Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

The Middil Engle (Middle Angles)

The Middil Engle were formed by tribes of Angles forging their way west from the newly conquered territory of the East Engle in the early 500s. Their large territory was centred on modern Leicestershire and reached to western Cambridgeshire and the East Engle border, north to the borders of the Lindisware, and south to the surviving British pocket of resistance in the Chilterns (proposed as Cynwidion), and beyond them the Ciltern Saetan. The proposed British territory of Caer Lerion fell by around AD 500, leaving virtually no trace of its existence behind, and this formed the heartland of the Middil Engle territory. To the west now was the British kingdom of Pengwern. The Middil Engle were shielded from the East Seaxe by heavily wooded country lying along their south eastern border.

In the early stages of settlement, the Anglians were not totally dominant in the area; there was also a sizable Saxon presence, although evidence supports the fact that many Saxons were settled in this area before the collapse of Roman rule. The settled Saxons and the newly arrived Angles merged throughout Middle Anglia. Some Saxon groups moved southwards to encircle the British in the Chilterns, joining Saxons already settling the area from the Thames Valley.

Also forming part of the Middil Engle peoples were the tribes of the Herstingas (northwest of Cambridge) and the Undalum (between Kettering and Great Casterton). The Spaldingas took the area around The Wash. The North Engle settled in modern Nottinghamshire (Nottingham is a preservation of the North Engle name), and the Suth Engle were in modern Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. There is also evidence of Frisian involvement in place names such as Rothwell and Rothley in modern Northamptonshire, roth being Frisian for a clearing.

This region has no recorded kings. That is not to say they didn't exist, but the region was largely conquered from the east by the East Angles in the early seventh century, and then taken over entirely by the Mercians later in the same century, so whatever royal house might have emerged there was allowed no time to bed down and leave any lasting mark.

c.500

East Engle force their way westwards into the Midlands. The British territory of Caer Lerion falls by c.500, and on the territory's southern border, Cynwidion is quickly compressed to less than half its original size, as Saxon groups force their way through the Vale of Aylesbury. However, they appear to advance no further for a  generation following Mons Badonicus.

c.590

One group of local Saxons takes advantage of the destruction of the British territory of the Peak District by the Bernician Angles to move north and become the Pecset (Saxons of the Peak).

c.600 - 630

Upland Cambridgeshire is disputed by three kingdoms. The west belongs to the Middil Engle, the far south to the East Seaxe and the rest to the East Engle. This leads to warfare between the kingdoms, and initially the East Engle are the more powerful, forcing the Middil Engle back along the chalk belt.

c.630

Having already made large inroads by overrunning the North and Suth Engle by the start of the century, the Mercians conquer the remaining Middil Engle territory, taking it from the East Engle.