heptarchy
Americannoun
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(often initial capital letter) the seven principal concurrent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms supposed to have existed in the 7th and 8th centuries.
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government by seven persons.
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an allied group of seven states or kingdoms, each under its own ruler.
noun
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government by seven rulers
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a state divided into seven regions each under its own ruler
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the seven kingdoms into which Anglo-Saxon England is thought to have been divided from about the 7th to the 9th centuries ad : Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria
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the period when this grouping existed
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of heptarchy
First recorded in 1570–80; hept- ( def. ) + -archy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the priests in the heptarchy, after the first missionaries, were wholly Saxons, and almost as ignorant and barbarous as the laity.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 04 by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)
But, as in the Saxon times this country was an heptarchy, it is now a strange sort of PENTARCHY.
From Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke by Burke, Edmund
You would have England return to the conditions of the Saxon heptarchy.
From The Quest of the Simple Life by Dawson, William J.
The kingdoms of the heptarchy, or octarchy, had been united under the dominion of Egbert, the King of Wessex, in the year 827, and thus formed the kingdom of England.
From English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Coppee, Henry
Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the manor-house of Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to decay so long ago as the conquest.
From An History of Birmingham (1783) by Hutton, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
