What was the best Anglo-saxon kingdom and why was it Wessex?

What was the best Anglo-saxon kingdom and why was it Wessex?

>why was it Wessex?

Because they stomped Guthrum and his """""great""""" heathen army.

Northumbria gets my vote because Lindisfarne is arguably the greatest Anglo-Saxon contribution to world culture.

Kent because reasons.

You mean after that army had been worn down conquering all the other saxon kingdoms?

lol not much of an achievement.

Is there a relation between the english province of Cumbria and the Welsh name Cymru?

>tfw live in Peterborough
>tfw live in East Anglia

I know a lot of people like Wessex and such, but can anyone give me some good shit about East Anglia?

Long live Mercia!!!! Death to the heathens.

To be fair, the Heathen Army did get a pretty big advantage by surprise attacking him during his Christmas feast. ((As in Alfred the GREAT))

Yeah there is. The old Cumbric language is close to Welsh

Mercia was very powerful during the 8th century, King Offa was hegemon of the Anglo-Saxons, i.e. everyone else paid him tribute and agreed not to invade Mercia.

He also delineated the Welsh border with a great long ditch. Absolute madman.

Is the ditch still visible

i don't know if the entire thing is still in place but

>northumbria
>there's no south umbria
>east anglia
>there's no west anglia

Yes, I've been to it myself. Not hugely impressive, just a long ditch. But it was much deeper originally and probably had wooden fortifications.

Cool

Mercia literally has the coolest High Fantasy-ass name ever so all other Kingdoms are beat.

I'm actually More interested in the old Celtic kingdoms

fuck you

I like the Saxon countries too. But my family is originally from Cumbria

>sussex
>wessex
>essex
>MIDDLESEX
>no fucking norsex

Fucking anglos, seriously. How was this allowed?

actually, those are the saxons. that's where the "-sex" come from

Northumbria = North of the Humber.
East Anglia = Eastmost of the Angles.

>How was this allowed?
Willkommen to Germanic languages, user

There was a Middle Anglia too.

My favourite was the Jutish kingdom on the Isle of Wight.

Stuff and Whitgar, the greatest dynasty founders.

Deira. Edwin was the greatest Bretwalda, just ahead of 'Emperor' Coenwulf, the first emperor in Europe after the fall of Rome (Disputed).

Wessex makes good tubas.

>He also delineated the Welsh border with a great long ditch
Sounds vaguely familiar

It's hard to imagine cloak-dressed, long haired, bearded men who drank from horns and wore furs and worshipped Wodan, living in Kent.

>Elfenstal carries a 2-metre sword; He lives in Kent

>The battle cry of the Saxons against the hordes of the Picts as they are about to clash in Kent.

>go to wikipedia
>see this:
>"The history of the Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural identity. It developed from divergent groups in association with the people's adoption of Christianity"

this is why one should never go to wikipedia

>"""Great"""
Heathen
>"""Army"""

>Anglo-Saxons were glorious!
>rag tag band of Scandinavian peasants conquers half their island

There were many post-Roman Celtic kingdoms across the British Isles after the end of Roman control. Many of them had been in the Roman vein early on but had deteriorated into petty kingdoms based on often on decayed Roman provincial centres like Wroxeter, Carlisle or Canterbury. Some examples include Rhegin on the southern coast, the kingdoms of North and South Rheged, Elmet based at Eboracum, old Venta in Hampshire etc. The north was initially all held under one semi-mythological figure called Coel, or Old King Coel, the ruler of the Hen Oggledd (Old North). Possibly appointed by the Roman authorities, or maybe even a high-ranking Roman dux himself, he held the north against the initial Pictish incursions in the 5th century. Upon his death the stupid Celtic tradition of dividing land up amongst all your sons gradually led to the fragmentation of the north into warring kingdoms.