HEPTARCHY

A government exercised by seven persons, or a nation divided into J seven governments. In the year 560, seven different monarchies had been formed 1n England by the German tribes, namely, that of Kent by the Jutes; those of Su ex, Wei;isex, and E ex by the Saxons; and -those ot East Anglia, Bernicia, and Deira by· the An- K gles. To these were added, about the year 586, an eighth, called the "Kingdom of Mer- • cia,'' also founded by the Angles, and comprehending nearly the whole of the heart of the kingdom. These states formed what has L been designated the "Anglo-Saxon Octarchy," or more commonly, though not so correctly, the "Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy," from 'the custom of speaking of Deira and Bernicia under the single appellation of the "Kingdom of North umber land." Wharton. M [s. 573]