Mercia At The End of The 7th Century
By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years earlier. The kingdom of Mercia occupied what is now the English Midlands, bordered by Northumbria to the north, East Anglia to the east, and Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, to the south. Essex, the kingdom of the East Saxons, included London and lay between East Anglia and the kingdom of Kent.
The main source for this period is Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, completed in about 731. Despite its focus on the history of the church, this work provides valuable information about the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Bede had informants who supplied him with details of the church's history in Wessex and Kent, but he appears to have had no such contact in Mercia. Charters of Ceolred's, recording royal grants of land to individuals and to religious houses, also survive, as does the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, compiled in Wessex at the end of the 9th century, but incorporating earlier material.
Read more about this topic: Ceolred Of Mercia
Famous quotes containing the words the and/or century:
“Three elements go to make up an idea. The first is its intrinsic quality as a feeling. The second is the energy with which it affects other ideas, an energy which is infinite in the here-and-nowness of immediate sensation, finite and relative in the recency of the past. The third element is the tendency of an idea to bring along other ideas with it.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.”
—Aesop (6th century B.C.)