The Earliest English Kings Book

"The Earliest English Kings" provides political history of England before the Vikings. In a concise and accessible narrative form, David Kirby recreates the world of these barbarian rulers. There were at least seven kingdoms of the pre-Viking Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, often at war with each other for onctrol of territory and resources and struggling for supremacy. This book examines the evolution of these kingdoms and the nature and extent of the over-lordship exercised by the most powerful kings such as Aelle, Eadwine, Offa and Ecgberht. The book draws on a variety of historical records: * the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle * Bede's Ecclesiastical History * letters, annals and royal charters * Saints' Lives These records reveal the identities, activities and relationships of the earliest English kings. Their * response to the introduction of Christianity * power-struggles, victories and defeats. * dynastic feuds Reviewing this vibrant, ever-changing and potentially unstable period in English history, David Kirby concludes by considering why it was that only Alfred's West Saxon dynasty survuved the Viking invasion in the second half of the ninth century.Read More