-Saxons and overthrew their ruling class to substitute their own leaders to oversee and rule England. However, Anglo-Saxon identity survived beyond

2430-444: The 980s the kings of Wessex had a powerful grip on the coinage of the realm. It is reckoned there were about 300 moneyers, and 60 mints, around the country. Every five or six years the coinage in circulation would cease to be legal tender and new coins were issued. The system controlling the currency around the country was extremely sophisticated; this enabled the king to raise large sums of money if needed. The need indeed arose after

2520-459: The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell to the invaders: Northumbria in 867, East Anglia in 869, and nearly all of Mercia in 874–77. Kingdoms, centres of learning, archives, and churches all fell before the onslaught from the invading Danes. Only the Kingdom of Wessex was able to survive. In March 878, the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, Alfred , with a few men, built a fortress at Athelney , hidden deep in

2610-532: The Archbishop of Canterbury, was chosen to deliver the news to Godwin and his family. The Godwins fled rather than face trial. Norman accounts suggest that at this time Edward offered the succession to his cousin, William (duke) of Normandy (also known as William the Conqueror , William the Bastard, or William I), though this is unlikely given that accession to the Anglo-Saxon kingship was by election, not heredity –

2700-488: The Armorican peninsula ( Brittany and Normandy in modern-day France ): initially around 383 during Roman rule, but also c. 460 and in the 540s and 550s; the 460s migration is thought to be a reaction to the fighting during the Anglo-Saxon mutiny between about 450 to 500, as was the migration to Britonia (modern-day Galicia , in northwest Spain) at about the same time. The historian Peter Hunter-Blair expounded what

2790-543: The Britons), while the Danes held East Anglia and the North. After the victory at Edington and resultant peace treaty, Alfred set about transforming his Kingdom of Wessex into a society on a full-time war footing. He built a navy, reorganised the army, and set up a system of fortified towns known as burhs . He mainly used old Roman cities for his burhs, as he was able to rebuild and reinforce their existing fortifications. To maintain

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2880-579: The Danes, but the success was short-lived: at the Battle of Ashingdon , the Danes were victorious, and many of the English leaders were killed. Cnut and Edmund agreed to split the kingdom in two, with Edmund ruling Wessex and Cnut the rest. In 1017, Edmund died in mysterious circumstances, probably murdered by Cnut or his supporters, and the English council ( the witan ) confirmed Cnut as king of all England. Cnut divided England into earldoms : most of these were allocated to nobles of Danish descent, but he made an Englishman earl of Wessex. The man he appointed

2970-628: The Deiran Edwin in his struggle to take over the two dynasties of Deira and Bernicia in the unified kingdom of Northumbria. Upon the death of Rædwald, Edwin was able to pursue a grand plan to expand Northumbrian power. The growing strength of Edwin of Northumbria forced the Anglo-Saxon Mercians under Penda into an alliance with the Welsh king Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, and together they invaded Edwin's lands and defeated and killed him at

3060-457: The Elder succeeded him. When Æthelred died in 911, Æthelflæd succeeded him as "Lady of the Mercians", and in the 910s she and her brother Edward recovered East Anglia and eastern Mercia from Viking rule. Edward and his successors expanded Alfred's network of fortified burhs, a key element of their strategy, enabling them to go on the offensive. When Edward died in 924 he ruled all England south of

3150-596: The English coast. The result was that the courts of England and Normandy became increasingly hostile to each other. Eventually, Æthelred sought a treaty with the Normans, and ended up marrying Emma , daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy in the Spring of 1002, which was seen as an attempt to break the link between the raiders and Normandy. Then, on St. Brice's day in November 1002, Danes living in England were slaughtered on

3240-510: The English pay a ransom, but the English commander Byrhtnoth refused; he was killed in the ensuing Battle of Maldon , and the English were easily defeated. From then on the Vikings seem to have raided anywhere at will; they were contemptuous of the lack of resistance from the English. Even the Alfredian systems of burhs failed. Æthelred seems to have just hidden, out of range of the raiders. By

