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When Wessex annexed Mercia in the 10th century, it subdivided the area into various shires of roughly equal size and tax-raising potential or hidage. These generally took the name of the main town (the county town) of the county, along with "-shire". Examples are Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.
The Kingdom of Wessex, c. 790 AD, was divided into administrative units known as shires. Each shire was governed by an Ealdorman, a major nobleman of Wessex appointed to the post by the King. The term 'Ealdorman' (meaning 'elder-man') gradually merged with the Scandinavian Eorl/Jarl (designating an important chieftain), to form the modern 'Earl'.
The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. [2] The Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric of the Gewisse, though this is considered by some to ...
The division of England into shires, later known as counties, began in the Kingdom of Wessex in the mid-Saxon period, many of the Wessex shires representing previously independent kingdoms. With the Wessex conquest of Mercia in the 9th and 10th centuries, the system was extended to central England.
871–899), Wessex successfully resisted the invaders. In 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum defined the boundaries of the Danelaw, and Alfred received the submission of all the English, including London, not under the Danelaw. [40] In response to the Viking invasions, royal government in Wessex became more sophisticated and effective. [41]
Wessex had nine shires, the Danelaw fifteen shires, and Mercia eight shires. Cornwall, Scotland, Strathclyde, Wales and the Isle of Wight were not included within these legal jurisdictions. Cornwall itself is separately mentioned in the laws as being divided into seven shires, these later became known as the hundreds of Cornwall. In the far ...
A map of places named in the Burghal Hidage. The Burghal Hidage (/ ˈ b ɜːr ɡ əl ˈ h aɪ d ɪ dʒ /) is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance. [1]
The system was first used in the kingdom of Wessex from the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement, and spread to most of the rest of England in the 10th century, along with the West Saxon kingdom's political domination. In Domesday (1086) the city of York was divided into shires. [4]