Roman Britain
Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms began around 600 and was essentially
complete by the mid 8th century. Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, power fluctuated
between the larger kingdoms. Bede records Aethelbert of Kent as being dominant at the
close of the 6th century, but power seems to have shifted northwards to the kingdoms of
Mercia and Northumbria.
Aethelbert and some of the later kings of the other kingdoms were recognised by their
fellow kings as Bretwalda. The so-called 'Mercian Supremacy' dominated the 8th century,
though again it was not constant. Aethelbald and Offa, the two most powerful kings,
achieved high status. This period has been described as the Heptarchy, though this term
has now fallen out of academic use.
The word arose on the basis that the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East
Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex were the main polities of south Britain. More recent
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