"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" cloud "the world's great trend will be united for a long time, and it will be divided for a long time", and an interesting phenomenon will be found when examining world history:
The history of almost all countries has undergone a process from decentralization to unity, a process that reflects the process of human beings moving from tribes to collectives, and ultimately to the birth of the "state".
Before the Norman conquest, England experienced more than four hundred years of the "Seven Kingdoms Era", which can also be said to be the "Warring States Era" in the history of England, just as the Qin State unified the Six Kingdoms, and the "Seven Kingdoms Era" of England eventually moved towards unification.
The Age of the Seven Kingdoms: From Rome to Anglo-Saxons
Rome conquered England and incorporated this "barbaric land" isolated from the European continent into the Roman civilization system. To protect the island, the Romans painstakingly built two lesser-known Great Walls on the British Isles (Hadrians Wall and Antonine Wall). This was part of the Roman "Great Wall defense system", and part of it was on the banks of the Rhine and Danube rivers on the European continent, the Germanic Wall.
Anglo-Saxons
The Great Wall on the Island of Britain was built to stop the Scots, and the Great Wall on the European continent was built to stop the Germans. But the Great Wall did not prevent the Roman Empire from decaying and disintegrating, and the Germans not only invaded the territory of the Roman Empire, but after the decline of the Roman Empire, the Romans left the British Isles and were replaced by an antic-Saxon and Jute, a branch of the Germanics. After the weakening of the Roman Empire, they migrated to the British Isles from Western Europe and Germania.
The specific historical details can no longer be restored in words, these peoples entered the British Isles after the Romans left, and established a regime in the south of England through military conquest of far more than seven countries, but in fact at the time of their invasion their social form was still subordinate to the clan and tribal period, and the emergence of the "state" needed to be based on the increase in productivity, the emergence of social division of labor, and the division of classes. The process was long but swift, and the constant wars of annexation led to the formation of seven states in the seventh century AD (Kent, Sussex (South Saxon), Wessex (West Saxon), Essex (East Saxon), Northumbria, East Anglia, Messia).
Distribution map of the Seven Kingdoms
In terms of distribution, the power of the Anglos and Saxons eventually became the dominant force in England, and this significance is that it laid the foundation for the two national and national subjects of England and England. The anglo-Saxon fusion gave rise to the English, and even the name "England" was due to the Anglos referring to the land of Britain as "England", meaning Anglo land.
The influence of the Anglo-Saxon period on England was laid-off, and in addition to nationalities and titles, Old English also appeared during this period. Before the advent of English, the island was popular with three languages: Celt, Latin and Celtic, which were spoken by the native british natives, the Romans brought Latin, and the Celtic Celtic language. When the Anglo-Saxons, who spoke Germanic, came to the British Isles, the situation changed.
In other words, when the Anglo-Saxons came to the island, Old English appeared, and the development of English experienced a long period of integration and development, and the language of any civilization in the world would undergo such changes. Early Old English belonged to the West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialect, after the Norman Conquest, Old English and French were fused, and then entered the Middle English period, and then after the correction and improvement of pronunciation, the spread of English in the colonial era eventually formed modern English.
A road map for the migration of Anglo-Saxons to England
These are the roles of the Anglo-Saxons in laying the foundation for this form of England, and although the Romans ruled the British Isles for more than four hundred years, they left nothing but two Great Walls. The Romanized Isle of Britain period seems to have entered a stage of stagnation in development, and although Roman civilization was already a tall and mature civilization at that time, it seemed to have played a very small role in promoting the history of the British Isles, and even Christianity was not introduced to the British Isles during its reign, and it was not until the Anglo-Saxon period that Christianity was finally introduced to England.
The Age of the Seven Kingdoms: Division and Unification, England on the Eve of the Norman Conquest
Although the Anglo-Saxon era laid the main history and future development of England, one of the seven kingdoms should have a direct and inevitable connection with the later history of England, which means that like the Qin state in Chinese history, the Qin state unified the six kingdoms, established the Qin Dynasty, and made Chinese history move from a period of division to unification. This is also needed on the British Isles.
The only kingdom of Kent, founded by the Judds, was perhaps in a sense the most likely country to unify England, thanks first and foremost to its geographical superiority, and its kingdom was located approximately in present-day Kent, England, the closest britain was to the European continent, across the sea from France across the Strait of Dover. This geographical superiority gave the Jutes a better chance of contacting the European continent, allowing the Kingdom of Kent to rise first among the Seven Kingdoms.
