Northumbria northumbria was a powerful kingdom in the north, formed from the union of bernicia and deira in the early 7th century. The idea of the heptarchy first appears in the writings of henry of huntingdon in the 12 th century The kingdoms themselves date back to an earlier foundation but were identified as the ones which gradually absorbed neighbouring. The heptarchy was the seven english kingdoms that existed between the sixth and ninth centuries consisting of kent, northumbria, wessex, mercia, sussex, essex and east anglia The kingdoms of the heptarchy it is strange that kings were ever appointed in england as none existed in the germanic areas that the saxon tribes originated from.
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