3330-509: The Good following a mission by St Cedd who established monasteries at Tilaburg (probably East Tilbury , but possibly West Tilbury ) and Ithancester (almost certainly Bradwell-on-Sea ). A royal tomb at Prittlewell was discovered and excavated in 2003. Finds included gold foil crosses, suggesting the occupant was Christian. If the occupant was a king, it was probably either Saebert or Sigeberht (murdered AD 653). It is, however, also possible that

3420-490: The Isle of Wight in 683. It remains unclear what "conversion" actually meant. The ecclesiastical writers tended to declare a territory as "converted" merely because the local king had agreed to be baptised, regardless of whether, in reality, he actually adopted Christian practices; and regardless, too, of whether the general population of his kingdom did so. When churches were built, they tended to include pagan as well as Christian symbols, evidencing an attempt to reach out to

3510-523: The Mercians, rather than Wessex. By 600, a new order was developing, of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms. The medieval historian Henry of Huntingdon conceived the idea of the Heptarchy , which consisted of the seven principal Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ( Heptarchy is a literal translation from the Greek: hept – seven; archy – rule). By convention, the Heptarchy period lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in

3600-549: The Norman Conquest, came to be known as Englishry under Norman rule , and through social and cultural integration with Romano-British Celts , Danes and Normans became the modern English people . Bede completed his book Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ( Ecclesiastical History of the English People ) in around 731. Thus, the term for English people ( Latin : gens Anglorum ; Old English : Angelcynn )

3690-613: The Roman rites by force. Between the 8th and 11th centuries, raiders and colonists from Scandinavia, mainly Danish and Norwegian, plundered western Europe, including the British Isles. These raiders came to be known as the Vikings ; the name is believed to derive from Scandinavia, where the Vikings originated. The first raids in the British Isles were in the late 8th century, mainly on churches and monasteries (which were seen as centres of wealth). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that

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3780-545: The Romano-British landscape being maintained, and with the Saxon settlers believed to have been in the minority. The kingdom of Essex grew by the absorption of smaller subkingdoms or Saxon tribal groups. There are a number of suggestions for the location of these subkingdoms including: Essex emerged as a single kingdom during the 6th century. The dates, names and achievements of the Essex kings, like those of most early rulers in

3870-473: The army that live in that earldom". There are over 3,000 words in modern English that have Scandinavian roots, and more than 1,500 place-names in England are Scandinavian in origin; for example, topographic names such as Howe, Norfolk and Howe, North Yorkshire are derived from the Old Norse word haugr meaning hill, knoll, or mound. In archaeology and other academic contexts the term Anglo-Scandinavian

3960-438: The battle of Maldon, as Æthelred decided that, rather than fight, he would pay ransom to the Danes in a system known as Danegeld . As part of the ransom, a peace treaty was drawn up that was intended to stop the raids. However, rather than buying the Vikings off, payment of Danegeld only encouraged them to come back for more. The Dukes of Normandy were quite happy to allow these Danish adventurers to use their ports for raids on

4050-545: The burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation system known as the Burghal Hidage . These burhs (or burghs) operated as defensive structures. The Vikings were thereafter unable to cross large sections of Wessex: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that a Danish raiding party was defeated when it tried to attack the burh of Chichester. Although the burhs were primarily designed as defensive structures, they were also commercial centres, attracting traders and markets to

4140-695: The collapse of the Roman Empire. It is believed that the earliest Germanic visitors were eight cohorts of Batavians attached to the 14th Legion in the original invasion force under Aulus Plautius in AD ;43. There is a recent hypothesis that some of the native tribes , identified as Britons by the Romans, may have been Germanic-language speakers, but most scholars disagree with this due to an insufficient record of local languages in Roman-period artefacts. It

