HEPTARCHY

(Gr. tirr a, and opx<o, I govern.) In English History, the division of England into seven Saxon kingdoms, which are represented in most of our histories to have existed at the same time with and independently of each other. The seven kingdoms in question, according to the common divisions, were Kent, Su ex, Wc ex, E ex, East Anglia, Mercia, North umber land. But in point of fact there was no period of history when these seven kingdoms existed together; and, in the constant fluctuations of con quest, fresh subdivisions and unions of territory were contin ually made by the fortune of war The sovereign who sue [s. 567]