First published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Abbreviations; Preface; Maps; The peoples and kingdoms of pre- Viking England; The 'Heptarchy'; The Tribal Hidage; Angles or Saxons?; Hierarchies of command: the Brytenwealda; The Problem of nomenclature; Notes; Early Kent; The reign of Aethelberht; The pagan reaction under Eadbald; The sequel; Notes; The early kings of the Western Saxons; Notes; The Anglian territories in the late sixth and early seventh centuries; The struggle for political and military leadership; Deirans and Bernicians; The wars with the Northern Britons: Notes; The northern Anglian hegemony in the seventh century; The Humbrian overlordship of Eadwine; Eadwine's British wars; The reign of Oswald; The battle of the Winwaed; The last phase of northern domination in southern England; Military recovery in North Britain under Oswiu and Ecgfrith; Ecclesiastical politics; Notes; The southumbrian Kingdoms from the mid-seventh to the mid-eighth century; The reign of Wulfhere; The ascendancy of Caedwalla and its aftermath; Reconstruction; The reign of Aethelbald; Notes; Northumbria in the eighth century; Notes; Offa; Notes; The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the first three-quarters of the ninth century; The Mercian successors of Offa; Ecgbert, King of Wessex; Northumbria; King Aethelwulf and his sons; Notes; The coming of the Vikings; Notes.