Historical reference: Do not rely on this information. It is very old. About this collection
Heptarchy is applied as a collective term to the seven kingdoms supposed to have existed in England in Anglo-Saxon times before the final supremacy of Wessex. In reality there were many more than seven kings and kinglets, but Wessex, Sussex, Kent, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria became at one time or another more powerful than any of the others.