The Middle Saxons or Middel Seaxe were a people whose territory later became, with somewhat contracted boundaries, the county of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The first known mention of Middlesex stems from a royal charter of 704 between king Swæfred of Essex, the abdicating king Æthelred of Mercia and succeeding king

Coenred of Mercia Coenred (also spelled Cenred or Cœnred fl. 675–709) was king of Mercia from 704 to 709. Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the English Midlands. He was a son of the Mercian king Wulfhere, whose brother Æthelred succeeded to the throne i ...

, granting some land to bishop Walhere in ''Tuican hom'' (

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the borou ...

) in the ''provincia'' called ''Middleseaxan''. It included the early

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

settlement, and probably Surrey, the "south region" of the Middle Saxon territory. There is also some evidence that may suggest Middle Saxon settlement in West

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The name reflects the situation of these people being in the middle between the South Saxons, the

East Saxons la, Regnum Orientalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the East Saxons , common_name = Essex , era = Heptarchy , status = , status_text = , government_type = Monar ...

and the West Saxons, and distinguishing them from the Angles in the north. Unlike these neighbours, the Middle Saxons did not manage to create a lasting kingdom of their own. According to G. F. Bosworth (1913), 'there is no evidence that Middlesex was originally a separate kingdom, and we may say with a considerable amount of certainty that it formed part of the

kingdom of Essex la, Regnum Orientalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the East Saxons , common_name = Essex , era = Heptarchy , status = , status_text = , government_type = Monarc ...

(...).' However, F.M. Stenton (1971) comments that the Middle Saxon's "original independence is at least probable". The area was part of the Kingdom of Essex at the beginning of the 7th century, but was ceded to

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

in the 9th century (825).http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandMiddlesex.htm The History Files - Middel Seaxe (Middle Saxons / Middlesex) The Middle Saxons were originally pagans, but adopted

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...

around the middle of the 7th century. They spoke their own variant of Old English, but

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

was used in writing.

References

History of Middlesex Peoples of Anglo-Saxon England Peoples of Anglo-Saxon Mercia Social history of London {{England-hist-stub