The Making of England: From Rival Kingdoms to the Norman Conquest (600–1071)

Many Kingdoms, One England

In the year 600 there was no England. Lowland Britain was divided between a set of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Northumbria (Bernicia and Deira) in the north, Mercia in the Midlands, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex in the south. The west still belonged to the Britons: Dumnonia in Devon and Cornwall, the Welsh kingdoms, and the northern British kingdoms of Strathclyde, Rheged and Elmet. North of them lay the Picts and Scots.

This map follows how that patchwork became a single kingdom over almost five centuries. It shows the rise and fall of Northumbria and Mercia, the Viking conquest of the east, the reconquest by Alfred the Great's children and grandson, the Danish kings Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut, and William of Normandy's conquest, ending with the fall of Ely in 1071. It contains 41 keyframes and more than a hundred markers for battles, treaties, burhs and royal events.

Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex

The 7th century belonged to Northumbria. Edwin united Bernicia and Deira around 617 and took the British kingdom of Elmet. Mercia under Penda fought back: Penda killed Edwin at Hatfield Chase in 633 and Oswald at Maserfield in 642, until Oswiu of Northumbria killed Penda at the Winwæd in 655. At the Battle of the Trent in 679 Mercia defeated Northumbria and took Lindsey, and in 685 the Picts destroyed King Ecgfrith's army at Nechtansmere, ending Northumbria's push north.

In the 8th century Mercia dominated. Æthelbald was overlord of the south by 731, and Offa brought Mercia to its height around 790, absorbing Kent, Sussex and East Anglia and building the earthwork on the Welsh border known as Offa's Dyke. Meanwhile Wessex pushed west into Dumnonia: Cenwalh reached the Parrett after Peonnum in 658, and Ine pushed toward the Exe around 710. In 825 Ecgberht of Wessex beat the Mercians at Ellendun, and Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Essex passed to Wessex.

The Great Heathen Army and the Danelaw

Viking raids began with Portland in 789 and Lindisfarne in 793, but in 865 a much larger force landed in East Anglia: the Great Heathen Army. It took York in 867, killed King Edmund of East Anglia in 869, fought Wessex through the year of battles in 871 and broke Mercia in 874, when King Burgred fled to Rome. In 877 the Danes shared out eastern Mercia among themselves.

Wessex came closest to falling in January 878, when Guthrum surprised Alfred at Chippenham and Alfred fled to the marshes at Athelney. In May 878 Alfred defeated Guthrum at Edington; Guthrum was baptised and his army settled East Anglia. Alfred took London in 886, and a treaty with Guthrum fixed a frontier up the Thames, the Lea and the Ouse to Watling Street. East and north of that line lay Scandinavian York, the Five Boroughs of Danish Mercia and Danish East Anglia: the Danelaw.

Alfred's Heirs Build the Kingdom of the English

Alfred's son Edward the Elder and daughter Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, reconquered the Danelaw with a chain of fortified towns (burhs) such as Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Bedford and Maldon. By 917 they had broken Danish Mercia and East Anglia; after Æthelflæd died in 918 Edward took Mercia, and by 920 he reached the Mersey and the Peak. In 927 Edward's son Æthelstan took York and became King of the English, and in 937 he defeated an alliance of Dublin Norse, Scots and Strathclyde at Brunanburh.

The north was not yet secure. Olaf of Dublin retook York and the Five Boroughs in 941, Edmund won them back in 945, and Eric Bloodaxe ruled York until he was driven out in 954, leaving one English kingdom. In 973 Edgar was crowned at Bath, and the map shows Lothian passing to the Scots in the same period.

Danish Kings and the Norman Conquest

Renewed Viking attacks under Æthelred led to conquest. In 1013 Sweyn Forkbeard landed, the north submitted and Æthelred fled; Sweyn died in February 1014 and Æthelred returned. In 1016 Cnut defeated Edmund Ironside at Assandun, the two kings split England at Alney, and when Edmund died on 30 November Cnut became king of all England. The old West Saxon line returned with Edward the Confessor in 1042.

1066 brought three kings. Harald Hardrada of Norway won at Fulford but was killed by Harold Godwinson at Stamford Bridge on 25 September; Harold was killed at Hastings on 14 October, and William of Normandy was crowned on Christmas Day. Exeter fell in 1068, the Harrying of the North devastated Yorkshire in the winter of 1069–70, and the fall of Ely in 1071 completed the conquest.

How to Read the Map

Each kingdom has its own colour: Wessex, which grows into the Kingdom of England, is red; Mercia is blue; Northumbria is gold; the Scandinavian kingdoms (York, the Five Boroughs and Danish East Anglia) and England under the Danish kings are dark greys; Norman control is dark blue. The British kingdoms of Wales, Dumnonia and the north have muted greens and ochres. Moving disks show armies: the Great Heathen Army, Hardrada's Norwegians, Harold's army and William's army. Markers show battles, treaties, coronations and burhs; small markers are minor events.

Early medieval frontiers were never surveyed, so the borders are drawn soft and follow later shire boundaries. Overlordship is shown only where a kingdom was actually absorbed, not where a king merely accepted a stronger neighbour as overlord.

How the Map Was Made

The territories are built from county-sized blocks based on Natural Earth administrative units, some split along rivers such as the Exe, Parrett, Ribble and Thames, and each keyframe assigns every block to a kingdom. Dates and events come from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede's Ecclesiastical History and Wikipedia's articles on the kingdoms, the Great Heathen Army, the Danelaw, Æthelflæd, Edward the Elder, Æthelstan, Cnut and the Norman Conquest. Where a battle site is disputed, such as Brunanburh or Assandun, the marker text says so.

Chronological Timeline

• 600 — Many kingdoms; the Britons hold the west
• 617 — Edwin unites Northumbria and takes Elmet
• 655 — Battle of the Winwæd: Penda of Mercia killed
• 679 — Battle of the Trent: Mercia takes Lindsey
• 710 — Ine of Wessex pushes into Devon
• 790 — Offa's Mercia at its height; Offa's Dyke
• 793 — Viking raid on Lindisfarne
• 825 — Battle of Ellendun: Wessex takes the south-east
• 865 — The Great Heathen Army lands in East Anglia
• 867 — York falls to the Great Army
• 869 — East Anglia falls; King Edmund killed
• 871 — Year of battles; Alfred becomes king
• 874 — Mercia broken; Burgred flees to Rome
• 878 — Alfred flees to Athelney, then defeats Guthrum at Edington
• 886 — Alfred takes London; treaty with Guthrum
• 917 — Edward and Æthelflæd break the Danelaw
• 918 — Æthelflæd dies; Edward takes Mercia
• 927 — Æthelstan takes York: King of the English
• 937 — Battle of Brunanburh
• 954 — Eric Bloodaxe driven out of York
• 973 — Edgar crowned at Bath
• 1013 — Sweyn Forkbeard conquers England; Æthelred flees
• 1016 — Assandun; Cnut becomes king of all England
• 1042 — Edward the Confessor restores the old line
• 1066 — Stamford Bridge (25 September), Hastings (14 October), William crowned (25 December)
• 1069–1070 — Harrying of the North
• 1071 — Fall of Ely completes the Norman conquest