THE HEPTARCHY

The Heptarcy

The Germannic invaders settled into eight kingdoms, collectively now known as The Heptarchy. (The Jutes settled into a small southern enclave around the Isle of Wight, south of Wessex.) This was the position when the Viking raids by the Danes and Norwegians began in the late eighth century. The Germannic newcomers had to defeat the native Britons as well as fend off the invading Irish and northern Picts.

The later Viking invasions forced cooperation between the Celtic Britons and the Anglo-Saxons as a matter of survival. Another cohesive factor was the arrival of the Christian missionaries and their convertion of Celts and Anglo-Saxons alike.