4230-599: The conversion of King Saebert of Essex (son of Sledd ), his nephew, to Christianity. It was Æthelberht, and not Sæberht, who built and endowed St. Paul's in London, where St. Paul's Cathedral now stands. Bede describes Æthelberht as Sæberht's overlord. After the death of Saebert in AD 616, Mellitus was driven out and the kingdom reverted to paganism. This may have been the result of opposition to Kentish influence in Essex affairs rather than being specifically anti-Christian. The kingdom reconverted to Christianity under Sigeberht II

4320-405: The core areas of the settlement and elite dominance in peripheral regions. According to Gildas , initial vigorous British resistance was led by a man called Ambrosius Aurelianus . From then on, victory fluctuated between the two peoples. Gildas records a "final" victory of the Britons at the Battle of Mount Badon in c. 500, and this might mark a point at which Anglo-Saxon migration

4410-691: The deaths of their inhabitants from the Black Death in the mid-14th century. While the plague must often have greatly hastened the population decline, which had already set in by the early 14th century in England because of soil exhaustion and disease, most DMVs actually seem to have become deserted during the 15th century. At this time, Inclosure Acts and other policies allowed land traditionally cultivated for cereals and vegetables to be transformed into pastures for sheep. The medieval ridge and furrow cultivation pattern remains evident in fields, even until today. This change of land use by landowners, which

4500-518: The earl's daughter. This arrangement was seen as expedient, however, as Godwin had been implicated in the murder of Alfred, the king's brother. In 1051 one of Edward's in-laws, Eustace, arrived to take up residence in Dover; the men of Dover objected and killed some of Eustace's men. When Godwin refused to punish them, the king, who had been unhappy with the Godwins for some time, summoned them to trial. Stigand,

4590-470: The east coast of England. The expedient adopted by the Romano-British leaders was to enlist the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries (known as foederati ), to whom they ceded territory. In about 442 the Anglo-Saxons mutinied, apparently because they had not been paid. The Romano-British responded by appealing to the Roman commander of the Western empire, Magister militium Aetius , for help (a document known as

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4680-471: The faith to the Angles or Saxons. Pope Gregory I sent Augustine in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons, but Bede says the British clergy refused to help Augustine in his mission. Despite Bede's complaints, it is now believed that the Britons played an important role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons . On arrival in the south east of England in 597, Augustine was given land by King Æthelberht of Kent to build

4770-461: The founder of the Essex royal house by other sources. The kings of Essex are notable for their S-nomenclature, nearly all their names begin with the letter S. The Essex kings issued coins that echoed those issued by Cunobeline simultaneously asserting a link to the first century rulers while emphasising independence from Mercia. Christianity is thought to have flourished among the Trinovantes in

4860-534: The holy island of Lindisfarne was sacked in 793. The raiding then virtually stopped for around 40 years; but in about 835, it started becoming more regular. In the 860s, instead of raids, the Danes mounted a full-scale invasion. In 865, an enlarged army arrived that the Anglo-Saxons described as the Great Heathen Army . This was reinforced in 871 by the Great Summer Army. Within ten years nearly all of

4950-473: The kingdom several sub-kings within Essex appear to have been able to rule simultaneously. They may have exercised authority over different parts of the kingdom. The first recorded king, according to the East Saxon King List, was Æscwine of Essex , to which a date of 527 is given for the start of his reign, although there are some difficulties with the date of his reign, and Sledd of Essex is listed as

5040-426: The last king of Essex, ceded the kingdom which then became a possession of the Wessex king Egbert . The Mercians continued to control parts of Essex and may have supported a pretender to the Essex throne since a Sigeric rex Orientalem Saxonum witnessed a Mercian charter after AD 825. During the ninth century, Essex was part of a sub-kingdom that included Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Sometime between 878 and 886,

5130-535: The longest reigns in English history, he earned the name "Æthelred the Unready", as he proved to be one of England's most disastrous kings. William of Malmesbury , writing in his Chronicle of the kings of England about one hundred years later, was scathing in his criticism of Æthelred, saying that he occupied the kingdom, rather than governed it. Just as Æthelred was being crowned, the Danish Harald Gormsson

