WI: Continued Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy?

As the tin says, what if the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms continued onward, never uniting into a single cohesive English state?
 
I'm not sure that a heptarchy is entirely stable. Or at least as independent states.

I could see an independent Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex though, with the rest being either absorbed or vassalised.
 
I'm not sure that a heptarchy is entirely stable. Or at least as independent states.

I could see an independent Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex though, with the rest being either absorbed or vassalised.

Maybe a some sort of English polity does form, but it's a HRE-ish collection of smaller, effectively independent states that doesn't coalesce a truly unified nation-state until much later than the rest of Europe?
 
Maybe a some sort of English polity does form, but it's a HRE-ish collection of smaller, effectively independent states that doesn't coalesce a truly unified nation-state until much later than the rest of Europe?

It might be more like medieval France than a full-blown HRE. Though it could turn out like that.
 
The Heptarchy was never totally divided. There were periods where one of the kingdoms dominated quite a few of the kingdoms at certain points. First it was Northumbria, then Mercia, and finally Wessex. They weren't at all balanced. It was simply a number of factors that left Wessex to eventually unite the kingdoms together, largely that the Danes kicked the crap out of everyone else. Remove all outside factors, chances are still good that one kingdom would at some point achieve dominance. You'd just likely see a more regional focus to some degree, closer to France where the Dukedoms were practically kingdoms only nominally under the control of the crown.
 
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