Definition of "heptarchy" [hep•tarch•y]

• Government by seven persons. (noun)
• A state governed by seven persons. (noun)
• 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. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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"
• "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."