Kent, UK
Geographical map of the Kingdom of Kent and the European continent
History did develop in such a way that the Kingdom of Kent was the first hegemon in the history of the Seven Kingdoms, and the first kingdom of the Anglo-Saxon period to communicate with the European continent. In 597 AD, Ettlebert, the monarch of the Kingdom of Kent, was baptized by an envoy sent by Pope Gregory in his capital, Canterbury, becoming the first monarch in the history of the Seven Kingdoms to receive Christian baptism and embrace Christianity, thus forming the Archdiocese of Canterbury.
Religion built a bridge between the Kingdom of Kent and the European continent, but history developed by chance, and although in reality the Kingdom of Kent was most likely and hopeful to unify England with its hegemony, it eventually declined over the next few centuries. Two overlords, the Kingdom of Messia and the Kingdom of Wessex, emerged, and during the reign of the Monarch of Ofa, the kingdom of Messia reached its peak of power, during which the whole of Southern England became its territory, and even forced Wessex to become its vassal state.
However, history will ultimately choose the final victor, and the task of transitioning Anglo-Saxon history to Norman conquest was ultimately completed by the Kingdom of Wessex. During the reign of Albert of the Kingdom of Wessex, the history of the Seven Kingdoms began to move towards unification, and Albert was a "Qin Shi Huang-style" monarch and at the same time a monarch of the "Jinwen Formula". Deprived of the inheritance of Wessex by political opponents in his early years, the prince had to go into exile in the Frankish kingdom of Europe for thirteen years.
It was only after the death of his political opponent that he was able to return to the throne, and the kingdom of Wessex reached glory and peak in his hands. Perhaps it was enriched in insight and wisdom on the European continent that after returning home, Egbert rectified his national strength and actively pursued an "expansion policy." Most of the kingdoms became vassals of Wessex under his attack, and his strongest rival, the Kingdom of Mercia, fought in Ellendun in 825 AD, and the balance of victory fell to him.
He called himself "The Ruler of Britain (Bretwalda)" and became the suzerainty of all of England. But this unification was more of a political situation, and feudalism was not yet mature in England, which needed to wait until after the Norman conquest. However, he at least established the Wessex dynasty's rule over England, but it is important to note that the Danes invaded England during this period, because this group of Vikings ruled England for a short period of time.
The Danes were the third people to invade England, and around the end of the 8th century they began a large-scale invasion of England, and the Kingdom of Kent was deeply affected at the time. This group of powerful Vikings conquered the island of Britain, and only the kingdoms of Essex, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex survived at their most dangerous times. The end result was that King Alfred (the Great) from the Kingdom of Wessex defeated the Danes and ruled with the Danes, legally determining the territory enjoyed by the Danes on the Island of Britain, the so-called "Danish Legal Area".
Viking Invasion and Danish Legal District
King Alfred (the Great)
The history of England during this period mainly focused on the dispute between the Kingdom of Wessex and the Danes, and in order to regain the land occupied by the Danes, the Kingdom of Wessex continued to wage war against the latter, and finally in 954 AD repossessed the "Danish Legal District". King Alfred is revered as the father of England, first of all because he maintained the rule of the Kingdom of Wessex over England and defeated the Danish invasion, and the Kingdom of Wessex was also integrated with the history of England during this period, that is, the history of England began here.
The exploits of his successor, the elder Edward, were even greater, bringing Scotland formally to the Wessex dynasty, and he recovered most of the land previously occupied by the Danes, becoming the first co-lord of all of Britain. However, England was eventually conquered by Cnut I from Denmark at the end of the 10th century, the kingdom of Wessex was briefly destroyed, and England entered the Danish dynasty. At this time, England was close to the norman conquest, but it had completed the process from division to unification.
Beginning with the entry of the Anglo-Saxons into the British Isles around the 5th century, this period of history has undergone four hundred years of development, allowing England to complete the process of transformation from clan tribes to feudalization, and also completed the development of divided kingdoms to unified dynasties. The Anglo-Saxon period accomplished its historical task, the Danes did not establish a lasting rule on the British Isles, and the Normans from the Normandy Principality on the European continent became the ultimate winners.
Norman conquest
In 1066, the Normans from France successfully invaded and conquered England, and William the Conqueror became king of England, and from this period onwards, England began to enter a stage of stable development. At the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, the Norman dynasty began to rule in England, the feudal system took root in England, until the Second World War, England never faced attacks from outside the island, as an Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex, although it disappeared, but the former became the main body of modern England, constituting the main nation of England.
It was also from this time that England began to enter a period of endless contradictions with the European continent, and this is the history of England's "Seven Kingdoms Era" before the Norman conquest.