Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

=== Christianity and the early kingdoms===
{{See also|Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|Heptarchy}}
[[File:Athelstan (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|King [[Æthelstan]] presenting a [[gospel book]] to (the long-dead) St [[Cuthbert]] (934); [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] MS 183, fol. 1v]]
From the time of the Christian conversions the first well-attested English kings and kingdoms appear in the written record. This situation with a small number of kingdoms competing for dominance is traditionally called the [[Heptarchy]], which indicates a period of seven kingdoms. There were however more than seven kingdoms, and their interactions were quite complex.

In 595 [[Augustine of Canterbury|Augustine]] landed on the [[Isle of Thanet]] and proceeded to King [[Æthelberht of Kent|Æthelberht]]'s main town of [[Canterbury]]. He had been sent by Pope [[Pope Gregory I|Gregory the Great]] to lead the [[Gregorian mission]] to Britain to [[Christianization|Christianise]] the [[Kingdom of Kent]] from their native [[Anglo-Saxon paganism]]. Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, [[Bertha of Kent|Bertha]], daughter of [[Charibert I]] the [[List of Frankish kings|king of Paris]], who was expected to exert some influence over her husband.

Æthelberht in Kent was later seen by Bede as the third king to have imperium over the English south of the [[Humber]], having replaced [[Ceawlin of Wessex]] (died about 593), and before this generation there are only semi-mythical accounts of earlier kings.
[[Æthelberht's law]] for Kent, the earliest written code in any [[Germanic language]], instituted a complex system of fines. Kent was rich, with strong trade ties to the continent, and Æthelberht may have instituted royal control over trade. For the first time following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, coins began circulating in Kent during his reign. His son-in-law [[Sæberht of Essex]] also converted to Christianity.

After Æthelberht's death in about 616/618, the most powerful king was [[Rædwald of East Anglia]], who also gave Christianity a foothold in his kingdom, and helped to install [[Edwin of Northumbria]], who replaced Æthelfrith to become the second king over the two kingdoms north of the Humber, [[Bernicia]] and [[Deira]]. After Rædwald died, Cadwallon ap Cadfan, the king of [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]], in alliance with king [[Penda of Mercia]], killed Edwin in battle at [[Battle of Hatfield Chase|Hatfield Chase]]. Æthelfrith's son [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald]] subsequently became the third king of Northumbria. Although not included in Bede's list of rulers with imperium, Penda defeated and killed Oswald in 642 and was the dominant king of the English until he was himself killed in battle against Oswald's brother [[Oswiu]] in 655. Oswiu remained the dominant king of England until he died in 670.

In 635, [[Aidan of Lindisfarne|Aidan]], an Irish monk from [[Iona]], chose the [[Lindisfarne|Isle of Lindisfarne]] to establish a monastery which was close to King [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald]]'s main fortress of [[Bamburgh]]. He had been at the monastery in Iona when Oswald asked to be sent a mission to Christianise the [[Northumbria|Kingdom of Northumbria]] from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Oswald had probably chosen Iona because after his father had been killed he had fled into south-west Scotland and had encountered Christianity, and had returned determined to make Northumbria Christian. Aidan achieved great success in spreading the Christian faith in the north, and since Aidan could not speak English and Oswald had learned Irish during his exile, Oswald acted as Aidan's interpreter when the latter was preaching.<ref>[[s:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 3|Bede, Book III, chapters 3 and 5.]]</ref> Later, [[Northumberland]]'s patron saint, [[Cuthbert of Lindisfarne|Saint Cuthbert]], was an [[abbot]] of the monastery, and then [[Bishop of Lindisfarne]]. An anonymous life of Cuthbert written at Lindisfarne is the oldest extant piece of English historical writing,{{Efn|From its reference to "Aldfrith, who now reigns peacefully" it must date to between 685 and 704.{{Sfn|Stenton|1971|p=88}}}} and in his memory a gospel (known as the [[St Cuthbert Gospel]]) was placed in his coffin. The decorated leather [[bookbinding]] is the oldest intact European binding.{{sfn|Campbell|1982|pp=80–81}}

In 664, the [[Synod of Whitby]] was convened and established Roman practice as opposed to Irish practice (in style of tonsure and dates of Easter) as the norm in Northumbria, and thus "brought the Northumbrian church into the mainstream of Roman culture."<ref>Colgrave, ''Earliest Life of Gregory the Great'', p. 9.</ref> The episcopal seat of Northumbria was transferred from [[Lindisfarne]] to [[York]]. [[Wilfrid]], chief advocate for the Roman position, later became Bishop of Northumbria, while [[Colmán]] and the Ionan supporters, who did not change their practices, withdrew to Iona. Wilfred also influenced kings to the south who were under the dominance of Oswiu, such as the son of Penda, [[Wulfhere of Mercia]] (died 675), who converted to Christianity and eventually recovered control over Mercia, and eventually expanded his dominance over most of England, beginning a long period of [[Mercian supremacy]].