country_of_citizenship edward the elder
The Heptarchy ( from the Greek  " hepta ", " seven " and  " arkho ", " to rule ") is a collective name applied to the Anglo - Saxon kingdoms of ___MASK15___ during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages , conventionally identified as seven : East Anglia , Essex , Kent , Mercia , Northumbria , Sussex and Wessex . The Anglo - Saxon kingdoms eventually unified into the ___MASK72___ . Æthelred , Lord of the Mercians ( or Ealdorman Æthelred of Mercia ; died 911 ) became ruler of English Mercia shortly after the death of its last king , Ceolwulf II in 879 . His rule was confined to the western half , as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking - ruled Danelaw . Æthelred ' s ancestry is unknown . He was probably the leader of an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of ___MASK55___ in 881 , and soon afterwards he acknowledged the lordship of King Alfred the Great of Wessex . The alliance was cemented by the marriage of Æthelred to Alfred ' s daughter Æthelflæd . ___MASK18___ ( Scots : ) is a country that is part of the ___MASK51___ and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain . It shares a border with ___MASK15___ to the south , and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean , with the North Sea to the east and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south - west . In addition to the mainland , the country is made up of more than 790 islands , including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides . Old English or Anglo - Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language , spoken in ___MASK15___ and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages . It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo - Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century , and the first Old English literary works date from the mid - 7th century . After the Norman Conquest of 1066 , English was replaced , for a time , as the language of the upper classes by Anglo - Norman , a relative of French , and Old English developed into the next historical form of English , known as Middle English . ___MASK100___ , also known as Britain , is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe . With an area of , ___MASK100___ is the largest European island and the ninth - largest in the world . In 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people , making it the world ' s third - most populous island after Java in ___MASK34___ and Honshu in Japan . The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it , and together these islands , along with over 1 , 000 smaller surrounding islands , comprise the British Isles archipelago . At the Battle of Edington an army of the Anglo - Saxon ___MASK43___ under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by Guthrum on a date between 6 and 12 May AD 878 , soon resulting in the Treaty of Wedmore later the same year . The primary sources locate the battle at "" Ethandun "" or "" Ethandune "", and until a scholarly consensus identified its location with the present - day Edington in Wiltshire it was known as the Battle of " Ethandun ", a name which continues to be used . In the history of Europe , the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century . It began with the fall of the ___MASK98___ and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery . The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history : classical antiquity , the medieval period , and the modern period . The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early , High , and Late Middle Ages . English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval ___MASK15___ and is now a global " lingua franca ". Named after the Angles , one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to ___MASK15___ , it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia ( Angeln ) peninsula in the Baltic Sea . It is most closely related to the Frisian languages , although its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages in the early medieval period , and later by Romance languages , particularly French . English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states . It is the most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom , the United States , ___MASK68___ , Australia , Ireland , and New Zealand , and is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean , Africa , and South Asia . It is the third most common native language in the world , after Mandarin and Spanish . It is the most widely learned second language and an official language of the United Nations , of the European Union , and of many other world and regional international organisations . It is the most widely spoken Germanic language , accounting for at least 70 % of speakers of this Indo - European branch . Æthelflæd , Lady of the Mercians ( died 12 June 918 ), ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death . She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great , king of the Anglo - Saxon ___MASK43___ , and his wife Ealhswith . Æthelflæd was born around 870 at the height of the Viking invasions of England . By 878 most of England was under Danish Viking rule , East Anglia and Northumbria having been conquered and Mercia partitioned between the English and the Vikings , but in that year Alfred won a crucial victory at the Battle of Edington . Soon afterwards the English - controlled western half of Mercia came under the rule of Æthelred , Lord of the Mercians , who accepted Alfred ' s overlordship . Alfred adopted the title King of the Anglo - Saxons , claiming to rule all English people not living in areas under Viking control . In the mid - 880s , Alfred sealed the strategic alliance between the surviving English kingdoms by marrying Æthelflæd to Æthelred . Edward the Elder ( Old English : Eadweard cyning ; c . 874 -- 877 -- 17 July 924 ) was an English king . He became king in 899 upon the death of his father , Alfred the Great . His court was at Winchester , previously the capital of Wessex . He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd , his sister . All but two of his charters give his title as `` Anglorum Saxonum rex '' or `` king of the Anglo - Saxons '' . He was the second king of the Anglo - Saxons as this title was created by Alfred . Edward ' s coinage reads `` EADVVEARD REX . '' The chroniclers record that all ___MASK15___ `` accepted Edward as lord '' in 920 . But the fact that York continued to produce its own coinage suggests that Edward ' s authority was not accepted in Viking - ruled Northumbria . Edward ' s eponym `` the Elder '' was first used in Wulfstan ' s Life of St Æthelwold ( c . 996 ) to distinguish him from the later King Edward the Martyr . An earl is a member of the nobility . The title is Anglo - Saxon in origin , akin to the Scandinavian form jarl , and meant " chieftain ", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king ' s stead . In Scandinavia , it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced by duke (" hertig "/" hertug "/" hertog "). In later medieval Britain , it became the equivalent of the continental count ( in ___MASK15___ in the earlier period , it was more akin to a duke ; in Scotland it assimilated the concept of mormaer ). However , earlier in Scandinavia , " jarl " could also mean a sovereign prince . For example , the rulers of several of the petty kingdoms of Norway had the title of " jarl " and in many cases they had no less power than their neighbours who had the title of king . Alternative names for the " Earl / Count " rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries , such as Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era . Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo - Saxon Heptarchy . The name is a Latinisation of the Old English " Mierce " or " Myrce ", meaning " border people " ( see March ). Wessex (" kingdom of the West Saxons ") was an Anglo - Saxon kingdom in the south of ___MASK100___ , from 519 until ___MASK15___ was unified by Æthelstan in the early 10th century . ___MASK15___ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom . It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and ___MASK55___ to the west . The Irish Sea lies northwest of ___MASK15___ and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest . ___MASK15___ is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south . The country covers five - eighths of the island of Great Britain ( which lies in the North Atlantic ) in its centre and south ; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly , and the Isle of Wight .