Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Government by seven persons.
- n. A state governed by seven persons.
- n. The informal confederation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the fifth to the ninth century, consisting of Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A government by seven persons; also, a group of seven kingdoms or governments: in the latter sense used only in English history, of the seven principal Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia. There was no formal division into seven kingdoms, but their number varied at different times, and frequently a particular kingdom, as Northumbria or Mercia, obtained the preponderance. The period of the heptarchy is regarded as ending in 829, when Egbert, king of Wessex, became overlord of the other kingdoms.
Wiktionary
- n. government by seven people
- n. A state governed by seven people, or an association of seven states (as in Anglo-Saxon Britain)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A government by seven persons; also, a country under seven rulers.
Etymologies
- hepta- + -archy (Wiktionary)
Examples
“By the term heptarchy is understood that complexus of seven kingdoms, into which, roughly speaking, Anglo-Saxon Britain was divided for nearly three centuries, until at last the supremacy, about the year”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability
“Egbert established the "heptarchy"; [17] that is, became overlord of all the lesser kings.”
“After the Germanic conquest of Britannia, the Anglo-Saxon invaders established a heptarchy of kingdoms across the island, pushing the Celtic Britons into modern Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Brittany.”
“The kingdom of Kent having enjoyed a continued peace for about a hundred years, was arrived at a degree of power and riches which gave it a pre-eminence in the Saxon heptarchy in Britain, and so great a superiority and influence over the rest, that Ethelbert is said by Bede to have ruled as far as the Humber, and Ethelbert is often styled king of the English.”
The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints January, February, March
“Kent, Sussex, Essex, and the counties of the Saxon heptarchy.”
“Norman Conquest, being 547 years, and ended in 1066, having been governed by 17 monarchs, during the heptarchy, of whom five were”
A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies Or, a Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses
“Doubtless,' says Risdon, 'in the Saxons' heptarchy, it was a town of some note, that felt the furious rage of the merciless Danes. ”
“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”
“One objection made against it is that, upon the analogy of other similar compounds, heptarchy ought strictly to mean a ruling body composed of seven persons.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability
“They are not all equal in rank, and even in the work of that heptarchy of genius, there were trivial things to be found ....”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heptarchy’.
-
phrontistery - h
from phrontistery.info
hysteresis, hyrax, hyoid, hymnody, hymnal, hylicism, hydric, hyalopterous, hyaloid, hyalography, hyaline, hyacinthine and 568 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
-
Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
-
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Words I wrote down while reading this book
heptarchy, kibe, antiquary, wold, mendacious, vamp, vale, miry, calcareous, cerealia, ostleress, desultory and 105 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heptarchy.
asativum Rule by seven cool cats. Jun 28, 2008