Such an overlordship seemed destined but a few years before to fall to the lot of Wessex.

The victories of Ceawlin and Cuthwulf left it the most powerful of the English kingdoms.

None of its fellow states seemed able to hold their own against a power which stretched from the Chilterns to the Severn and from the Channel to the Ouse.

But after its defeat in the march upon Chester Wessex suddenly broke down into a chaos of warring tribes; and her place was taken by two powers whose rise to greatness was as sudden as her fall.

The first of these was Kent.