5220-449: The marshes of Somerset. He used this as a base from which to harry the Vikings. In May 878 he put together an army formed from the populations of Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, which defeated the Viking army in the Battle of Edington . The Vikings retreated to their stronghold, and Alfred laid siege to it. Ultimately the Danes capitulated, and their leader Guthrum agreed to withdraw from Wessex and to be baptised. The formal ceremony

5310-404: The matter; Saint Wilfrid was an advocate for the Roman rites and Bishop Colmán for the Irish rites. Wilfrid's argument won the day and Colmán and his party returned to Ireland in their bitter disappointment. The Roman rites were adopted by the English church, although they were not universally accepted by the Irish church until Henry II of England invaded Ireland in the 12th century and imposed

5400-487: The more modern view is of co-existence between the British and the Anglo-Saxons. He suggests that several modern archaeologists have now re-assessed the traditional model, and have developed a co-existence model largely based on the Laws of Ine . The laws include several clauses that provide six different wergild levels for the Britons, of which four are below that of freeman. Although the Britons could be rich freemen in Anglo-Saxon society, generally it seems that they had

5490-440: The name of Sæbbi of Essex ( r.  664–683 ) was visible in Old St Paul's Cathedral until the Great Fire of London of 1666 when the cathedral and the tombs within it were lost. The inscription on the chest was recorded by Paul Hentzner and translated by Robert Naunton as reading: "Here lies Seba, King of the East Saxons, who was converted to the faith by St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London, A.D. 677." Although London (and

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5580-435: The next few centuries to predominate throughout what is now England , at the expense of British Celtic and British Latin . The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain can be seen in the context of a general movement of Germanic peoples around Europe between the years 300 and 700, known as the Migration period (also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung). In the same period there were migrations of Britons to

5670-419: The occupant was not royal, but simply a wealthy and powerful individual whose identity has gone unrecorded. Essex reverted to Paganism again in 660 with the ascension of the Pagan King Swithelm of Essex . He converted in 662, but died in 664. He was succeeded by his two sons, Sigehere and Sæbbi . A plague the same year caused Sigehere and his people to recant their Christianity and Essex reverted to Paganism

5760-526: The only mention in the chronicle concerns Bishop Mellitus . As a result, the kingdom is regarded as comparatively obscure. For most of the kingdom's existence, the Essex king was subservient to an overlord – variously the kings of Kent , East Anglia or Mercia . Saxon occupation of land that was to form the kingdom had begun by the early 5th century at Mucking and other locations. A large proportion of these original settlers came from Old Saxony . According to British legend (see Historia Brittonum )

5850-478: The orders of Æthelred. In mid-1013, Sven Forkbeard , King of Denmark, brought the Danish fleet to Sandwich, Kent. From there he went north to the Danelaw, where the locals immediately agreed to support him. He then struck south, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy (1013–1014). However, on 3 February 1014, Sven died suddenly. Capitalising on his death, Æthelred returned to England and drove Sven's son, Cnut , back to Denmark, forcing him to abandon his allies in

5940-415: The pagan Anglo-Saxons, rather than demonstrating that they were already converted. Even after Christianity had been set up in all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, there was friction between the followers of the Roman rites and the Irish rites, particularly over the date on which Easter fell and the way monks cut their hair. In 664, a conference was held at Whitby Abbey (known as the Whitby Synod ) to decide

6030-465: The period from the end of Roman Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. It consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan (r. 927–939). It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut , a personal union between England , Denmark and Norway , in the 11th century. The Anglo-Saxons migrated to Britain from mainland northwestern Europe after

6120-418: The period of the Anglo-Saxon first rebellion of 442. If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which eventually merged to become England were founded when small fleets of three or five ships of invaders arrived at various points around the coast of England to fight the sub-Roman British, and conquered their lands. The language of the migrants, Old English , came over

