Saxons may well have been numerous in Britain before the fall of the Empire. By about AD 490, they were establishing their own kingdoms on the island, in Kent, Sussex, Wessex and East Anglia.

In 927, Athelstan became the first king to rule over all of England — and it hadn't been an easy journey. Though he was the ...

A strong and successful leader became 'cyning', the Anglo-Saxon word for 'king'. Each king ruled a kingdom and led a small army. The Anglo-Saxon kings were from ruling families who passed ...

But King Offa still overshadows all, having dominated the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms for the last decades of the 8th century and having bequeathed us, most probably, the eponymous dyke.

This story appears in the November 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine. One day, or perhaps one night, in the late seventh century an unknown party traveled along an old Roman road that cut ...