As King of Wessex, after the decline of Mercian power under Offa, Egbert inherited the mantle of 'bretwalda' - an Anglo-Saxon term meaning a ruler with overall superiority to other rulers He came to power in 802 and died in 839, but little else is known about his reign.
The Heptarchy (made up of the separate Anglo Saxon Kingdoms of East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex and Wessex) that dissolved when most of the Kingdoms came under the Egbert's aegis © The British Library Board, Royal 14 B. VI