6210-450: The process. In 1015, Cnut launched a new campaign against England. Edmund fell out with his father, Æthelred, and struck out on his own. Some English leaders decided to support Cnut, so Æthelred ultimately retreated to London. Before engagement with the Danish army, Æthelred died and was replaced by Edmund. The Danish army encircled and besieged London, but Edmund was able to escape and raised an army of loyalists. Edmund's army routed

6300-447: The reign of Emperor Theodosius "the Great" (379–395), Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire. It is not entirely clear how many Britons would have been Christian when the pagan Anglo-Saxons arrived. There had been attempts to evangelise the Irish by Pope Celestine I in 431. However, it was Saint Patrick who is credited with converting the Irish en masse . A Christian Ireland then set about evangelising

6390-427: The rest of Middlesex) was lost by the East Saxons in the 8th century, the bishops of London continued to exert spiritual authority over Essex as a kingdom, shire and county until 1845. Despite the comparative obscurity of the kingdom, there were strong connections between Essex and the Kentish kingdom across the river Thames which led to the marriage of King Sledd to Ricula, sister of the king, Aethelbert of Kent . For

6480-493: The rest of the 7th and all of the 8th century fighting the Welsh 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

6570-556: The rest of the British Isles, and Columba founded a religious community in Iona , off the west coast of Scotland. Then Aidan was sent from Iona to set up his see in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne , between 635 and 651. Hence Northumbria was converted by the Celtic (Irish) church . Bede is very uncomplimentary about the indigenous British clergy: in his Historia ecclesiastica he complains of their "unspeakable crimes", and that they did not preach

6660-570: The territory east of the River Lea , the other parts being lost to neighbouring Mercia during the 8th century. In the Tribal Hidage it is listed as containing 7,000 hides . Although the kingdom of Essex was one of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy , its history is not well documented. It produced relatively few Anglo-Saxon charters and no version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; in fact

6750-622: The territory known later as Essex was ceded by the Celtic Britons to the Saxons following the infamous Treason of the Long Knives , which occurred c.  460 during the reign of High King Vortigern . Della Hooke relates the territory ruled by the kings of Essex to the pre-Roman territory of the Trinovantes . Studies suggest a pattern of typically peaceful co-existence, with the structure of

6840-512: The territory later occupied by the counties of Essex , Middlesex , much of Hertfordshire and (for a short while) west Kent . The last king of Essex was Sigered of Essex , who in 825 ceded the kingdom to Ecgberht, King of Wessex . The Kingdom of Essex was bounded to the north by the River Stour and the Kingdom of East Anglia , to the south by the River Thames and Kent , to the east lay

6930-475: The throne in 959, was crowned at Bath in 973 and soon afterwards the other British kings met him at Chester and acknowledged his authority. The presence of Danish and Norse settlers in the Danelaw had a lasting impact; the people there saw themselves as "armies" a hundred years after settlement: King Edgar issued a law code in 962 that was to include the people of Northumbria, so he addressed it to Earl Olac "and all

7020-418: The throne was disputed between Ælfgifu's son, Harald Harefoot , and Emma's son, Harthacnut . Emma supported her son by Cnut, Harthacnut, rather than a son by Æthelred. Her son by Æthelred, Edward, made an unsuccessful raid on Southampton, and his brother Alfred was murdered on an expedition to England in 1036. Emma fled to Bruges when Harald Harefoot became king of England, but when he died in 1040 Harthacnut

7110-440: The two sons he had with Ælfgifu, he had a further son with Emma, who was named Harthacnut . When Cnut's brother, Harald II, King of Denmark , died in 1018, Cnut went to Denmark to secure that realm. Two years later, Cnut brought Norway under his control, and he gave Ælfgifu and their son Svein the job of governing it. One result of Cnut's marriage to Emma was to precipitate a succession crisis after his death in 1035, as

7200-569: Was Godwin, who eventually became part of the extended royal family when he married the king's sister-in-law. In the summer of 1017, Cnut sent for Æthelred's widow, Emma, with the intention of marrying her. It seems that Emma agreed to marry the king on condition that he would limit the English succession to the children born of their union. Cnut already had a wife, known as Ælfgifu of Northampton , who bore him two sons, Svein and Harold Harefoot . The church, however, seems to have regarded Ælfgifu as Cnut's concubine rather than his wife. In addition to

7290-525: Was able to take over as king. Harthacnut quickly developed a reputation for imposing high taxes on England. He became so unpopular that Edward was invited to return from exile in Normandy to be recognised as Harthacnut's heir, and when Harthacnut died suddenly in 1042 (probably murdered), Edward (known to posterity as Edward the Confessor ) became king. Edward was supported by Earl Godwin of Wessex and married

7380-547: Was completed a few days later at Wedmore . There followed a peace treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, which had a variety of provisions, including defining the boundaries of the area to be ruled by the Danes (which became known as the Danelaw ) and those of Wessex. The Kingdom of Wessex controlled part of the Midlands and the whole of the South (apart from Cornwall, which was still held by

7470-539: Was in use by then to distinguish Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent (Old Saxony in Northern Germany). The term ' Anglo-Saxon ' came into use in the 8th century (probably by Paul the Deacon ) to distinguish English Saxons from continental Saxons ( Ealdseaxan , 'old' Saxons). The historian James Campbell suggested that it was not until the late Anglo-Saxon period that England could be described as

7560-476: Was not part of their core territory. In the core area they granted charters freely, but further west they did so while also making reference to their Mercian overlords. At times, Essex was ruled jointly by co-Kings, and it thought that the Middle Saxon Province is likely to have been the domain of one of these co-kings. The links to Essex between Middlesex and parts of Hertfordshire were long reflected in

7650-458: Was quite common for Rome to swell its legions with foederati recruited from the German homelands. This practice also extended to the army serving in Britain, and graves of these mercenaries, along with their families, can be identified in the Roman cemeteries of the period. The migration continued with the departure of the Roman army, when Anglo-Saxons were recruited to defend Britain; and also during

7740-535: Was temporarily stemmed. Gildas said that this battle was "forty-four years and one month" after the arrival of the Saxons, and was also the year of his birth. He said that a time of great prosperity followed. But, despite the lull, the Anglo-Saxons took control of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and part of Yorkshire; while the West Saxons founded a kingdom in Hampshire under the leadership of Cerdic , around 520. However, it

7830-454: Was to be 50 years before the Anglo-Saxons began further major advances. In the intervening years the Britons exhausted themselves with civil war, internal disputes, and general unrest, which was the inspiration behind Gildas's book De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain). The next major campaign against the Britons was in 577, led by Ceawlin , king of Wessex, whose campaigns succeeded in taking Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath (known as

7920-410: Was to take advantage of the profitable wool trade, led to hundreds of villages being deserted. Later, the aristocratic fashion for grand country mansions , parks and landscaped gardens led to whole villages being moved or destroyed to enable lords of the manor to participate in this trend: a process often called emparkment or enclosure . Perhaps the best-known deserted medieval village in England

8010-543: Was trying to force Christianity onto his domain. Many of his subjects did not like this idea, and shortly before 988, Sweyn , his son, drove his father from the kingdom. The rebels, dispossessed at home, probably formed the first waves of raids on the English coast. The rebels did so well in their raiding that the Danish kings decided to take over the campaign themselves. In 991 the Vikings sacked Ipswich, and their fleet made landfall near Maldon in Essex. The Danes demanded that

8100-735: Was written in Old English (rather than in Latin, the language of the European annals). Alfred's own literary output was mainly of translations, but he also wrote introductions and amended manuscripts. From 874 to 879, the western half of Mercia was ruled by Ceowulf II , who was succeeded by Æthelred as Lord of the Mercians. Alfred the Great of Wessex styled himself King of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886. In 886/887 Æthelred married Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd . On Alfred's death in 899, his son Edward

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